Local SEO - Confirming an Address that Does Not Receive Mail
-
Hi guys, I have a question that might have been asked previously but warrants asking again.
What is the best workaround for Google Local verification for a business that is located at a physical address that does not receive mail. I have a friend who lives in an area that does not receive mail.
This particular person tried using a local PO box to verify, but as it turns out that is a poor option a) because it is not allowed within the guidelines of Google Local, and b) because the listing was not accepted as a unique address and is listed without an address in Local because of this.
Is there anyone with recent experience in terms of getting around this and verifying perfectly legitimate businesses in no-mail areas?
I would have thought Google would have provided a workaround for those types of businesses.
Any thoughts / experience would be appreciated!
-
You are very welcome, Todd. I hope this works out for you and your client.
Miriam
-
Thanks a ton Miriam! Totally makes sense...
Best.
Todd -
Hi Todd,
Thanks for coming to Q&A with your good question. I'm the Local SEO Associate here in the forum.Interestingly, your question comes in at a time when Google has just made a rather major change to their guidelines. This update happened just a week or so ago. In 2010, Google's guidelines for physical address read this way:
Do not create listings at locations where the business does not physically exist. P.O. Boxes are not considered accurate physical locations. Listings submitted with P.O. Box addresses will be removed.
So, P.O. Boxes were totally out.
Then, on Feb 10 of this year, they published this new guideline (actually, they published a new guideline on the 8th, but then changed the wording of it on the 10th):
Do not create a listing or place your pin marker at a location where the business does not physically exist. P.O. Boxes are not considered accurate physical locations. If you operate from a location but receive mail at a mail box there, please list your physical address in Address Line 1, and put your mail box or suite number in Address Line 2.
So, according to most interpretations of the new guidelines, you are now allowed to put a P.O. Box as the second line in your address. Presumably, this means that if Google's verification postcard will reach you there. Now, this just happened, and I have yet to hear from anyone that they've successfully done it, but this would be the right time for you and your client to give it a shot. For the first time, there is a chance it will work.
You can read more about the guideline updates in this good article and discussion at Mike Blumenthal's blog:
http://blumenthals.com/blog/2012/02/10/google-places-rescinds-po-box-rule-change/
Hope this helps! The very real problem of areas of the country not receiving mail delivery is one I have blogged about in the past, and I'm glad to see Google trying to offer some type of solution. Hope it works!
Miriam
-
About 2 years ago I tried to validate 6 locations for clients - a month passes and there was no sign of any mail from Google. So I tried the verification by phone (SMS) and it worked. This might have changed now but find out if the SMS verification option is available for you as it depends if your listing is an old one or if you just created it (bad luck!).
You can also try phone verification if you haven't already used it to validate other locations for 3 times. Make sure you have enough citations (local directory listings, etc) to have a higher likelyhood of being considered as a legit place.
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
-
Local Really?
I've asked this question before and got some strong advice ( I think ) but the results have been not so strong. I'm looking for advice on local. I have this profile: https://plus.google.com/u/0/114370561649922317296/about That I need to rank for "austin wedding photographers" and I have yet to figure out a way to get it to move on the map results. I understand these things take time, but its been a couple of months, and as far as I can tell, its still ranking on page 10 of the "local results" (meaning you search for austin wedding photographers, then click under the map listings to see Google Maps with the listings to the left.) Furthermore, all my organic competition for the most part is now on the local results and the map is ranking higher than all but one organic. Suggestions would be a huge plus. Last time some folks analyzed the google plus local page and gave some tips. Since then a few things have happened. 1. I notice most of the Google Local listings that come up on page 1 in the map have a similar page when clicking "more info." They mostly have a map as their cover photo on their listing. 2. Google has merged my Google Places and Google Plus Local account so that when you click "more info" on the listing (on page 10) it takes you too the branded Google Plus Local page. I like this, but it worries me that most of the high ranking pages don't have this. 3. I have added a Geo Sitemap to Google Webmaster tools but it doesn't show as indexed yet. I understand this can take up to 6 weeks? Does this help? It came when I bought Yoast SEO Local and generated KML files. 4. The address for Google Plus local is real address of a home, so Google doesn't show the specific address. I used to have a mailbox center as the address but was advised to fix that. I have sense changed the address on as many sites as I could (Yelp, YP, Superpages, etc.) 5. Do I need an address on the website? The client does not want her home address listed anywhere for privacy reasons. Hope this is enough information for someone with knowledge to help. The website is ranking first page (3 or 4 organically) for the terms I need for the most part but Local seems to be stronger. Thanks in advance.
Image & Video Optimization | | jonnyholt0 -
On-page Local SEO
I'm wondering how to pull it off on-page local SEO for a financial institution website with 70 locations. However, they are broken in down in regions, which would make it easier to get our hands around. Would a viable solution be setting up regional pages? I don't know about our CMS capability, but it seems like it would be beneficial to have on each regional page aggregate local-centric press releases (example: a volunteer event or recognition) and local announcements such as paper shred days. Thoughts? Anyone else posed with a similar challenge?
