undefined
Skip to content
Moz logo Menu open Menu close
  • Products
    • Moz Pro
    • Moz Pro Home
    • Moz Local
    • Moz Local Home
    • STAT
    • Moz API
    • Moz API Home
    • Compare SEO Products
    • Moz Data
  • Free SEO Tools
    • Domain Analysis
    • Keyword Explorer
    • Link Explorer
    • Competitive Research
    • MozBar
    • More Free SEO Tools
  • Learn SEO
    • Beginner's Guide to SEO
    • SEO Learning Center
    • Moz Academy
    • SEO Q&A
    • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
  • Blog
  • Why Moz
    • Agency Solutions
    • Enterprise Solutions
    • Small Business Solutions
    • Case Studies
    • The Moz Story
    • New Releases
  • Log in
  • Log out
  • Products
    • Moz Pro

      Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

    • Moz Local

      Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

    • STAT

      SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

    • Moz API

      Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

    • Compare SEO Products

      See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

    • Moz Data

      Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
    Moz Pro

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

    Learn more
  • Free SEO Tools
    • Domain Analysis

      Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

    • Keyword Explorer

      Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

    • Link Explorer

      Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

    • Competitive Research

      Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

    • MozBar

      See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

    • More Free SEO Tools

      Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
    Moz Pro

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

    Learn more
  • Learn SEO
    • Beginner's Guide to SEO

      The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

    • SEO Learning Center

      Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

    • On-Demand Webinars

      Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

    • How-To Guides

      Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

    • Moz Academy

      Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

    • MozCon

      Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

    Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
    Moz API

    Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

    Find your plan
  • Blog
  • Why Moz
    • Small Business Solutions

      Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

    • Agency Solutions

      Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

    • Enterprise Solutions

      Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

    • The Moz Story

      Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

    • Case Studies

      Explore how Moz drives ROI with a proven track record of success.

    • New Releases

      Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

    Surface actionable competitive intel
    New Feature

    Surface actionable competitive intel

    Learn More
  • Log in
    • Moz Pro
    • Moz Local
    • Moz Local Dashboard
    • Moz API
    • Moz API Dashboard
    • Moz Academy
  • Avatar
    • Moz Home
    • Notifications
    • Account & Billing
    • Manage Users
    • Community Profile
    • My Q&A
    • My Videos
    • Log Out

The Moz Q&A Forum

  • Forum
  • Questions
  • Users
  • Ask the Community

Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

  1. Home
  2. SEO Tactics
  3. Local SEO
  4. Local Listings
  5. Local Ranking with No Physical Address in New Service Area - How to Rank?

Moz Q&A is closed.

After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

Local Ranking with No Physical Address in New Service Area - How to Rank?

Local Listings
4
9
4.8k
Loading More Posts
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as question
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
  • photoseo1
    photoseo1 Subscriber last edited by Dec 8, 2017, 6:52 PM

    OK,

    SO, I am a wedding company in Maui, Hawaii and have an established business on one island with a physical address. http://simplemauiwedding.net

    We have started a new team in Oahu, Hawaii http://simpleoahuwedding.com and we provide service there and have a full team in place. How can I rank for Local Search on that Island with no physical address?

    I would love to hear some proven strategies.

    Thank you 🙂

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • MiriamEllis
      MiriamEllis Subject Expert @ThompsonPaul last edited by Dec 13, 2017, 6:00 PM Dec 13, 2017, 6:00 PM

      Hey hey, Paul - you read my article! Woo hoo 🙂 Thank you. And thanks for your great contributions to this thread.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • MiriamEllis
        MiriamEllis Subject Expert @Dalessi last edited by Dec 13, 2017, 5:57 PM Dec 13, 2017, 5:57 PM

        Hi William!

        I'm so glad you're here, participating in Q&A. Thank you for being part of this conversation. I want to take a minute to explain why ThompsonPaul is saying "no no!" to non-physical addresses, in hopes that it may be good learning moment for lots of community members.

        P.O. boxes, mailboxes, virtual offices, etc, are a violation of Google's guidelines, which state:

        Use a precise, accurate address to describe your business location. PO Boxes or mailboxes located at remote locations are not acceptable.

