Google Places/Affiliate/Partner Site
-
Hello,
We are looking at the possibility of renting or leasing a small office but we're not quite at that point yet. We would like to take add Google Places/G+ by adding an address & phone number giving us more real estate for the small Brand we are trying to build. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what we could add?
Thanks in Advance!
-
I think Miriam nailed it.
Smart advice as well using a home address is not a bad idea at all. Think of all the fantastic companies that started it either in the garage Which Google would consider their home / place of business.
If you have a legitimate local listing your all set as you grow and acquire an office or whatever type of facility it is that you need to do business in you will have no problem with Google when making the change.
Sincerely,
Thomas
-
Hi Little Bigman,
You've asked a good question. Let me refer you to Google's own guidelines regarding this scenario:
Business Location: Use a precise, accurate address to describe your business location.
- 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.Your business location should be staffed during its stated hours.
- Exceptions to the above are self-serve businesses such as ATMs or video-rental kiosks. If adding these locations, you should include contact information for customers to get help.
- If you need to specify a mail box or suite number within your physical location, please list your physical address in Address Line 1, and put your mail box or suite number in Address Line 2.
- Use the precise address for the business in place of broad city names or cross-streets.
- Do not create more than one listing for each business location, either in a single account or multiple accounts.
- Individual practitioners may be listed individually as long as those practitioners are public-facing within their parent organization. Common examples of such practitioners are doctors, dentists, lawyers, and real estate agents. The practitioner should be directly contactable at the verified location during stated hours. A practitioner should not have multiple listings to cover all of his or her specializations.
- Departments within businesses, universities, hospitals, and government buildings may be listed separately. These departments must be publicly distinct as entities or groups within their parent organization, and ideally will have separate phone numbers and/or customer entrances.
- Businesses that operate in a service area should create one listing for the central office or location and designate service areas. If you wish to display your complete business address while setting your service area(s), your business location should be staffed and able to receive customers during its stated hours. Google will determine how best to display your business address based on your inputs as well as inputs from other sources. Learn how to add service areas to your listing.
- If you don't conduct face-to-face business at your location, you must select "Yes, this business serves customers at their locations" under the "Service Areas and Location Settings" section of your dashboard, and then select the "Do not show my business address on my Maps listing" option.
- Do not include information in address lines that does not pertain to your business’s physical location (e.g. URLs, keywords).
- Anytime the address for your business changes, you’ll have to verify again. You also won’t be able to update the business’s name until the verification process is complete.
So, basically, it's fine if you rent a small office, so long as it is staffed and accepts walk-in traffic during your listed business hours. Any other arrangement (with the exception of ATM machines!) is not allowed. Using virtual offices or P.O. boxes is strictly forbidden. Better to use your home address if you're just starting out and then go through the procedures for trying to have the address not displayed, if you have privacy concerns. Fortunately, this is one area in which Google's guidelines, above, are totally clear. Hope it helps to read them. You can access the complete guidelines here: https://support.google.com/places/answer/107528?hl=en
- 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.Your business location should be staffed during its stated hours.
-
Google has access to property records they can figure things out pretty quickly I would not try to trick them.
According to Google you have to do face-to-face business at your Google local place of business.
No one has ever accused Google of being a stupid company and I would suggest following their guidelines. Which state that you cannot use a PO box for Google local
https://support.google.com/places/answer/107528?hl=en
how to create a listing and remember they will send you a postcard most likely.
https://support.google.com/places/answer/142906
If you are on the up and up and you want to start off right with Google local wait until you have legitimate place of business there.
Think about damage could be done if you are caught doing the wrong thing. I would wait until you meet the guidelines and then sign up for Moz local after creating a G plus local page
Sincerely,
Thomas
-
We Do currently have a PO Box but Im not sure it will work? If we do eventually rent a space how hard is it to change?
-
If you decide to go down the route of creating a fictitious address, you may find hard to get a real one approved if you get caught out. They are getting stricter. In the past you could use a mailbox if you didnt have a real 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
-
Google my business phone reporting? Doesnt cross state lines.
We have a branch in Toledo Ohio, which is close to the Michigan border. Cleary we get calls for direction from Michigan customers. However, our phone reporting does not cross the state line. Any ideas? This happens at other branches that cross state lines as well.
Reviews and Ratings | | bakergraphix_yahoo.com0 -
Do Product Ratings or Reviews Improve Google Rankings?
The is a lot of info on the web about how business reviews/ratings improve local search result rankings. However do product ratings or reviews improve PDP/PLP/Homepage (not local) rankings?
