Does Google Penalize for Hiding Address?

[JohnWeb12]

I have a situation where a client is working out of their home. I know that Google does not like when you list a business with a home address so we have hidden the address on Google, but are wondering if Google penalizes businesses for hiding it?

When listing them to other directories we do our best to find ones that we can hide the first line of the address. But does that matter? Should we just be listing to our normal directories with the address visible?

Does a mix of hidden addresses and visible ones hurt your rankings?

Thanks in advance for your help!

[RyanPurkey]

Is the client taking walk-in traffic at home?  If not--i.e. the address isn't necessary for people to visit--I would approach your client with the idea of purchasing a mail box service to use as the business address.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi John!

Good questions. I'll answer it in 3 parts for the sake of organization:

1. No - Google does not penalize anyone for hiding their address. If the business does not receive customers at a staffed location during stated hours of operation, then not hiding the address is a violation of Google's guidelines (see: https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en) and this violation is what could lead to possible action on Google's part. So, don't think of hiding the address as something that will incur a penalty.

2. That being said, there is a school of thought in the Local SEO world that in a scenario of uneven competition, businesses with a staffed, physical office that welcomes customers during stated business hours may have a slight advantage over competitors who do not have these amenities and are therefore hiding their address in compliance with Google's guidelines. So, the nuance to understand here is that if in the 7 or 3 packs in your client's industry/geography, some competitors can show their address while others have to hide it, the former may have some advantage. No one knows the exact degree of this hypothetical advantage, but it may exist. On the other hand, if in your client's packs, all of their competitors are in the same boat and are having to hide their addresses, the playing field is completely even so no one has any hypothetical advantage. It just depends on what the field of competition is like in your client's packs.

3. To my knowledge, Google is the only major engine with this hidden address requirement. For any other local business platform, the choice to display or hide the address is a personal one. Your clients can be broken down into two categories, when it comes to this:

a- Client has privacy concerns and doesn't want their street address displayed anywhere. In this case, the Local SEO on the project will need to stick to building citations only on those platforms that support hidden addresses.

b- Client has no privacy concerns and doesn't care if their street address is displayed in various places. In this case, there are no restrictions on where you can build citations.

Obviously, client B is at an advantage, because he will be able to create citations in more places.

Hope this breakdown helps clarify your options.

[MiriamEllis]

Hey Ryan!

I've really been enjoying your super contributions of late to the community. Just terrific! I want to include a little addendum here ... advice regarding using mailboxes might bear more investigation. Google wants all addresses to represent a physical location ... not a P.O. box, UPS box or what have you, so this might be something to research further. Thought I would mention, and thanks again for your recent generous contributions to so many local discussions!

[RyanPurkey]

Hi Miriam. Thanks! Honestly, the mailbox advice was a consideration purely from a privacy stand point as I wouldn't recommend anyone to use their home address for any business based activity regardless of what Google recommends.

But you're absolutely correct that Local is designed for physical addresses of public locations open for designated hours. If that's the setup that someone is pursuing than they should definitely make it as straightforward as possible. Thanks for emphasizing that point here and your superb answer below!