        Though you are absolutely right, William, that some mail services provide a street address, it's so important to remember that Google can read street level signage. So, if Steven's wedding company were to try to list at such a location, Google can easily see that they're looking at a mailing office instead of a business with a sign outside of it saying "Steven's Wedding Company". Important to remember that customers and competitors can see this, too, using Streetview, and can easily report any offending business for spam.

        ThompsonPaul has linked to my recent Moz Blog post in which I explain that the results of being detected at an ineligible location would be a "hard penalty" causing listing removal, rendering any money, time or effort that had been put into building up the fake location listing null. We don't know for certain how this might, then, influence Google's feelings about the entire brand ... but I wouldn't want to risk that my spammy behavior in City B wasn't somehow putting a black mark next to my legitimate location in City A.

        Finally, when this topic comes up, I always like to touch on the ethics of the thing. Smart businesses know that it can spell doom to be cited by the consumer public for deceptive practices. Not only has a failure to live up to truth-in-advertising standards led to public lawsuits, it has really tarnished brands. So, it's just good business to be 100% honest in how you present a business to the public, including being truthful about its physical locations. Anything else is a risk.

        Good discussion going on here, William. Hopefully we can all learn something about these challenges from participating.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • MiriamEllis
          MiriamEllis Subject Expert last edited by Dec 13, 2017, 5:43 PM Dec 13, 2017, 5:42 PM

          Hi Steven!

          So, basically, the answer is: you can't. I know that's not what you want to hear, but it is the reality for nearly all single location businesses that serve multiple cities. Google's bias toward physical location affects all service business models this way. Unless you can get a staffed, physical office in the second city, it will be a waste of your time to make it your goal to rank in the local results for that city. Instead, your options are:

          1. Go after organic rankings for that city via the authority you build surrounding website content+links for that city.

          2. Pay for visibility with locally-targeted PPC.

          3. Use social media to try to build brand awareness for your work in that city.

          4. Do everything you can to encourage word-of-mouth among existing customers. Customers in City A have friends and family in city B. Make a superior effort to offer the type of superior service that would cause the A group to recommend your services to the B group. Consider how loyalty programs might assist with this. Perhaps every customer who brings you a new customer gets a voucher for a free dinner, free massage, etc.

          5. Explore building relationships with related businesses in City B. Perhaps your company does everything but bake the cake for weddings. Find the best bakers in City B and see how you can help one another in terms of lead gen.

          A combination of all these efforts could begin generating some leads for you that are not dependent on the unrealistic goal of ranking locally where you aren't locally located. Hope this helps!

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • ThompsonPaul
            ThompsonPaul @Dalessi last edited by Dec 12, 2017, 8:23 PM Dec 12, 2017, 8:23 PM

            I'm well aware of the reasons why small business owners might not want to have their home addresses listed, but it doesn't change the fact that Google will not allow use of UPS Store-type mailing addresses to pretend to be business locations. It's not a matter of having a "verifiable address" it's a matter of adhering to the requirement that you must have an actual business presence at that specific location where customers can come in person for service/sales.to qualify the local GMB address.

            It is possible to set your home address, then select that it should be hidden and function as a local service area business instead.

            But trying to get away with using a non-conforming "pretend" address will get you delisted when caught (and Google is very good at catching such non-conforming addresses in many ways, if it even lets you verify it in the first place.)

            This is not just my opinion - it's specifically stated by Google in their own GMB terms of service. In fact, Local Search expert Miriam Ellis just posted about this in her Not-Actually-The-Best Local SEO Practices. To quote:

            "Once caught, any effort that was put into ranking and building reputation around a fake-location listing is wasted."

            Paul

            MiriamEllis 1 Reply Last reply Dec 13, 2017, 6:00 PM Reply Quote 0
            • Dalessi
              Dalessi last edited by Dec 11, 2017, 10:45 PM Dec 11, 2017, 10:45 PM

              Many people work from home and do not want to use their home address. I am sure we all know why. It is just not a good idea. It is their legal right to have a verifiable local mailing address in which they can send and receive mail. Another option is a local coworking space or execitive office space that offers mail and meeting space on an as needed basis.

              The important thing is that it is a real address. You use it for real business and it can be verified.

              Have a great 2018!

