This article outlines the steps you can take in Yext to mark a location as permanently closed. Please note that marking an entity as closed does not remove licenses from an entity, nor will it remove any active listings from publisher sites.

For steps on how to remove licenses, see Remove Licenses from Entities. For more information about closing a location temporarily, see Close a Location Temporarily.

Mark an Entity as Permanently Closed

1. Click Knowledge Graph in the navigation bar and click Entities.
2. Click on the entity you would like to close.
   
   • To close multiple entities at once, visit the Edit Entities in Bulk article.
3. Mark your location as closed.
   1. Click Internal Use Only in the left sidebar.
   2. Click on the Closed field and select Yes from the drop-down. Then, click Save. This will push an update to publisher sites to mark the location as closed. Note that not all publishers support a ‘Closed’ status or banner.
4. Update your hours to closed.
   1. Click on the Hours field.
   2. Select Closed from the drop-down next to each day of the week.
   3. Click Save.
5. Update your business name.
   1. Click on the Name field.
   2. Enter ‘- CLOSED’ after the business name.
   3. Click Save
6. Update your Business Description.
   1. Click on the Business Description field.
   2. Update the description to include a note that the location is closed.
   3. Click Save.
7. Schedule license removal for 2 weeks from the closure date.

Other Recommendations

• Content updates can be done ahead of time via scheduled updates.
• A closed store template can also be created and applied to ensure consistency.
  • This can be helpful if you have standard fields and information you want to use across all closed locations, such as Business Description, Website, and Hours.
• Do not archive the entity from Yext. Archived entities cannot be recovered. Once licenses are removed, Yext will not power the entity, and information will not be distributed to any third parties. In the case that the entity reopens or data needs to be referred to, it’s Yext’s recommendation to not archive. 
• We recommend updating the Website field to link to a main corporate page, instead of the page for the specific location that is closed.
• We also recommend using the Featured Message to enter a short note about the location’s closure, and using the Featured Message URL to point to a nearby location, or the main corporate website.
• We recommend keeping any licenses active on closed entities for at least two to four weeks. This allows enough time for any publishers that are receiving entity data (i.e., from Listings or Reviews) to make necessary updates.
  • Note: Removing licenses from an entity in Yext does not delete the listing from the full Yext publisher network. Most publishers remove permanently closed listings over time (can be immediate to 3+ months).

Closed Location Pages

• If the entity is live on Pages, you also have the option to update the Announcement bar module to call out that the location is closed.
• For entities that are live on Pages, you may want to redirect the page depending on the desired customer experience.
  • • If the primary goal is for the location to no longer show as a potential result in Google and other search engines, stop powering the page immediately via Yext. While this is the best way to indicate to search engines that the location does not exist anymore, it will also result in a “404: Cannot be Found" error.
    • If the primary goal is for end users who reach the location to not receive an error, automatically redirect the closed store URL to a different URL or to the list of all locations.

People Entities

• If an entity representing a person (e.g., Healthcare Professionals, Financial Consultants, etc.) is being removed from a business, but the location entity they work for is not closing, you do not need to mark the person entity as Closed. You can simply remove any active licenses from the person entity.
• If you choose, you can transfer ownership of the person's listing on Google Business Profile to that person, so they can manage it on their own moving forward. This will need to be done directly on Google. For more information, see Transfer primary ownership of a listing in the Google Business Profile help center.

Organizing Your Account

• You can create a template for Closed entities that contains all the necessary data changes. Apply the template to any locations you want to close in the future in order to streamline the process. See Create an Entity Template for steps.
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• We recommend creating a folder for closed locations to separate them from the rest of your entities. Note that moving an entity into a ‘closed’ or ‘inactive’ folder does not automatically mark it as closed or remove the license.
  • • We recommend creating one folder (e.g., "Closed") for locations that are marked as closed, but still have licenses assigned. Then, create another folder (e.g., "Inactive") for locations that are closed and no longer have licenses assigned to them.