The Patient Communication Plan for Moving Your Clinic to a New Address

01 October 2026·5 min read

Quick answer: A clinic move needs two parallel plans running at once — a patient communication sequence that starts well before moving day and keeps going for weeks after, and a technical checklist that updates your Google Business Profile, website, and directory listings in the right order. Rushed moves lose bookings because patients turn up at the old address; quiet moves lose local search rankings because the technical side was left too late. 🚀

Moving premises is one of those events clinics plan beautifully on the logistics side — removalists booked, new fit-out signed off, equipment transport sorted — and then communicate almost as an afterthought 💖. A single social post the week before, maybe a sign on the old door. That's not enough for patients who book weeks ahead, and it's definitely not enough for your Google Business Profile, which can quietly tank your local rankings for months if the address change isn't handled in the right order.

What most clinics get wrong

The most common mistake is announcing the move too late — patients who already have appointments booked find out via a text the day before, which reads as disorganised no matter how good the new space is. The second is updating the website address but forgetting the Google Business Profile, or updating GBP but leaving old directory listings (health directories, HICAPS provider finders, referral partner websites) pointing at the old location. The third is treating the move as a one-off announcement instead of a short campaign — patients need to hear it more than once before it sticks.

The clinic move communication timeline (copy and adjust the dates):

6-8 weeks out: First announcement — email/SMS to active patients, a pinned social post, and a banner on your website booking page: "We're moving! Here's what's changing and when."
3-4 weeks out: Reminder with the practical details — new address, parking, public transport, any temporary changes to opening hours during the move itself.
1 week out: Final reminder, specifically to anyone with an appointment booked in the first fortnight after the move, confirming the new address again in the booking confirmation.
Moving week: Clear signage at the old location directing people to the new one, for anyone who didn't see the earlier messages.
First 4-6 weeks after: Keep the new address visible in email signatures, booking confirmations, and a website banner — don't assume one announcement cycle is enough.

A physiotherapy clinic moving two suburbs over: Ran the full six-week timeline above and specifically called out patients on standing weekly bookings with a personal phone call rather than just a text, because that group was most likely to simply not notice a change buried in an SMS.

A dental practice relocating within the same shopping strip: Assumed "it's basically next door" meant communication could be minimal, and still had a steady trickle of patients turning up at the old shopfront for the first month — a reminder that even a short move needs the full sequence.

A psychology practice moving to a bigger space to add practitioners: Used the move as a positive story — "we've grown and need more room" — rather than treating it as disruptive news, and tied the announcement to the new practitioners joining at the same time.

The technical side, in the right order

Getting this sequence wrong is what actually costs clinics their local search visibility:

Update your Google Business Profile address as close to the actual move date as possible — too early and you'll show the wrong location to people searching now; too late and you'll rank at the old address for weeks after you've left.
Update your website's address, schema markup, and any embedded map before or on moving day, not weeks after.
Go through every directory listing you can find — health fund provider finders, HICAPS listings, referral partner sites, local business directories — and update or request a change for each one individually.
Keep the old GBP listing (if Google creates a duplicate) marked as permanently closed rather than leaving two active listings competing with each other.

💡 Call your highest-frequency patients personally, don't just SMS them. The patients on standing weekly or fortnightly appointments are the most likely to turn up at the wrong address out of habit — a two-minute phone call to this small group prevents the most awkward version of this problem.

Please note: general information, not legal or medical advice — check current official guidance before relying on it.

If you're tempted to ask settled patients for a review around the move ("we'd love your support as we open our new space"), be careful with the framing for AHPRA-registered practitioners — a request tied to a specific outcome or glowing quote used as a testimonial isn't permitted, and reviews themselves sit in a grey area under AHPRA's current advertising guidance, so it's worth checking that guidance before running any review push timed to the move.

Mistakes to avoid

Announcing the move only once, close to the date, instead of running a short campaign.
Updating the website but forgetting the Google Business Profile, or vice versa.
Leaving old directory and referral partner listings pointing at the old address.
Assuming a short-distance move needs less communication than a long one.

Frequently asked questions

When exactly should we update our Google Business Profile address?

As close to the real move date as practical — updating too early shows the wrong current location to people searching right now, and Google's own verification process for address changes can also take time, so build that lag into your plan.

Will we lose our local search rankings after a move?

There's often a temporary dip while Google re-establishes relevance for the new address and re-crawls updated listings — this is a known limit of moving, not a sign something's gone wrong, and rankings typically recover over following weeks if the technical updates are done properly.

Should we keep the old address live anywhere during the transition?

Only with very clear "moved to" messaging — a silent old listing or an outdated map pin is worse than no listing at all, since it actively sends people to the wrong place.

Is it worth a "we've moved" paid ad push around the date?

Can help, but it's not a substitute for the direct patient communication timeline — paid reach brings new eyes, but it won't reliably reach your existing booked patients the way email, SMS, and a phone call will.

Keep reading 🤍

Written by

Kate, founder of Chronically Online

I help Gold Coast and Brisbane businesses grow with branding, websites and marketing that actually works.

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