Local Search for Home Businesses
-
I'm a home based business. I know Google has cracked down on PO boxes and UPS locations. What is one to do if they work from home but don't conduct business with clients from their home office? How can I get an address that's Google-approved?
-
Hi there!
I suggest reading through this blog from Moz: https://moz.com/blog/are-coworking-offices-eligible-for-google-my-business-listings
While the main topic of the article is coworking spaces, it also addresses virtual offices and how this impacts your chances of ranking in the local pack.
In the article, it says: Virtual offices fail to meet Google guidelines, including:
- Make sure that your page is created at your actual, real-world location.
- Provide a phone number that connects to your individual business location as directly as possible.
- Provide your regular customer-facing hours of operation.
- If your business rents a temporary, "virtual" office at a different address from your primary business, do not create a page for that location unless it is staffed during your normal business hours.
Hope this helps!
-
I agree with Matt and Robert. You can have a Google My Business listing that will show up in search results using a service-area-business designation and hidden home address.Where you will run into trouble is if you want to rank well in local search results and you have citation-rich competitors.
I say that b/c even though (as Matt points out) there are hidden-address citation sources, they are few and far between. You will have a hard time accumulating enough of those to outrank the competition.
If you're not worried about rankings and you just want visibility with people who already know your brand, you'll be fine.
-
Hi there,
I would also add that you don't have to use your home address in order to show up on Google Maps (Matt alluded to it with SAB's). You can provide an address to Google without having to showcase it to the public and it will rank similarly.
I have several clients who work from home but don't conduct any business there as a brick and mortar location. The only time you run into trouble here is if you try to show yourself appearing in multiple locations without concrete addresses, which it doesn't sound like you're doing.
Also really like Matt's suggestion of the hidden address citations. That's a neat resource I haven't seen before.
Feel free to reach out any time and we can discuss further if you like.
Cheers,
Rob
-
You are referring to what is called a service area business (SAB). Here a useful link for you: https://moz.com/blog/intro-local-seo-service-area-businesses
Also, you should check out this great list of local citations that allow you to hide your address: http://www.localvisibilitysystem.com/2013/04/22/private-local-citations-where-can-you-list-your-business-but-hide-your-address/
Matt
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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.
Related Questions
-
Not Showing Up On Local?
Hello, I purchased Moz Local for our fitness and performance company, BIM Fitness & Performance, about 6 weeks ago. Compared to the other people in our area, we have the highest DA. We show up 2nd in search but are not showing up on the "map pack" for local. That said, can someone please help me pinpoint why this may be? We've selected several categories that are relevant to search and we can't seem to understand why.
Reviews and Ratings | | scottgray06200 -
Aggregate Rating Markup for Local Restaurant
Hello Moz Community, I am finally getting around to creating markup for a bunch of the sites we work with using JSON-LD. I have a question specifically regarding adding review markup for a local restaurant. It's my understanding that putting the aggregate rating on the homepage never results in stars being shown in the SERP's. So what would be the best practice for taking advantage of all the great Google reviews we've accumulated over the years? These are reviews for the restaurant in general and not for any specific service or product. Should I create a reviews page on the site and use the markup there? Thanks for any and all suggestions.
Reviews and Ratings | | robertsteck0 -
Local Listing only Showing out of the Local Market. Have you seen this? What are my options?
I have a client (law firm) who has been dominant locally for years. A few months ago he stopped showing locally when you search in his city, but when you search from other cities, he's still dominant. Here are a couple facts: 1. None of the competition is in his building. 2. He does rank dominant locally if you select "top rated" in Google maps.* *Interestingly enough, his competitors on regular searches have great ratings too so its a bit weird that he shows up in front of them but only when you select top rated. Have you seen this? Any suggestions?
Reviews and Ratings | | mgordon1 -
Want to use Google Business Pages but Spam Reviews are putting me off
Not sure if I am missing something here...I have phoned and asked Google business how they deal with reviews which are potentially fake and damaging to a business reputation, it seems there is very little a small local business can do about them other than report the review with no guarantee of anyone helping ...Has anyone else had this issue as I would really like to use this service to assist with rankings on google? It is hard to convince (and to be honest I don't want to have to convince!) a local business that this is a good service at the same time as informing them they will more than likely have to spend extra time fending off fake reviews...Not seen any good answers anywhere else, ignoring the reviews, adding more positive reviews or replying/managing reviews are not an option. Hope someone can help with this, thanks
Reviews and Ratings | | imoprojects0 -
Yelp Jumps Into Home Services - Will You Jump With Them?
Hey To All Our Local Adepts 🙂 You know how Amazon, Google and Facebook have all been experimenting with how they can become the middleman between customers needing home services and companies that provide those services? Well, Yelp is getting into the game now, too. On the one hand, so many local business owners know the very real impact their Yelp profile can have on their bottom line. I've spoken to local business owners who have told me Yelp drives more phone calls than their own websites do. On the other hand, Yelp has not had an unblemished relationship with business owners or Local SEOs. This interesting tension between Yelp's dominance in the review world and their satisfaction track record in the business community makes me wonder how many people will try out their new leads program and whether business owners will trust Yelp less or more than Amazon, Facebook or Google. What do you think? Would you be interested in giving Yelp's new program a try? If you're advising clients, which of the four emergent home service programs (Google, Yelp, Facebook or Amazon) would you suggest first, and what would you base your recommendation on? Has anyone tried Yelp's program yet? How's it going?
Reviews and Ratings | | MiriamEllis4 -
Rich Snippets (Rating stars) not showing up on website in search results
Hello, I have All in One Schema.org Rich Snippets plugin installed on my WP websites for the star snippets to show up in google search results. I used the Item Review property in this plugin for the homepage and under Reviewer’s Name (added name of author), Item to be reviewed (added brand/business name) and Your Rating (of course 5 :)). Now, the problem occurring is that instead of stars showing up in search results, the date when the respective page was published is showing up in search results. This is happening with all the websites I added plugin in. Am I doing something wrong or what is happening. Please help as i want those stars to show up on the websites. Please help me with any plugin or useful info that can help me with this. Thanks!
Reviews and Ratings | | BrianBotts.0 -
Does advertising on Yelp help a business get more Yelp reviews?
I've gotten this question from a few clients. There seems to be a correlation in some cases between paying to advertise on Yelp, and the volume of reviews received. Of course, correlation does not necessarily equal causation. And I can attest to the fact that other clients who have at times advertised on Yelp did not even see a correlation. Has anyone else seen this correlation? And if so, can you speak to the possible causation or lack thereof?
Reviews and Ratings | | irapasternack0 -
Why ratings (no. of reviews & stars) still not showing in search results?
We implemented Schema and submitted the pages (with actual ratings and reviews) to Google Webmaster's Structured Data Markup tool a few weeks ago, but the ratings (stars and no. of reviews) are not showing yet. How long do I need to wait? TIA!
Reviews and Ratings | | zpm20140