Reviews and Ratings | | rigelcable0 -
Review stars dropped off in Google from Rich Snippets (started in October '17 - Jan '18 timeframe)
Our review stars from Rich Snippets are not showing up in Google for Novus products. I believe these are structured correctly or at least there are no errors. We have tried to troubleshoot on our own and asked multiple SEO'er's and partners, but have not had success. Turning to MOZ! They were there in September/October timeframe but dropped off in October to January timeframe. example URL: https://www.google.com/search?q=hif+1+alpha+antibody&oq=hif+1+alpha+antibod (It seems to be off all products); This started in October to January time frame so was before the latest algo update.
Reviews and Ratings | | revelkayla0 -
Google My Business - Switching from Local to National Presence
Hi, Before I started with my current employer (a national B2B company), someone set them up with a Google My Business page that has resulted in the home office appearing as a local search result. As a result, our competitors have a much more professional national Knowledge Graph sidebar complete with logo, Wikipedia blurb, social links, etc. displayed while we have a local result with reviews, images, and Google Map location. Since we are a B2B business with a national presence, I am trying to transition from the local to broader company Knowledge Graph result, but I'm struggling to find information on the best steps to remove the local result. While the reviews are improving, this is a service-based business with a B2C element when it comes to end users, so historical reviews have been unkind -- to the point that I'd like to make the transition to a national presence not only to better reflect the entire region we serve, but also to remove as much review visibility as possible. The only option in Google My Business I've seen so far is to report the business as being closed, which, of course, it is not. I know a big Step 1 is to get a new Wikipedia page for the business created. (The company is legitimately deserving of one. I'm still trying to find the most effective approach to tackling this without violating Wikipedia policies. ) Outside of that step, however, is there any sort of process someone can recommend for tackling this local-to-nation Google transition? Thanks, Andrew
Reviews and Ratings | | Andrew_In_Search_of_Answers1 -
Adding Google Reviews to Testimonials Page
Can anyone verify if it is allowable to add Google reviews to your testimonials page? I know you can't use schema on these reviews. If it is allowable, should these be images so that they don't get indexed and flag duplicate content? Thank you in advance for your help. Rita
Reviews and Ratings | | AAEPA20110 -
Snap Pack & Yelp/Angie's list Page authority
Hey gang, First off thank you for any advice. I know we are all busy trying to make our money so I really appreciate everyone who chimes in. Links to studies and articles are also much appreciated. So. I am by no mean an SEO expert, I prefer to dabble in outreach and authentic link building campaigns. So you can imagine my frustration when I pull off a successful campaign, get about 4 or 5 great real links, raise in organic, but don't budge on the maps. I have noticed something. 1. My competition's yelp page has a couple more reviews than me (btw it's a locksmith site, I know it's a rather spammy industry, I don't do black hat...) BUT their yelp Page Authority is like 46! Same thing with their angies list, BBB, etc etc. MINE IS 1 across the board. Now I know the internet is changing. There is usually no reason for a locksmith site to have a viral blog. Google is looking toward more Citation based authority for local ranking factors. (Or at least that's what they say, I feel like their algorithm is not yet advanced enough to catch all the spammers.) So I am going to have an ethics meeting with my company and make sure we are alwyas treating our customers fabulously as well as sometimes intentionally asking for a review, not just on google, but across all of our web 2.0 platforms. BUT How do I get MY page authority on these directories higher? By back linking to them? DO you guys think these companies actually had campaigns to get links to these directories? Did they just PBN em'? Am I stuck in 2013!? Much love guys.
Reviews and Ratings | | Meier0 -
URL Structure for a local listing site
Hi - We have a site that offers customers with wide range of local businesses information. We have URL structure for those these days like this - site.com/listings/plumbers/ca/sfo However here the "listings" doesn't add any value and are confusing for users who want to remember it, hence we decided to make it cleaner. The question here is, which one of the two should we do and why? site.com/plumbers/ca/sfo or site.com/ca/sfo/plumbers Any help on this matter would help.
Reviews and Ratings | | nunoz0 -
Google plus review - how to ask
I found a way (finally!) to find out which of my customers who have a gmail account have also a Google plus account. That helps a lot. We use to send handout reviews or video instructions about how to create a Google plus account...and it didn't go to well. Now that we know they have a G+ account , all we have to do is ask for a review; how to do this?
Reviews and Ratings | | echo1
What are the latest strategies so that the review will stay there? have them log in, search for the business name and write the review? give them the direct link? is the searcher's path important? should we look for users who are engaged more in their circles? Thanks!0