Getting Listed in Google Places

[GregWalt]

How do I get listed in Google Places if I don't have a physical address?

EG:  I am a medical health insurance company in Colo Springs, Colorado, but service 20 cities?

What is the best procedure?  Getting a mailbox at Mailboxes, etc. or UPS Store?

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Greg,

As Edward has correctly stated, anything other than an actual, physical address is not what Google 'wants'. That being said, there are tons and tons of such listings in their index, but even a cursory glance at Google's spam fighting history over the past two years is a big indication, at least to me, that they are more committed than ever to upholding their guidelines and weeding out anything they consider to be violating them.

So, honestly, it might well be possible to get away with something like this for a month, a year, three years, etc., but taking such a risk means a day of reckoning would be looming over the business ever day and the business owner would never know when to expect their rankings to suddenly tank.

At present, Google is still very much allowing home-based businesses in their index, providing they hide their addresses, so this is probably the most common solution in what I'm assuming is your case. And if you feel concerned about publishing your home address anywhere, here is a list of directories that also allow you to hide your address, and this can help you with your citation building:

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

[edwardrj]

Not a good idea:

http://www.searchinfluence.com/2012/03/google-places-virtual-office/

[GregWalt]

Thank you for the information!  Very helpful.  Do you happen to know if getting a mailbox at a UPS Store would work.  When you get a mailbox here, your address is not PO BOX XYZ, they actually give you a physical address (same as their location), and your mailbox number is a Ste. number.

Thanks for any insight!

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Greg,
In order to qualify for Google+ Local (which was called Google Places in the past), your business needs to meet the following criteria:

• Have a unique, dedicated physical street address (not a shared address, not a virtual address, not a P.O. box or any other type of box)

• Have a unique local area code phone number (not a shared number or toll free number) that matches the city of location

• Have in-person transactions with customers, either at your place of business (like a restaurant) or at their locations (like a plumber.

If your business doesn't meet all of these requirements, you do not qualify for inclusion and should not create a local account.

If you do have in-person transactions with clients and are operating out of your home, and no other businesses are operating out of the same address, you can use your home address and local phone number as your location. However, you must be absolutely sure that you comply with Google's rules regarding hiding your address. All home-based businesses and businesses that go to their clients' locales to serve must choose the hide address function when creating their page or they will be removed or penalized.

And, be sure you create only 1 Google+ Local page for your city of location - do not create other pages for the other cities you serve. That's not allowed.

I recommend that you study the Google's Places Quality Guidelines to be sure you know all the public rules:
http://support.google.com/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=107528

In addition to this, there are 'unwritten' rules that apply to optimizing your Google+ Local Page that require study as well. For example, in writing your business description on the + page, do not put any geographic terms, your business name or any links in the copy. There are a number of little taboos like that that you'll need to be aware of in going into this in order to avoid penalties.

It's so critical to get this right. If Local SEO is all new to you, you might like to read this:

The Rudiments of Local SEO
http://www.solaswebdesign.net/wordpress/?p=1344

Hope this helps!

[edwardrj]

Sign up for Google+ Local using your residential address, and then make your business address private in the listing. This will still list your city and you can set your service area to include the surrounding areas.