Why Your Address Matters for Your Home-Based Business
A common misconception in the marketing world is that if you travel to your customers’ properties for your service, your physical location does not matter. While this may have been the case in the past, in the digital age of marketing, your address plays a huge role in your search ranking. Although many industries do not require clients to come to their location, having a valid base of operations is vital for the success of their online marketing. Electricians, plumbers, photographers, and cleaning companies are a few business types that may not want to expose their physical address but still need to be mindful of it.
Having a consistent name, address, and phone number (NAP) for your business across the Internet plays a huge role in where you fall in the search rankings on Google. With that in mind, Google recognizes that there are many situations where business owners would not want to make their home addresses publicly available. By taking the appropriate steps, you can make sure that your business’ online presence is optimized for Google while also protecting your privacy.
Is Your Business Location-Based or Service-Area Based?
The first step for determining how to set up your business for digital marketing is by distinguishing your company as either location-based or service-area based. The distinguishing factor between the two is do you travel to your clients or do they come to you.
Location-Based
A location-based business is your typical storefront, such as auto shops or restaurants. These businesses rely on customers coming to their location and therefore want to make their address easily accessible. By maintaining a consistent, up to date NAP on the Internet, Google will feel confident in providing your information to its users.
Service-Area Based
A service-area business is the other side of the coin—one that relies on you to travel to your customers’ locations to provide a service. For these types of businesses, you can hide your physical street address from the public, but you still have to use a valid address on the backend of Google. This provides a central point for your online marketing and will help you reach your target customer within your area of operation.
Although it will not be publicly accessible, having a valid and consistent home address for your service-area business is crucial for increasing your online ranking. In addition to this, displaying a physical address for a business that is not a storefront is against Google’s policies, meaning an incorrectly exposed address could be flagged for suspension or removal.
Don’t Search for Workarounds—Strive for Accuracy!
Understandably, some business owners are wary about attaching their home addresses to their online presence. Whether it is for privacy concerns or perhaps you live outside of your service area, some people choose to search for alternative addresses to use for their business. Although renting a virtual or shared office space or getting a PO box might seem like a good fix, it will often create more problems in the long run and risk your business being flagged for suspension.
LinkNow’s local department can help bring order to your online presence. Our experts are here to assist with any incorrect, outdated, or invalid addresses connected to your business online. Contact us today to clean up your citations, boost your online presence, and increase your rankings.
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