Google requires that businesses that serve there customers at their customers' locations must hide its address. However, this causes an notice in Moz Local advising that the Google listing is inconsistent. Is that something to just ignore?
-
I run a walking tour company that operates from a virtual office. We run tours are set locations outside the office. Because of this, Google requires that we hide our exact location. However, Moz Local is warning us that "incomplete listings can negatively impact your ability to rank well in search engine results".
Most listings won't allow you to hide an exact address. Do the search engines understand this and therefore we won't get penalized?
Thank you.
-
Hi Adam,
I want to make sure you received the answer I gave to Stephen via the Help Desk as well. Basically, right now, yes, Moz Local in marking hidden Google+ Local addresses as inconsistent and this is negatively impacting the Moz Local listing score, but coincidentally, this is something our Engineers are working on to change. I don't have an ETA, but it is our plan to stop marking these as inconsistent in the near future, and this will remove any negative impact on the listing score. Hope this helps!
-
I had the same question, thanks for making Moz aware.
-
Thank you Miriam. I did just that.
-
Hi Stephen!
Good topic. You are quite correct that Google requires companies without a staffed physical office to hide their addresses. And, in a level playing field in which all of your competitors are also hiding their addresses, there would be no negative impact. However, if some of your competitors do have staffed physical offices, it is believe by some Local SEOs that you may be at some disadvantage in not having one yourself. It's important to stress that this is a theory, not a statement issued by Google. There is likely some truth in it, though.
Now, that being said, Moz Local accepts listings with hidden addresses, but if we are marking a hidden address as inconsistent, this might be worth taking up with the Help Team to discover if it's normal for the dashboard to treat a hidden address this way. It could be a question that the Help Team will need to take up with Engineering. You can contact the Help Team here: https://mza.bundledseo.com/help/contact
I hope this is helpful!
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
-
Google Business Listing with no physical office location
Hey, everyone! As a business owner who works from home and doesn't have a physical office location. Is setting up a Google business listing without location going to hurt my local search ranking? Should I get a virtual office so I have a physical location? Thank you!! 😃
Local Listings | | ichorstudios0 -
Local SEO without a GBL
Hey everyone, I'm working with a local catering company that does not have a physical address available for use. Because of privacy concerns, the company is not open to using their home address. The local competition in the targeted area is fairly strong and established already. Does anyone have ideas on how I can work around this?
Local Listings | | a_toohill0 -
Business Name Not Showing Up in Google's Maps
I have a client whose name in not currently showing up on Google maps. Their business location only shows once their name or related keywords are searched, but their business name does not show when you only look for it on the map regardless of how far zoomed in you are to the actual location. I am wondering if anyone else has experienced this, or knows of a way to fix this. I have already contacted Google multiple times, and they told me that “business’ names are just randomly pulled”. The client is an HVAC store front business with good rankings and a fully optimized Google profile, so these reasons did not answer the issue. Client’s GMB profile: https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome-psyapi2&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8&q=rothheating oak creeek&oq=rothheating oak creeek&rlz=1C1JPGB_enUS685US685&aqs=chrome..69i57j0.5919j0j4 DBZfF
Local Listings | | JohnWeb120 -
LOCAL CITATIONS - SHARED ADDRESS, DIFFERENT BUSINESS ENTITIES, DIFFERENT PRACTICTIONERS
I am trying to to boost my clients online presence through Local Business Listings but am running into a few issues that I would like to get some feedback on. First, I will provide some background information and then provide my questions that I am seeking feedback on! Your help is greatly appreciated. **BACKGROUND INFO: ** Client has little online visibility and is looking to optimize his Local Business Listings to boost his online presence. Client is a Chiropractor that just registered his own business, has a unique local phone number, his own website. The facility that the Chiropractor works out of is a shared office space, known as a "Wellness Center" This facility has other chiropractors, doctors, & massage therapists who fit the same criteria as my client. I understand that in order to qualify for a local business listings your business must meet **CRITERIA. **This is the only one he does not meet, but the way the businesses are ran, it seems like to me that he should be eligible for local business listings. Have a dedicated physical street address (not a shared address, PO box, or virtual office) I don't understand why a shared address isn't allowed. This seems pretty legit to me. And is similar to a Doctors Office with multi-practitioners but slightly different because they each have their own business not all working for one business owner. All working for themselves. Everyone recently moved and joined this wellness center. Everyone generates their own leads and clientele. One thing to note is that no other business in the wellness center currently has optimized their online presence using this address. But address is present on other business owners websites. If my client uses this address and builds his local listings, is there a chance he can get penalized if the other business owners build their business listings on sites like, yelp, yellowpages, google maps, citysearch, etc. What are the chances of him getting penalized/the entire shared office being penalized due to this shared office space. Your feedback is greatly appreciated! Thank You
Local Listings | | InternetRep0 -
How long until an address changes after verification on Google My Business?
Started working with a company recently that had a Google My Business with an old address. I went ahead and claimed it and verified it with the postcard, but it still shows the old address if search. How long will that be?
Local Listings | | EcommerceSite0 -
Deciding whether to list multiple locations
Hey Mozzers, thanks for your awesome help today. I have another related question to local listings. We're currently rebuilding our website and we have multiple physical locations across the UK. Is it beneficial SEO wise for us to display just one address on our contact page or should we list the 5 addresses that we have? I have also been checking out our local listings and it appears that we have inconsistent listings across the 13 sites that Moz local lists in the UK and then across various other directories. How important is it to get these cleaned up? Cheers in advance Leo
Local Listings | | Leo_Woodhead0 -
Heads up on new Google Local Guidelines
Good Morning All! I'm starting this thread just as a heads-up to all of the super folks in our community who live and breathe Local that Google has just launched one of the bigger overhauls of their quality guidelines that I've seen in some time. I want to be sure no one in our community misses this. Check out: https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en Not only has the title and style of the page undergone a revamp, but don't miss these changes: Google abandons the use of descriptors. Now you see 'em, now you don't. I have to say, I knew from day one that these were not going to last and thought they were a terrible feature for maintaining NAP consistency. Significant tweaks to Google's explanation of choosing categories, including requiring the use of unique categories for different departments. I thought this was interesting because category differentiation has long been a Local SEO tip for reducing the risk of merging. Now, this practice is a guideline. New guidelines for naming practice/practitioner listings ...and a whole lot more! Mike Blumenthal has posted a good little post on the guideline update here: http://blumenthals.com/blog/2014/12/01/google-rolls-out-major-update-to-google-my-business-guidelines/ If you have a minute, check out the changes today, as you may discover you need to make some edits to your Google+ Local pages to be guideline-compliant.
Local Listings | | MiriamEllis4 -
Correlation between ranking on Google organic result page and ranking on the local listing
Hi Moz fans, A quick question: any correlation between ranking on Google organic result page and ranking on the local listing or vise versa? Thnx Saab
Local Listings | | S.Saab0