Verify and complete your own listing first, then report the old business as closed on the map and in the main directories. On your site, name the former tenant once, so people who know the space find you.

Customers who came for coffee

Three weeks after a new shop opens, people still walk in asking for a latte. The space held a cafe for ten years, and a search for the shop's own name brings up the cafe first.

It sits on the map at the same address, marked open, with its photos, its hours and years of reviews. The new shop's listing comes below it, if it shows at all.

Nothing is broken. Listings are not removed when a business closes; somebody has to tell the map.

Why the old listing holds on

A listing that has been in place for ten years has what search engines look for: reviews, photos, a long history at the address and mentions across the web.

Searches near the address, or for the kind of business it was, keep showing it. Regulars search its name and arrive at a door that opens onto something else.

Directories copy each other's data, so the same old entry often appears in several places, each waiting for someone to correct it.

Where the former tenant still appears

Before reporting anything, list every place the old business still shows at your address:

The first matters most, because it is what people see when they search the name or the address. The rest can follow in an afternoon.

Complete your own listing first

Before the old listing goes, yours must be ready to take its place. Claim it through Google Places for Business and verify it, by postcard or, for some businesses, by phone.

A postcard can take a couple of weeks, so start before opening day if you can. Then fill in everything: the name as it appears on the sign, the category, hours, phone, website and photographs.

A report that a place has closed carries more weight when a verified, complete business already sits at that address, and searchers need something real to find once the old listing goes.

Reporting the old listing as closed

On the old listing, use the link to report a problem or suggest an edit, and mark the place as permanently closed. Add a short note that another business now occupies the space.

Reports from the public are reviewed, so the change can take days or weeks. If nothing happens, report it again, and ask the former owner, if you can reach them, to close it themselves.

If the cafe moved rather than closed, the listing is not yours to end. Its owner should change the address, which keeps the reviews with the business they describe.

Why not take over the old listing

Claiming the cafe's listing and renaming it can look like a shortcut, ten years of reviews included. But those reviews describe someone else's coffee and would mislead everyone who reads them.

Each business is expected to have its own listing, and one that suddenly turns into a different business invites scrutiny. A new shop is better off building its own record from day one.

A worked example

A computer store selling laptops, parts and repairs opened last month in a strip mall unit that held a cafe for ten years. Its own listing was verified but half empty.

Searches for the store's name showed the cafe first, marked open. The cafe also appeared on Yelp and two directories, and the shopping centre's website still listed it among the tenants.

The owner finished the store's listing first: category, hours, phone, website, and photographs of the new sign and the repair counter.

Then the cafe was reported as permanently closed on Google and Yelp, with a note naming the store now in the unit. The property manager updated the centre's website and the board by the entrance.

The contact page now says the store is in the corner unit where the cafe used to be, and a small sign in the window does the same for anyone at the door.

Google now finds a verified, complete store at the address and a closure report that matches it, and people who know the space by the cafe's name find an explanation.

What your site should say about the location

The contact page should give the full address with the unit number, a landmark, the parking and the hours, and say once, plainly, which business used to occupy the space.

That one line helps twice. A visitor who knows the building by the cafe recognises it at once, and a search for the old name with the address can find your explanation.

Add a photograph of the storefront as it looks now, so nobody walking up looks for the old sign.

Directories, phones and the door

Yelp and the larger directories have their own ways to report a closure, usually a link to edit the listing or report a problem. Map apps on phones often draw on them.

For walk-ins, a small notice in the window for the first few months tells anyone whose phone still says cafe that the space now holds something else.

The counter-case

Not every former tenant leaves a trace. A business that closed years ago or had few reviews may already be marked closed, or rarely shown at all.

Then the work is simply your own listing and your contact page. A search for the address in a private window, then again on a phone, settles whether anything else is needed.

When the old listing does show, each week it stays marked open sends someone to the wrong door, and some of them blame the business they find there.

Making the address yours

  1. Search your address and your name in a private window.
  2. List every place the former tenant still appears.
  3. Verify your own listing before you open, if you can.
  4. Complete it with hours, category, photos and website.
  5. Report the old listing as permanently closed.
  6. Ask the landlord to update the centre's website and board.
  7. Mention the former tenant once on your contact page.

Step three saves the most trouble. A postcard takes time to arrive, and starting before opening day means your listing is ready when the old one is reported closed.

When people still use an old name for your own business, where that name belongs on the site is covered in the names locals use that your site never mentions.

Frequently asked questions

Why does a closed business still show at my address?

Listings are not removed when a business closes. Someone has to report it, and a listing with years of reviews and photos keeps appearing until they do.

How do I report the old listing as closed?

On the listing, use the link to report a problem or suggest an edit, and mark it permanently closed. Reports are reviewed, so it can take days or weeks.

Why should my own listing come first?

A closure report is more convincing when a verified, complete business already sits at the address, and searchers need something to find once the old listing goes.

Can I claim the old listing and rename it?

It is better not to. Its reviews describe a different business and would mislead readers, and each business is expected to have a listing of its own.

Should my website mention the former tenant?

Once, on the contact page. Saying you occupy the space the cafe used to helps visitors recognise the building and gives searches for the old name a page that explains.

What if the old business moved rather than closed?

Then the listing belongs to its owner, who should update the address. Ask them to, but do not mark a business closed when it has only moved.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

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