Can I use PO boxes as an actual business Address?
-
Hi mozzers,
A potential future client(electrician) covers 40+ locations in one region(local SEO) but only has 1 address. He wants to rank for at least 5 to 7 main locations which he has PO boxes for.
Can I use these as addresses on his website or will it be seen as violating the google guideline? If it is no good what should I do?
Thanks
-
Thank you guys for those useful tips
-
Hi Taysir,
Both P.O. boxes and virtual offices are forbidden by the Google Places Quality Guidelines (see: https://support.google.com/places/answer/107528?hl=en)
Unless your client is an area of very low competition or in a very rural area, then he should not expect to rank in the local pack of results for anything but his city of location. It's important to set his expectation about this, so that he understand that this is simply how Google works. Let him know that the use of P.O. boxes or virtual offices will only harm his trustworthiness in the eyes of Google at the same time as confusing his customers.
So, he can go for local rankings for his city of location, and then go after as much organic visibility as he can for his other location-less service cities by developing content that reflects his work in these places. I think you will find some good inspiration for this in this article:
The Nitty Gritty of City Landings Pages
All SABs struggle with this situation, but it is totally possible to earn good core local visibility for the location city and additional organic visibility for the service cities with the right strategy. Good luck with the work ahead!
-
So you probably already read that so far as adding the business to Google local is concerned, PO boxes are violation of Google local quality guidelines - if you read through them, they are looking for places that receive customers and they specifically state that post office boxes aren't considered physical locations. So if you add them as a listing to Google local, they get deleted, sometimes .. pretty often (there are still some listings with PO boxes but I wouldn't bother trying). And you want your website address/phone etc to match your local listing for good local SEO. So although you could add the various PO boxes to the website, I don't think it will help for local, there's probably no real point them being on there unless they have some legitimate business use and I wouldn't recommend it.
I've mused recently (in a blog post) that using virtual offices combined with local area code numbers (e.g. forwarded to the main sales number) might work for boosting local, but only if the business centre allows use of the address rather than the PO box address. If you had the virtual office address but didn't have local matching numbers, I think that'd be a potential negative for local. I think there's an element of risk here as virtual offices aren't too difficult to spot and let's face it, it is still against the quality guidelines and trying to manipulate results etc. I'd kind of be interested to know if it'd work but I wouldn't try it for a client myself!
Things the client can do instead -
-
Use his one business address, phone etc, same on local listing as on website, and then,
-
Specify in his Google local listing which areas he covers. Rather than stating the whole of the UK, I'd recommend adding those specific areas he wants to rank for.
-
Create pages for those areas around what people search for e.g. going for the organic results 'electrician services in lincoln' etc as Google does still feature these around the local listings.
-
Add location specific content for that area - eg. case studies, testimonials for companies / customers in that area with plenty of refs to the location.
Hope that helps.
-
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
-
Hello everyone! I have one question regarding local business listing
My Website is on 2nd position of the SERP but it is not visible on the first 3 list of Google Map. Although My website has 4.8 stars on the result page. https://mza.bundledseo.com/blog/one-dead-simple-tactic-for-better-rankings-in-google-local: I got an idea from this post, but the solution that author has given is very time consuming one. could anybody help me, "how to be visible on the Google Map first 3 results? and also please share your ideas on How to rank for images and videos.
Image & Video Optimization | | Tabassum0 -
Can anyone recommend an Link building agency that has possibilities to publish article or infographics on very strong travel related sites?
We're looking for an Link building agency. We are looking for possibilities to publish article or infographics on very strong travel related sites.
Image & Video Optimization | | Aftle1984
Can anyone recommend reliable contacts?1 -
Google Places for Business - multiple accommodation listings
Hi there I have a client who runs a holiday rental accommodation business in Australia. The business model is: a single brand (+ website) with multiple holiday homes (each with their own physical address). So, I have two questions: 1 - She currently has her Google Places for Business configured where there is one 'brand' Places account with an individual listing for each holiday home. How is it best to link the Google Places account to a (yet to be created) Google+ profile? 2 - Google's quality guidelines are a little grey around 'rental accommodation'. She does not run a real estate company but the properties are technically being rented which I fear contravenes Google's quality guidelines for Google Places. Does anybody experience in this area (the competition is doing it left, right and centre). Thanks in advance! Laurie
Image & Video Optimization | | turnbullholdingsltd1 -
Does Bing Business Portal still not accept Canadian listings?
