How to add business address in local directories for consistent NAP

[catherine-279388]

Hi Mozers

I keep puzzling over this one!  I work from home and really don't want to plaster my address all over the web.  The GP page now allows for me to hide my exact location, which is great.  However, as far as I can see this is not the case with all the potential local directories and listings.

I have been trying in to get around this by not adding my house number and last digit and 2 characters of my post code.  So far this has been allowed by the local listings I have signed up with.

When I tried doing as recommended by the excellent Miriam and checking my business name with 'Getlisted' I found that I could only see these local listings if I added the doctored address, i.e. no house number or full postcode.

My question, finally is, if I continue in this fashion for businesses based at home addresses am I going to confuse the search engines.  I want to provide a consistent NAP but GPP insists that I add a full postcode.  The only way I could possible see around this is to add:

street name

city

full postcode

and omit the house name/number.

Will this be a reasonable work around to maintain client confidentiality and satisfy the NAP requirement of Local search?

[MiriamEllis]

You are very welcome, Catherine. I'm so glad to help!

Miriam

[catherine-279388]

Dear Miriam

Totally awesome reply - as usual:)

Thanks

Catherine

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Catherine!

You guessed it - by publishing a incomplete address, you will definitely confuse the search engines. I sympathize with the wish not to reveal a home address. I value privacy, but desire for this is at loggerheads with wanting visibility, unfortunately. So, you have 3 options:

1. Don't participate in local.

2. Only list your business in those directories which allow you to hide your address. A number of the top ones do allow hiding the address, just like Google does.

3. Decide that you've got to give up privacy for the sake of inclusion in all the local directories.

What you've been doing with listing a partial address just isn't a good idea. Here is a really excellent post from Local Visibility System:

http://www.localvisibilitysystem.com/2012/08/13/can-you-rank-well-in-local-google-without-revealing-your-street-address-anywhere/

I think you will find that post to be totally awesome for your situation. Good luck!

Miriam