Maintaining Local Google Search Ranking After Relocation

At LBDesign, we work closely with clients to help get them found in local Google searches. Appearing high in Google search results means being found by people looking for the services our clients provide.

Google search results - Page 1

Relocating a Surgical Practice to Atlanta

Our client had been in practice for ten years in Fort Lauderdale and Miami, Florida. He recently relocated his practice to Atlanta, Georgia. Having worked with this client since 2009, we had optimized his site for those areas. In that time, we redesigned and rebuilt his site twice as his practice grew. In 2015, we transitioned his site to WordPress. Our client worried that his investment into optimizing his site for Florida would go to waste.

Preparing for the Move

As our client prepared to move his practice, he began packing boxes and advising his patients of the move. In turn, we started to strategize how to get our client to rank high in local searches for his medical speciality for Atlanta, Georgia. We put together a detailed plan and timetable. We walked our client through the process and risks. We also discussed when we might expect to see results.

The Move is On – Update All the Content!

Our client joined a medical group in Atlanta and his first day with the new Georgia group was August 15, 2017. Once the calendar flipped onto the first day of August, we began our work. We took the following steps.

  • We took a copy of the live site, moving it to a staging server (on our preferred web host, WP Engine.)
  • We located mentions of our client’s previous location and surrounding areas.
  • We reviewed the list of former geo-locations on a post-by-post and page-by-page basis. We updated the old place names with the new, Atlanta-area ones. We did this by hand to ensure that the copy was still human-reader friendly.
  • We added the new office locations to multiple pages and places across the site.

In addition to these steps, we drafted and published a blog post on our client’s site, tailoring the post for Atlanta.

When August 15 arrived, we published the edited database on the live site.

Then we waited to see what Google thought of it all.

The Results: Page One

On October 4, our client sent us a short note of thanks (he is a doctor after all). He confirmed that he was appearing on the first page of a Google search results listing for his medical speciality in Atlanta. He was thrilled that our work provided results so quickly. Moreover, he was delighted that he was able to capitalize on the investment he had made on his site over the years.

Tell us about your SEO needs
Posted in News, Online Marketing

Comments are closed.