It seems it should be a simple matter to delete your Google My Business account. You'd expect to just click a button and have the account disappear. As it turns out, there’s more to it.
In fact, you can’t actually delete the account on your own. What you can do is mark the business “permanently closed.” When you’ve done that, Google will eventually delete the account and all its references.
Why Doesn’t Google Allow Me To Directly Delete My Account?
If you’re no longer in business, or if you just don’t want to be associated with Google anymore, you might think they’d want you to do the delete without their involvement. For truly closed accounts, that would be okay.
However, there are people who hope to game the system by deleting and reopening an account. They might want to get rid of negative reviews or to boost their search ranking. Google takes a dim view of that and does what it can to prevent it. For example, once you close your account, you’re done. Google won’t let you reopen in the future.
How To Mark an Account “Permanently Closed”
You can’t perform the removal using the Google My Business app. You have to actually log in to your account at a desktop. Once you do, however, the process is simple.
Sign in to your Google My Business Account.
Select the Businesses tab from the left sidebar.
Select the business you want to close.
Click the Actions button in the upper right to open a drop-down list.
Select “Permanently Closed.”
On the pop-up, confirm your intention by clicking the “Mark permanently closed” button.
What Happens When I Permanently Close an Account?
The process can take up to a week. Once Google has completed its maintenance, here’s what will happen:
Everything about your business will be deleted from your account. This includes your business name, address, phone number and the URL of your website.
Your business will be marked “Permanently Closed” on Google Maps.
If you published websites using Google My Business, they’ll be unpublished and deleted.
You will lose all photos, messages and Google reviews associated with your business.
Your visibility to the Google search process will be greatly reduced. That doesn’t mean you will disappear from the search results entirely. The search engine will deprioritize anything on Google accounts. However, if there are mentions of your business on social media, news websites and other websites, those can still be found and ranked.
While you’re waiting for the process to complete, you might wish to mark your business “permanently closed” on Google Maps. You might also want to ensure that reviews are deleted from the various review sites.
Alternatives To Deleting Google My Business Account
If you really are out of business and have no intention of reopening, then deleting your account by tagging it permanently closed is the right thing to do. However, if you’re considering deleting your account for some other reasons, there are better options. Remember that Google will not allow you to create a new account for the same business.
If you are taking a hiatus but may reopen in the future, Google allows you to close your account temporarily. You retain the ability to reestablish the Google account and keep your account data.
If you have moved, you can edit the location and any other contact details. Google will save your data and move your business on Google Maps.
If you’ve sold your business and the new owner intends to keep the name, you can change the account’s ownership.
If you want to disassociate your business from negative reviews, your best choice is to fix the issues that caused the reviews and then try to delete them. Because you can’t reopen your account, you can’t get a fresh start with the same business name by deleting it.
Spend More Time Running Your Business
And, less time obsessing about your local presence
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