By assets do you mean reviews and such? It seems to me the only way to keep you reviews would be to edit you current listing…and even then I have lost reviews.

Yes, the postcard can be tricky. In the past, the current occupant was cooperative and it was a non issue.

This won’t work for every situation, but it’s nice to have the option in your arsenal.

2 weeks to get the PIN post card, if you are lucky. After 2 weeks request another without any Edit. After 3 weeks use this link to get manual help:
http://support.google.com/places/bin/static.py?hl=en&ts=1399021&page=ts.cs
Is the normal process but if you cannot access the new locations post then use the trouble shooter.

2 weeks for the new Places entry to get into the Maps index cluster and for it to show in a Google Maps search by “Phone no” or (Business Name and Location).

And about 8 weeks to rank.

Technically you will have two listings active at the same time but I see Google have added a move location feature to a Closed listing report so they should know whats up. I lead discussions earlier this year on Closing locations after problems doing that for a client. A lot with crowd sourced Map Maker moderator mistakes. After some prodding Vanessa said Closing would hoover up old web directory data we cannot get at and it does seem to work. So as Joel said to me, when I asked ‘where the smileys were they have on proper forums’, ‘We do listen’.

Once you have launched the new Places entry work on editing all you Web Directory entries to the new details to get those citations over.

At the point of moving, logged into the Places account, mark the old Google+ page in search as Closed. I assume the new moved feature will point you to the new location now.

At this point the website and other self owned assets should be changed over.

In the brave new Google+ world have Google put any features or code in to transfer a merged +Local Business page over or will it be Closed as well? Who knows. Some poor sap will find out.

What assets can be moved from one +Local Business page to another?

Cheers. Andrew.

Great stuff! Thanks for posting. I remember you mentioned in a comment on one of my posts that you’re a big fan of the “citations first” method, so it’s neat to see where that fits into the plan you describe here.

Question: did this particular client run a service-based business or a bricks-and-mortar? Obviously, whether this is “by the book” in the case of a service-based business is something people will have different views on. But I would think that this simply wouldn’t work for a bricks-and-mortar location, just because of the logistical hurdle of trying to receive a postcard at a location you haven’t moved into yet. I could be totally wrong, though!