Image & Video Optimization | | SSFCU0 -
Video SEO, should I do what Roger does?
As per http://www.seomoz.org/blog/hosting-and-embedding-for-video-seo I want to rank with a rich snippet and improve my domain's overall ranking. So I am going to ignore YouTube and use Vimeo Pro (using old embed code). I will also submit a video XML sitemap and implement schema markup. Gotcha. Now let's check this strategy with what SEOmoz is doing. Let's take 5 Steps to Facebook Advertising - Whiteboard Friday it was uploaded onto the SEOmoz blog on 29 March 2013. Then on 4 April 2013 it was uploaded onto YouTube. As at 7 April 2013 (PST) I am not seeing the latest SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday Evolution of the Local Algorithm - Whiteboard Friday posted on YouTube. SEOmoz blog has a person written transcription, YouTube has an automatic transcript. There is a link to the SEOmoz comments below the YouTube Video. Cricky! They've gone all YouTube. Stop the boat. Or should I? My assumption is that SEOmoz is big enough so that it is willing to risk losing a few links to their YouTube webpages. Indeed they delay posting the video on YouTube for a week after it has been posted on the SEOmoz blog. What's more it ensures that there is a very good transcript on their blog. Top that off with comments (and I assume video sitemap and schema) and it is happy it will gain more from the traffic generated from the YouTube community than the potential loss of links to its domain, forgoing potential domain authority increases and resulting traffic. So Roger, I'm a little boat not a SEOmoz battleship cruiser, should I do what you do and wait for a week before I put my videos on YouTube? Or avoid the dangerous currents of YouTube stealing my domain authority and ignore YouTube all together?
Image & Video Optimization | | BruceMcG0 -
Should I be submitting to Google Places AND Google + Local?
I hear there is a merging between Google Places and Google + but I still see a sign up page for Google Places is live? Could anyone tell me if I should be submitting to both Google + Local and Places please?
Image & Video Optimization | | Clicksjim1 -
City/Town content pages for a local business
Earlier this month I asked a private question on the use of schema for service area pages on a home improvement contractors website. The question led to Miriam Ellis giving me some great ideas about creating content for pages specific to the clients service area. The goal here would be to rank for [roofing contractor + city] using a URL similar to: mycompany.com/service-areas/city-state A great idea Miriam gave me for creating content for these pages: Showcasing a previous project in that city/town with a well-written project description, photos, videos and client testimonials. Her advice is excellent and I wanted to share it with you. I also wanted to open up the discussion and see what others have had success with. If the company is relatively new, and doesn’t have the work history to create pages such as this, what would you do?
Image & Video Optimization | | WilliamCarr0 -
Local Search Citations
Hi Is there a checker where it will show what local citation sites a Google Places listing has? My listing has been claimed on the likes of Yelp, Qype etc but I doubt if the others above me have as they have not even claimed their places account The reason being is that it can only be the local citations that is causing the following listing - or if there is anything else I would be interested to learn what it is? http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/place?hl=en&safe=active&prmd=imvns&resnum=5&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&biw=1280&bih=828&wrapid=tlif132205140339110&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=chartered+accountants+swansea&fb=1&gl=uk&hq=chartered+accountants&hnear=0x486e45555a4e97b1:0x3d77128e2fe7cb74,Swansea,+Neath+Port+Talbot&cid=7535215611406218142&ei=T-fMTvTbC4zA8QOpwLz6Dw&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=placepage-link&resnum=2&ved=0CEIQ4gkwAQ to appear above http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=chartered%20accountants%20swansea&source=web&cd=7&ved=0CG8QFjAG&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.harrisbassett.co.uk%2Fcontact-harris-bassett.htm&ei=BufMToaLEtTY8QPQ9JjXDw&usg=AFQjCNHH86xx6pmUJ2BBODG_LGHeSL7RYg on a search for chartered accountants swansea
Image & Video Optimization | | idv0 -
Multi-site listings in Google Local/Place pages
I've had problems with a client that is a local medical center with multiple sites/addresses. We've created a Place Page for each location and linked it to the location page on the client's website that matches the address on the Place page. But that means we're not linking to the medical center's home page -- and Google Places doesn't like that. I know this because after we'd owner-verified each Place Page, Google went in and just changed the website link that was a deep link to a location page and replaced it with a link to the home page. But now there's not an address match. How should we handle this? Related question: Does it make sense to claim a separate listing in Yelp and other local directories for each of the separate locations since they each have a unique address? Will Yelp & other local directories allow for links to non-home pages on the client's website?
Image & Video Optimization | | DenisL0 -
Meaning Behind Google Local Search Results Icons?
I can't seem to easily find this answer anywhere (even in the Google Places FAQ page), so thought I'd stop digging around and simply ask it here: What are the meanings behind the icons to the right of the link and to the left of the "place page" link in Google's local search results? I see a checkmark/question mark in a circle, then a bar chart with various levels filled in, then a dollar sign in a circle, then a magnifying glass. 1. What are these telling me, as a searcher? 2. What are they telling the owner of the business? Thank you for your help; I just can't seem to find a reference for this...
Image & Video Optimization | | keethgee0