Insights: Disassociating your company from specific searches on Google
James Miodonski 31st of July 2023
We had an interesting request for SEO support from a business in Dumfries recently which got us thinking about the wider subject of disassociating your company from specific searches on Google.
Jack, our Digital Marketing Team Lead, takes a look.
Said business was looking for some help in ensuring their website and google listing no longer appeared in SERPs for searches related to a particular aspect of their service, which has been acquired and is now managed by another company.
Despite not offering this service for over three years, they continue to receive calls from customers searching for it. The root of the problem lies in the fact that their business name remained unchanged, and the only action taken from an SEO perspective was the removal of a single webpage. As a result, they are relying on both Google and potential customers to deduce the changes on their own.
A quick Google search showed that their Google Business Profile still carried the service as its primary business category. SERPs also flagged up several mentions of both the service and website across industry directory sites. There was a Twitter page for the service still linking to their site too.
While you can’t directly control search results, you can influence them by updating your website and other online profiles to reflect your current business name and service offering. Here’s a few things we suggested:
- Remove all mentions from your website
- Update Google Business primary category and remove all mentions of the service from the business description
- Conduct a NAP (name, address, phone number) assessment and identify all mentions of the old business/service. This may include directories, websites, or social media profiles. Try to update the information on those platforms, and if you no longer have access to them, reach out to the platform owners or administrators to request removal or updates.
- Delete legacy Twitter page
It’s important to remember that SERPs and business listings are dynamic, so it may take some time for the changes to fully propagate and for the old information to no longer appear in search results. Be patient and persistent in ensuring your business information is up to date and accurately reflects your current business.