              ThompsonPaul 1 Reply Last reply Dec 12, 2017, 8:23 PM Reply Quote -1
              • ThompsonPaul
                ThompsonPaul @Dalessi last edited by Dec 11, 2017, 10:04 PM Dec 11, 2017, 10:04 PM

                Unfortunately, these types of "pretend" business addresses are specifically against Google's ToS for Google My Business locations. It's pretty easy for them to detect and they'll nuke your location listing as a result.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • photoseo1
                  photoseo1 Subscriber last edited by Dec 11, 2017, 7:39 PM Dec 11, 2017, 7:39 PM

                  Thanks William!

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • Dalessi
                    Dalessi last edited by Dec 11, 2017, 4:21 AM Dec 11, 2017, 4:21 AM

                    You need to get a mail box addres such as Mail Boxes Etc or the UPS store that gives you a physical street address. If you want to get into local that is your best and easiest option.

                    Make sure the address gets verified like any other address would, and never use a "Post Office" box. That will not give you the verifiable address as far as I know.

                    Hope this helps.

                    Best Regards

                    ThompsonPaul MiriamEllis 2 Replies Last reply Dec 13, 2017, 5:57 PM Reply Quote -1
                    • 1 / 1
                    1 out of 9
                    • First post
                      1/9
                      Last post

                    Got a burning SEO question?

                    Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                    Start my free trial


                    Browse Questions

                    Explore more categories

                    • Moz Tools

                      Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

                    • SEO Tactics

                      Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

                    • Community

                      Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

                    • Digital Marketing

                      Chat about tactics outside of SEO

                    • Research & Trends

                      Dive into research and trends in the search industry.

                    • Support

                      Connect on product support and feature requests.

                    • See all categories

                    Related Questions

                    • danieldaher

                      GMB Account Fallen Off Rankings in past 24 hours

                      My map pack presence has fallen off the face of the earth over the last 24 hours. My location The Escape Game Chicago was top 3 yesterday for 'escape room chicago' and now they only show up when searching for the exact brand name. What's weirder is I still rank #1 organically for that keyword.I have looked through the account, nothing seems to be totally amiss. Google has not notified me of any issues or penalties. I have no clue what happened.Can anyone point me in the right direction or provide some insight as to how I can recover my ranking?

                      Local Listings | Mar 16, 2020, 4:44 PM | danieldaher
                      0
                    • TaylorRHawkins

                      How do you do Local SEO in a small town?

                      Good afternoon everyone! I wanted to start a discourse on a subject that I think might benefit a few select readers. What would be your best plan-of-action to successfully propose and execute a Local-SEO campaign for a small, local business in a rural town? The type of town that has next to zero local directories, the type of business that has hardly any (if any at all) "fresh mentions" on the internet, etc. I'm interested to see how other SEOs would handle tackling this kind of campaign. Can't wait to hear what people have to say! 
                      Thanks! 
                      Taylor

                      Local Listings | Mar 16, 2017, 10:49 AM | TaylorRHawkins
                      1
                    • ViviCa1

                      Having two GMB listings at same address

                      We currently have two verified GMB listings at the same address - I "inherited" these when I joined the company, and was considering merging them, as I am aware it is generally not recommended to have more than one listing per company per location. However, the two listings highlight two different sectors of our company so I decided to keep both and optimised them as best as possible by completing the information, adding pictures etc. One of the listings uses our legal company name, one uses our name that we trade under as an e-commerce business. The listing with our legal company name links to our corporate website and focuses on installations we do, while the listing with our e-commerce business name links to our ecommerce website and focuses on products we sell through there so they differ a bit from each other. Both serve the entire country, so they are not targeted specifically toward local searches. The following differ: Business name, sector, website
                      The following are the same: Address, phone number, opening hours So far we haven't had any issues, both are verified and show up in Google, but recently, we have had the following notification pop up: Fix locations with duplicate addresses__Use shop codes to differentiate locations that have the same address. Click each location and give it a unique address or shop code, or remove it. I'd appreciate some advice as to what would be best in this situation. Should I just add shop codes to differentiate the two listings in order to be able to keep them both? If so, what purpose do these shop codes have, how should I format these and will these be publicly visible within our listings? If you would suggest merging them, how could I ensure that it shows up whether people search for our e-commerce business name or for our legal business name as these are different? Thanks in advance!

