Advanced SEO - Locations vs Service Areas

[murraycustomhomescom]

Hi we have a Roofing business that has an office "corporate headquarters" in Lincoln Nebraska-  We have also setup service areas or "address locations" in other states and cities we service.

The remote addresses we have are through the UPS store locations giving us an address in the areas- Knowing that Google GMB wants us to list these as service locations and not physical addresses- they have told me directly we are setup okay with separate GMB pages for each location- they say we just need to "hide" the addresses in GMB.

Question: If we "hide" the local address on "all" of the local listings how will this affect the local SEO? It seems like not having a physical office will hurt the local presence- or moreso- having an actual office will help it?   Can anyone give input and opinion of setting up "Service Areas" vs "Locations" as it relates to SEO and SERP placement?

Many thanks in advance.

[MiriamEllis]

Hello Larry,

Thank you for bringing your question to the forum. I'd like to address this in two parts:

1. I'm honestly concerned that a Google support rep has given you bad advice. This does happen. P.O. boxes are not considered valid addresses and are expressly cited as ineligible by Google's guidelines which read:

"Use a precise, accurate address and/or service area to describe your business location. P.O. boxes or mailboxes located at remote locations are not acceptable."

So, unless I'm missing some aspect of your business model, what the Google rep told you is incorrect. As I've said, this sort of thing does happen, and I'm concerned that your listings could be removed at any time for a guideline violation and this could even possibly prejudice Google against your account, in general, including its legitimate listing in Lincoln. So, I think this is the biggest problem you face right now and in your shoes, if you want a second opinion I would do the following. Go to Google's Forum and  title your thread: Gold Product Experts, Did a Google Rep Steer Me Wrong? Then, in the post, share the information about your business listings and repeat the advice that was given to you. Gold Product Experts are Google's top-level forum volunteers and the best source of an educated second opinion when something Google says seems off.

I strongly guess they will point to the guidelines I've indicated and that you will end up removing these listings as ineligible. You're not alone in facing some confusion surrounding this, and I believe a read-through of my recent Moz blog post on the topic of wanting to rank beyond your physical location could help you level up your strategy regarding this common challenge. See: https://moz.com/blog/rank-beyond-location

2. Your second question regarding hiding/showing your address is the center of a discussion that's been going on for many years in the local search marketing industry. On the surface of things, hiding your address is not supposed to negatively impact your ability to get your listing ranking well. However, I can personally say that I have seen enough evidence to the contrary to convince me that hiding your address can, indeed, negatively impact your rankings. There are some local SEOs who strongly believe that doing so can even doom the listing. So, know that your question is valid, but that the topic is controversial, with experts frequently stating that hidden addresses do negatively impact the ranking scenario.

I hope this is helpful. If you have any follow-up questions, I hope you'll ask!