How does Moz Local work with business that don't have a physical location? (e.g., handyman, locksmith, etc.)

[Philip-DiPatrizio]

I'm wondering how Moz Local will handle a business that doesn't want to publicly display an address.  A handyman, landscaper, or locksmith might want to do something like this.  Is it easily handled or do you have to manually try to "work around" to hide the address on sites that let you?

Thanks!

[DavidLee]

Hi Ben!

Our tool will need to validate the address each time the csv is uploaded.  For any locations marked as a service address, we will submit it to our partners but cannot guarantee they will hide the physical location from their sites.

[thebenro]

Follow up question. So we upload the csv as usual, and then after it is verified by Google and FB we upload the csv again with the business as a Home Business?

Is there any chance the addresses will still be published? I'd hate to upset a client by accidentally publishing their address.

[DavidLee]

Hi Joseph

I'm afraid you will only be able to use on or the other. Setting it as a home business is the best way for our partners to try and hide the address.

[Jmcasp]

David,

Can you list your business as a Service Area Business and a home business? For example, I have a plumber client that is a Service Area Business and uses his home address as his business address.

Thanks!

[DavidLee]

Hey Philip

Currently we would need a physical address in order to validate against Facebook Places or Google+. You can setup an address in one of them to validate and publish then set your info to be hidden or private afterwards. By marking your business type as a home business in the csv file will allow our partners to hide your address.

Hope this helps!

UPDATE: Only one partner can hide the address, all others will display the full NAP and in order for us to stay connected to a validating source (google/facebook) the listing must not be setup as an SAB. Google now hides SAB listings from their Places API.

Service Area Businesses are not supported and it is recommended to manage your listings manually: http://www.localvisibilitysystem.com/2013/04/22/private-local-citations-where-can-you-list-your-business-but-hide-your-address/

[WhoWuddaThunk]

You would be better off doing your citation building manually.  That way you can ensure that the address doesn't get pushed out.  The citations that Moz utilizes are the main aggregates.  So, if an address get's put on one it will spread across a good portion of the internet.

Also, by not including a NAP onsite and in citations you will be hindering your sites ability to rank in the local results.  One of the big factors is the consistency of NAP across your website and other domains.  Not having it listed will put a wrench into this.  You have no choice, I totally understand that, but it is something to consider.

[Philip-DiPatrizio]

Yeah, I know I can do that in Google+ Local... and I know that some other websites also support this.  What I want to know is how Moz Local handles this with its '1-click' auto-syndication feature.

Just listing the address and hoping people will call 99% of the time isn't really an option.  I don't want to list the guy's home address as the business address if it's going to be public.

[WhoWuddaThunk]

In Google Places you can turn off the address, and just have a service area listing.  If I were doing the SEO I would setup the Google Places like that, and just list the address on other less important ones.  99% of the time people won't stop by these types of services, and will just call.