Business mergers, also known as A&M (aquisitions and mergers) are one of the hardest things to get right using structured data and schema markup.
If your company has acquired other companies, it can get very complicated really quickly.
When companies have merged, this can cause confusion for search engines as to who the main entity is, and which company is the one they should show in search results.
We know from previous SEO migrations, that when companies change name during a migration, Google will automatically show the old company name in the title and/or meta description in search results for some time after the name has changed. They do this to assist users with finding the company, even if your title and meta descriptions are completely different.
This can be concerning for some SEO’s, thinking that the migration has not been a success, or that they’ve done something wrong, as no matter what meta tags they use, Google continues to show the old company name. But it’s ok!
Migrations can take up to 180 days for Google to full process, and studies show that it can take even longer than this – up to 523 days in some cases.
We can help Google understand more about company hierarchies using structured data markup to show Google who is the “main” or “parent” company, which has absorbed or taken over the other company.
Types of Acquisitions and Mergers
The way in which we write this structured data depends on the type of aquisition or merger which has taken place. Let’s use Company A as the main company, and Company B as the company being aquired or merged in this example:
- Company A has bought Company B. Company A now owns Company B but it hasn’t changed it’s name. It still has a website, social media profiles and is still trading as the name Company B.
- Company A has bought Company B, and merged that company within it. Company B technically no longer exists as an entity, as it has been dissolved, therefore Company B is now known as Company A.
Let’s look at scenario 1 first of all. Company A is now the parent company of Company B, which we want to show like this in search results:
In order to do this and to help Google understand, there are several things which need to be done:
- Write a blog post on Company A’s website to say that it has bought and now owns Company B, the date it was acquired, a picture of Company B’s logo, a link to their website and their Companies House number. The article should mention both the name Company B and also their legal name, Company B Limited (or whatever it is on Companies House or the local business registration body).
- Company B’s website should also have an article to say that they are now owned by Company A, along with the same information as above.
This helps to establish a legal connection between the two companies.
Next, you would add structured data markup to Company A’s website, saying that they are the subOrganization of Company A, like this:
"subOrganization": {
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Company B",
"alternateName": "B Company",
"legalName": "Company B Ltd",
"description": "Company B is a brilliant company.",
"foundingDate": "2011-03-18",
"url": "https://www.companyb.org/",
"email": "info@companyb.org",
"telephone": "+442030000000",
"vatID": "443000000",
"logo": {
"@type": "ImageObject",
"name": "Company B Logo",
"url": "https://companya.com/wp-content/uploads/16/2025/03/companyb-logo.jp",
"contentUrl": "https://companya.com/wp-content/uploads/16/2025/03/companyb-logo.jpg",
"width": 1000,
"height": 500
},
"sameAs": [
"https://companya.com/news/companya-acquires-companyb/",
"https://www.facebook.com/companyb",
"https://www.linkedin.com/company/companyb/",
"https://www.instagram.com/companyb",
"https://www.youtube.com/channel/companyb",
"https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/companyb.org",
"https://www.google.com/search?kgmid=/g/1434gwrg",
"https://www.dnb.com/business-directory/company-profiles.companyb_limited.html",
"https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/09000000"
],
"address": {
"@type": "PostalAddress",
"streetAddress": "2 Great Chart Street",
"addressLocality": "Ashford",
"addressRegion": "Kent",
"postalCode": "TN25 3GD",
"addressCountry": "GB"
},
"identifier": {
"@type": "PropertyValue",
"propertyID": "Company Registration Number",
"value": "0900000",
"sameAs": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q257303",
"url": "https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/09000000"
}
},
This helps Google to understand that Company A is the parent company of Company B. You should also include structured data on Company B’s website, to say that Company A is the parent company using parentOrganization.
Eventually, you should see this appear in search results for both companies:
If The Company Has Completely Merged
We need to use completely different structured data when the company has actually merged into Company A and is no longer a legal entity in its own right.
Company B’s website should no longer be in existence, as it should be redirected to the appropriate pages on Company A’s website. Their social media profiles may or may not still be live, depending on the platform.
In this case, we need to leverage sameAs, alternateName, dissolutionDate and subOrganization in order to tell Google that the company is no longer operating.
If you’re not sure how to do this, then contact me, as it can get quite complicated, quite quickly.
Over time if this is a success, Google should hopefully merge the entities within its Knowledge Graph, and searching for the old company name should bring up the new company name in the search results.
Google should return this little fishing monster to let you know that the entity has been deleted when you search for the kgmid:
Written by Kelly Sheppard
Kelly Sheppard is a search engine optimisation professional, author of the book “The Structured Data Guide for Beginners” and the founder of The Structured Data Company.