                      Local Listings | Jul 28, 2016, 3:46 PM | ViviCa1
                      0
                    • TomBinga1125

                      Local SEO business name issue due to aggregator

                      So I work for a college and we have multiple locations. My tactic has been always to keep the name the same for all of them (no city name), and then change the address and phone number for each. But there is 1000s of college listings websites out there that aggregate college and school data from the same source: the US government. Now the way that they have most, if not all, multi-location colleges listed is: "college name-city name". I can see the value in that, but I guess I'm just wondering what to do since it obviously can't be changed. Should I revert all of our listings as "college name-city name" to match the 1000s of listings that have it that way? I've been under the impression that I should leave the city/town name out of the name, but I'm just wondering what you think best practices would be? Thanks
                      Tom

                      Local Listings | Feb 8, 2016, 10:35 PM | TomBinga1125
                      0
                    • Jo_Da

                      Local SEO: Special charakters in brand name?

                      Hey guys, we run a local gym in Germany located in Nuremberg called: "STUDIO N°1 - natürlich fit". Our domain is: www.studio-no1.de We are currently working on a new website since our current Website isn't really SEO optimized. Until then I would like to start optimizing some off-page attributes. As far as I know one of the main points in Local SEO is that your firm is registered at important directories. In our case we are already registred in most of the important german directories. The problem is that our oficicial company name has a special charakter included. This means that in some cases we have "N°1" and in some others "No1! Our Google Business name for example has "N°1", facbook not (no special charakter allowed). Germanys most important site for listings: Gelbeseiten, doesn't even allow special charakters in brand names.... On which name should I focus to get all the business listings to have identical NAP informations? Does it even matter? Schould I focus on "STUDIO No1 - natürlich fit" or "STUDIO N°1 - natürlich fit"? I hope you could understand my problem. Big Thanks Jonas

                      Local Listings | Dec 21, 2015, 7:02 PM | Jo_Da
                      0
                    • henya

                      1800 number for google local

                      Hi A client with a local business has a 1800 number on their google plus page and most citations. How important is it to use the local number and not a 1800 one for google local? Should we change the phone number to the local number and update all listings? Or should we just continue with the 1800 number and stay consistent? I have added the local number as a second number on the google plus page.

                      Local Listings | Sep 7, 2015, 2:39 PM | henya
                      1
                    • scott315

                      What would Cause listing to fall off local search map spot?

                      Any reason a listing that was showing in Google between the 3 and 5 spot on local map search would suddenly disappear all together from the map position for a specific keyword?

                      Local Listings | Dec 10, 2014, 11:09 AM | scott315
                      0
                    • ColeLusby

                      Does anyone use Moz Local + Yext? How valuable is this for local businesses?

                      For brands that have a budget to pay $600 / year for valuable backlink directories, would you recommend Moz Local + Yext? I would like to hear some feedback on marketers that use Yext. Thanks,
                      Cole

                      Local Listings | Sep 7, 2016, 5:36 PM | ColeLusby
                      0

                    Get started with Moz Pro!

                    Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                    Start my free trial
                    Products
                    • Moz Pro
                    • Moz Local
                    • Moz API
                    • Moz Data
                    • STAT
                    • Product Updates
                    Moz Solutions
                    • SMB Solutions
                    • Agency Solutions
                    • Enterprise Solutions
                    Free SEO Tools
                    • Domain Authority Checker
                    • Link Explorer
                    • Keyword Explorer
                    • Competitive Research
                    • Brand Authority Checker
                    • Local Citation Checker
                    • MozBar Extension
                    • MozCast
                    Resources
                    • Blog
                    • SEO Learning Center
                    • Help Hub
                    • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                    • How-to Guides
                    • Moz Academy
                    • API Docs
                    About Moz
                    • About
                    • Team
                    • Careers
                    • Contact
                    Why Moz
                    • Case Studies
                    • Testimonials
                    Get Involved
                    • Become an Affiliate
                    • MozCon
                    • Webinars
                    • Practical Marketer Series
                    • MozPod
                    Connect with us

                    Contact the Help team

                    Join our newsletter
                    Moz logo
                    © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                    • Accessibility
                    • Terms of Use
                    • Privacy

                    Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.