I've read a lot of blog posts from a few years ago that Bing Business portal(maps) doesn't accept Canadian Business listings. I figured by now they would be accepting listings however when I try and submit one you cannot pick Canada. It's defaulted to USA. Are they seriously still not accepting Canadian listings?
Image & Video Optimization | | DCochrane0 -
Does displaying a mobile number for business hurt local SEO?
Perhaps a silly question but could someone please clarify if displaying a mobile number in the main site or Google places etc would hurt local SEO? Is having a regional landline/fixed telephone number a ranking factor? EDIT: This is for a UK site, does anyone have experience of this is UK please?
Image & Video Optimization | | Clicksjim0 -
How do I correctly use YouTube?
Hello! I have a someone that does online guitar lessons - their site is www.frethub.com. They use YouTube videos to promote the lessons on their site like this one - http://youtu.be/C1dOYys0H14, they're not the complete lesson but an intro to entice them on. The videos are of a really high quality and have had a few hundred hits in a couple of months - when I did a search on YouTube for "ledato guitar lesson" as an example they were nowhere to be seen despite the quality of the video and using tags etc. Anyway long intro! What I was wondering is are the rankings on YouTube based predominantly on number of hits or is there a way to use the tags better (presently they put in keywords and what comes up in the autosuggest), does how recently they were uploaded, author authority etc have anything to do with it? I appreciate it's a massive subject so any help is much appreciated 🙂 Thanks alot!
Image & Video Optimization | | CharlotteWaller0 -
Multiple Businesses in One Location + In One Google Places Account Under Review
HI, My Problem: Multiple businesses in one location, under one Google Places account, one being reviewed. My Question: see very bottom of this post Background: I am trying to help a client get both of his businesses ranking in Google Places. The problem is the office building has multiple doctors/practices in the same building and gave no business suite numbers to doctors that rent office space. Here is the list of the other businesses in the office: http://www.fullcirclefamilycare.com/health_care.htm. The problem escalates because the doctor I am trying to help has a chiropractic business & a spinal decompression business, both legal entities, both different registered company names, different phone numbers, and websites, but both located in this office building. He rents two offices (they should be suites) in the building. The problem escalates even more because the doctor has registered both locations (see below) in his Google Places account: Westchester Spinal Decompression Center
Image & Video Optimization | | WebBizIdeas
1241 Mamaroneck Avenue, White Plains, NY 10605 (914) 421-1502 Joint Effort Chiropractic
1241 Mamaroneck Ave., White Plains, NY 10605 (914) 368-7668
jointeffortchiro.com The first (spinal decompression) was registered a long time ago and ranks #1 for "spinal decompression white plains NY." The second he just confirmed the Google Post card a few weeks ago and has been under review since. More research so you can help me better: The "The Shop for Holistic Health / The Shop at Full Circle", a businesses location in the same office building has verified their account and ranks #1 for "women's health care white plains NY" and "midwife white plains NY." Another business,in the same office building "Keras-Donaghy Melissa S", has not claimed their listing and ranks #1 for "Women’s Health physical Therapist white plains NY" Another business, "Kuhl Josephine MD," has not claimed their listing ranks in the top 10 for "Adolescent Psychiatrist white plains NY." My Question: What do I do, wait it out and see if Google will remove the "under review" under his current Google Places account or do I add a suite number now and see if Google will send another post card? Or do I create a new account, add the business, add a suite number this time, and see if they will confirm it. I don't want to do this because the doctor already has 12 reviews on this Google Places account. If I do do this, what do I do with the Google Places account under review?0 -
Google’s algorithm on file size. Use IFrame or not?
With page size being a big factor in Google’s algorithm what’s the best way to implement a flash file without jeopardizing rankings? What’s your thoughts on embedding the video in an IFrame?
Image & Video Optimization | | SEO-Team0