I don't have a business address, Any problem?
-
I am targeting local area, Melbourne in Australia.
My business address is my private (home) address and I don't want to list it as we don't have a shopfront, and I don't want my personal address online. Is there a way to get around this?
Web site - brandstenmedia.com.au
Services - Aerial Photography & Videography
-
Hello,
I often list my address, even though we don't serve customers from the address. There are a couple of reasons for this; firstly it strengthens your brand identity and gives people confidence that your business is real, and second because there is no other reliable way to get local search on your side. If you use another address this may look odd and make people suspicious about the business. If you do list your address you can set up your site for people to contact you in the ways that you wish, rather than by coming to your address, if that's what you prefer.
-
No worries, Hashtag
We're all learners!
-
This is true! I guess I should clarify.
My answer was presuming, that "Aerial Photography & Videography" was also located in the same area they are targeting. That being said, using their own home, and the shipping address of the P.O. Box for all business inquiries would allow them to still remain separate from their home. I should have clarified that.
When you assume you make a buttocks out of me and myself in this case!
My apologies!!
-
Hey Hashtag - Important to note here that in Local SEO, P.O. boxes are taboo. Forbidden by Google's guidelines. So, in this case, P.O. boxes are not a solution.
-
A business address is HUGE for local search. At least get a PO Box and use that. Its cheap.
-
If you are trying to get a local search result, having a local address will be immensely beneficial, why not grab yourself a P.O. box? Could be a quick fix and a physical address!
-
Hi Landon!
Important question here - I understand that you don't want to have you address displayed, but are you at least physically located in Melbourne or are you located in a different city? Please, let us know!
-
Hi there
You can take a look at business listings through Whitespark and Service Area Maps through Google.
I would also take a look at different local business listings or citations that you can get through various city or art/photography partnerships. Do you work with local businesses that would be willing to lend testimonials?
You should also take a look at this resource from Moz.
It's not bad that you don't have a address listed, but it will make your job a bit harder. If your onsite and content allude to Melbourne and businesses in that area, you should be just fine. Remember to take advantage of image schema and sitemaps as well, so you can add descriptions and titles alluding to Melbourne or various local areas.
Hope this helps! Good luck!
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
-
How Do I Remove Address from Google Business Page?
Not very up to date in handling local listings, so here's my situation. I have an office that is not going out of business, but instead going virtual. So that physical address will no longer exist but the team is intact. So I am dealing with the Google Business Listing page for this office at https://business.google.com/ In the "Published on" section, it has Google Search, Google Maps, and Google+. I want to remove it from Maps and the address from this account. There's an address for this store, but editing it only seems to allow changing, but not removal. There is also the option of "Mark as Permanently Closed", but surely that isn't the best option since that will leave a nasty red "PERMANENTLY CLOSED" in the results when searching. What's the best course of action here?
Local Listings | | nbyloff0 -
Should add Schema markup to my sites Business Directory?
I'm adding a Business Directory to my ecom site to show where the product can be purchased/used. Some listings are stores where you can purchase others are restaurants, bars and spas the product can be used. My question is should I add relevant Schema markup for each listing? My thoughts are yes but wanted feedback from the community.
Local Listings | | ColeBField
Thanks0 -
"state" abbreviation in Google My Business for Irish/UK locations
Hi guys I have a question about one of the required bulk upload fields for Google My Business Locations: "State". We are covering Ireland and the UK and we don't have states, more provinces and counties. Any ideas what to enter in to this field? For example, for a shop in Dublin Ireland should it be Dublin (the county) Leinster (the provence) for the "State" field? And how are these abbreviated? Should I just enter IE or GB for all entries in the state field?
Local Listings | | AdiRste0 -
How to handle Local SEO when two businesses merge
Hi, I have a landscaping client who is buying another company and merging the two companies together. I trying to figure what the best way to handle this type of situation is. Here are the specifics. Company A I've been working with him for a number of years, he has a really robust site with good content and with really good rankings. I've done a ton of citations, he's in good shape. His company has decent name recognition. Company B My client is buying Company B. Their site is really poor, no SEO done on site and no directory listing work. The company has great name recognition in the community and gets most clients through word of mouth. My client has decided to take Company B's name because its a more well known company. He is going to merge the companies, because he doesn't want to have 2 companies from a management standpoint. He plans to keep both physical locations open. So here are my questions. Do I keep both sites live for a period of time and put a message notifying people that "Company A is now Company B Name"? OR Do I transfer all the good content from Company A's site to Company B's site and do a 301 redirect of the URL. How should I handle the data aggregators and directory listings? I'm trying to keep all the great natural traffic that Company A gets to its site, start to build traffic around company B's location while following all of Google's policies. I could just start over and in the long-term they'd be fine, but I really love to find a strategy to avoid my client taking a big hit in organic traffic. Thanks in advance Mozzers!
Local Listings | | JohnWeb121 -
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 -
Will changing my business location affect my ranking for localised searches in my original area?
I run a mobile outdoor personal training service in London, UK (i.e. no bricks and mortar gym). Or, rather, my business is in London (all my clients and the freelance trainers that work for me) but I'm personally due to move out to the county of Suffolk. As I work from a home office and my company's registered address is my home, that means I have to inform Companies House and various government agencies that the company has moved. Does this mean: a) I also must tell Google the company has moved, and; b) if I do will Google start to see my website as being for a Suffolk-based company? I really don't want this to happen: my clientele are mostly in London., I still want to market to Londoners. And if I want to expand the areas covered by my company, Suffolk is not high on my list. You'll excuse me if this is a simple question! Thanks for any help you could give
Local Listings | | fionadoggett0 -
Backlink Problem
In my Google webmaster tools for backlinks to my site there is this website. rcourier.com which shows 97,000 backlinks. When I dig deeper it in GWT it shows urls lick this http://www.ebrandtopmall.com/?from=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rcourier.com%2Fus%2Fhgsoccerbox926.asp%3F35401&q=Borussia+Dortmund+Training+Jersey+2014–2015+(Black)+|+Soccer+Box I cannot find any backlinks to my site if I view the source code. I cannot understand why Google should link this to my website. Should I be worried and what should i do about it? Thank you in advance.
Local Listings | | Palmbourne0 -
How do URL's influence Google Rankings?
Hi There, I have a new client who wishes to rank in Google UK for 'Antique Fireplaces London'. Currently they rank 49th. They do not know their logins for Google Local (where they have 40+ positive reviews). And have very mess social activity (which i am trying to sort out). The domain is around 8 years old - website has just been redone (drupal) where a lot of the former SEO errors were corrected) but they seem to be outranked by much newer websites that have much lower domain authority and less inbound links. My client also has much more recognition in online trade magazines and newspapers than most of their competitors. Would buying some additional domains with the keywords they wish to rank for help? Or will this look dodgy to google? Any other quick tips to give them a boost?
Local Listings | | skehoe0