You are a business owner and you have decided to relocate your business to a better situated spot in town.

Everyone can agree moving is not fun but moving an entire business can be especially daunting. Amidst the boxes and bubble wrap, there is something really important you might not be remembering— your local listings.

If you don’t have a good handle on your business listings, this might be a lengthier process for you. Claiming your listings on directories allows you to change and update information as needed. These changes are usually approved within a few days. At TastyPlacement, we do all this for you. However, each directory has informative FAQs that will let you know how to complete the steps to claim your business listing.

You might be thinking, “I don’t have time for that.” It might sound like a great idea and an easy fix to create new business listings. Do not do this. In the long term, it will hurt your business tremendously if you have hopes for ranking on Google Maps. It will create duplicate listings with outdated information and since your business name, address and phone number don’t match up to the rest of the information online, expect your business listings to end up on the dark void of map search results. Most importantly, you will make it incredibly difficult for clients to find you, especially on mobile and local searches. If clients can’t find you, they don’t pay for your services.

So keep in mind this short list before your next big business move:

1. Narrow down a solid reopening date. If you’re a TastyPlacement client, make sure to let us know and we’ll work on getting your listings updated as soon as possible.

2. Update all your listings with the new address as soon as the new address is officially determined. If you are not able to receive mail at the new location, contact the United States Postal Service to place a hold on your mail. Many search engines like Google, Yahoo and Foursquare require postcard verification to update the address on your listing.

3. Focus on the big directories: Google, Yahoo, Yelp, Localeze. Changing your information on larger data aggregates will eventually trickle down to lower-authoritative directories.

4. Place a banner on your website informing clients of the anticipated move either in the footer or as a static image on the home page. After the official move, leave the banner on for at least eight more weeks.

5. Update your social media accounts with images of your new location. Seeing these images will prompt clients to better visualize your new location.

Happy Moving!