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
-
Why won't a business show up in the local pack when all signs point to that it should?
Hello! I've been trying to figure out why a business won't show up in the local pack even though their GMB has more reviews, seems to be doing everything right, and just doesn't show. The business is "A Senior Journey", and should be showing up for searches relating to "senior placement services tucson" or "senior placement tucson", but no dice. Been doing a competitor analysis and they are doing better or on par with all of their competitors. The same businesses in Tucson that are competitors show up both times, even Phoenix locations, but not A Senior Journey...any ideas? Thank you!
Local Listings | | WebMO-Tech-Rep0 -
Business has one toll free number, but multiple locations
Hello, The business I work for has one toll free number (it's addiction treatment) but multiple locations. How do I handle NAP? Clients that want help call a toll free number and get recommended to specific locations. Thanks!
Local Listings | | lfrazer1230 -
Local Optimization for Multiple Businesses Issues/Strategy
Hello Everyone, So we have a client with a geo-focused ‘sports’ site but they also have a second site they are using to promote the seasonal camps they run. Local demographics and traffic would be a priority and main source of traffic. We know it would be ideal to have all of it consolidated but in this case a separate site was needed. The camp site would be under a different Name but they do not really have a different physical location from the primary site. Assuming we can’t find a discernable different location we could use; from a local optimization perspective we have two questions: Does that mean that we shouldn’t venture into local listings that need an address and trying to rank for map results and instead shift focus to other local strategies (i.e. geo-relevant content, link acquisition….etc.)? – We don’t want to dilute or devalue the primary site at all but if possible would like to be able to come up for both. Should we avoid listing the address on the camp site as text for similar reasons? We know the same business could be listed for multiple locations but any suggestions on the opposite approach or input would be very appreciated. Please let us know if there is anything we could provide details for that might help. Looking forward to hearing from all of you! Thank you in advance. Best,
Local Listings | | Ben-R0 -
NAP-safe way to display second address (P.O. box) on website?
I understand that only listing one address on a company website helps maintain NAP consistency, but is there a way to safely have a second address listed? A client of ours recently asked us if we could put their P.O. box address up on their website, so that THEIR clients would be able to conveniently look it up when mailing in documents, paperwork, checks, etc. They presently have their physical office address listed on their site, as well as in local listings. One idea we had would be to have the P.O. box address listed only on an image, so the crawler won't see the address, but there are potential accessibility issues with that solution. Would any specific kinds of markup or meta tags prevent the P.O. box from getting picked up and causing NAP confusion in local listings? Or am I simply overthinking this one? Thanks!
Local Listings | | BrianAlpert780 -
Multiple Business Listings at the same address - Negative or Positive?
Hi everyone Does anyone have any experience of working with multiple business listings at the same address? It's making me itch my head! I work for a travel agency and we have multiple websites for different holiday types/destinations. I want to add business listings for the businesses but I'm concerned that it could have negative effects from the businesses sharing the same address and sometimes the same phone number. Has anyone got any pointers on this, if will effect rankings or my SEO strategy. Thanks!
Local Listings | | Steve-Witt0 -
Creating a Google My Business listing in a used location
Hi! We're expanding our business and opening a new office. The location of that office is a shared office with another company, Will it be possible to verify the listing in Google My Business even tough there's a verified business there?
Local Listings | | OrendaLtd0 -
Does business name capitalisation count when making sure you have the same NAP across all directories ?
We've got a UK company with a company name like the following "ABC cars" (3 letter capitalised name followed by a word). With the Thompson local directory (one of the top 10 uk directories for local NAPs (and listed as a direct partner in Moz Local)) they dont allow you to have multiple capitalised letters in a company name. As far as i can see there are a few options to get around this : A B C Cars Abc Cars abc Cars (or abc cars) But none of them are ideal, as they dont match the actual name as listed on all of sites 100% in terms capitalisation. Which one of the above (or other) would be the best solution ? Does capitalisation count when people say your NAP must match ?
Local Listings | | mike8780 -
Do You Know What's Triggering Your Local Packs?
Hey To All My Local Pals, Here 🙂 Recently, I watched a totally fascinating LocalU video in which Mike Blumenthal introduced a hypothesis that there may be a way to analyze what, specifically, is triggering a specific local pack. Now, Mike is stating that correlation is not causation in explaining this, but basically what he starts talking about at around 4:40 in the video is that what you are seeing rank well in the local packs may be demonstrably caused by what you see ranking organically beneath the pack, or may be caused by totally different signals. Mike says, _"If you're seeing the top 10 results are all IYP industry sites, and there's a pack showing, and the highest local site is 24 or something in organic, it's unlikely that that's what's triggering the pack. And so then you want to look at third-party triggers and see if that's what's actually triggering the pack." _ Obviously, all of us who do Local are familiar with the idea that a tremendous variety of elements contribute to pack rankings, but I am particularly intrigued by the idea of looking at the organic result beneath a pack and determining that there is little or no correlation between them, and this then driving one to look elsewhere for contributing factors. In a recent response to another thread here on Q&A, I discussed some common local pack ranking failure causes when organic rank is high. What I'd love to see is whether, if you look at some of your clients' desired packs, can you tell if organic signals are driving them, or can you see that it's not organic signals driving the pack, as Mike suggests. What, in those cases, does appear to be driving the packs? I'd be so interested in a discussion on this. What do you see? What do you think of Mike's suggestions?
Local Listings | | MiriamEllis9