Physical Addresses for Offline Clients?

Hello everyone,

I would appreciate some offline/local-seo marketing feedback, or help on the following:

I've noticed that Google places requires local businesses to have a physical address & that you are not allowed to use PO-Boxes.

I've also read that it may be risky to use a UPS or Mailbox etc. address because if Google finds out, there is a good chance they may ban your website/company/listing.

With all of this in mind, I have come to the conclusion that the safest, next best choice to actually having a physical address in the target location is to get a virtual office. And when dealing offline clients that either have a home-based business or have a need to target a larger city that their company address is on the outskirts of - it seems like having some type of physical address in the target city is a must.

The lowest rate I've been able to find for nationwide virtual offices is around $60/month. The absolute lowest I've seen, in pretty much any area, was $25/month....but it was not nationwide and if I remember correctly had other fees.

Does anyone know of any more affordable virtual offices (preferably nationwide), or even another safe physical address solution other than a virtual office? Maybe closer to 10-15 bucks with locations in most major cities?

I would really appreciate everyone's feedback, experience, or help with this.

Thanks

$25 is about the lowest you will get. You can sometimes barter with them to drop it for the first month or so.

Just socially engineer the sales rep, it's pretty easy.

Thanks Hostie.

What exactly do you mean by "socially engineer the sales rep"?

Is that a politically correct way of saying negotiate with the virtual office rep?

Find a vacant lot and or make up a address that doesn't exist. Build citations to it beforehand to get phone verification.

say there is 100 numbers in the street, then you put your address at 101. Google maps just shows it as the end of the street... This way your customers dont go to a random house and they think its just a mistake and 2. Google has no problem with it as it might be a new build and Google has not updated there Maps yet.

lykathe said:

Find a vacant lot and or make up a address that doesn't exist. Build citations to it beforehand to get phone verification.

Click to expand...

Hi there,

Do you mean, build citations to force Google into making a new Google Places listing by itself, then when you go to verify - you can verify by phone number?

If you like to take risks with valuable clients then the above posts do work. However, the true enemy in GP is your clients competition (SEO's). These little bitches will report you for anything. GP can be very volatile as it is one of G's babies right now.

Make all your listings on separate accounts! Even the whitest of listings can get banned. Working multi location under one account that gets banned and your whole infrastructure is gone. Try explaining that to a client.

Also, sounds like your shopping for your clients virtual offices. If this client can't afford $60 per month for a legit presence in a major metro ready to hand him 10+ new clients per month from a little ass digital listing than he has no right to be in business. Just sayin'. I run into these cheap bastards all the time that don't understand a value proposition. The alternative, 3 year lease on a 1000sq ft triple net at $5000 per month....you get what I'm saying.

Try to go for VO's that will give you a unique suite number or PMB as well.

Sweet...... thanks everyone.

Sounds like $60 a month is probably going to be the best I'm going to find in terms of Virtual Offices, unless I want to try some of the Grey Hat / Black Hat techniques mentioned above - not sure if I'm willing to risk it with legit clients.

OP, do you mind PMing me the company for $60 a month nation wide?

I would also love to know this. I'll even pay a bounty for it.

KBC-12 said:

OP, do you mind PMing me the company for $60 a month nation wide?

Click to expand...

Regus is $59+
Davincivirtual is from $50+
The one nearest me starts at $99 with some office use. They have a tremendous operation.

Unitedvirtualoffice
Findavirtualoffice

Chad Kimball had success in using an area address (not quite real) with an out of the area POB below it - the idea being that the Post Office wouldn't succeed in delivering it to the former, so it would go to the latter. I tried this and the POB wasn't accepted in Google's form. After a few tries, "suite box 4444" (or just suite) was accepted. Since the zip is unique (at least where I am) for PO boxes, the confirm postcard with the pin may make it (the PO interpreting "suite" as "POB"). It hasn't arrived yet. Worth a try.

lykathe said:

Find a vacant lot and or make up a address that doesn't exist. Build citations to it beforehand to get phone verification.

Click to expand...

Could use a bit more info/understanding about this.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

If I build "citations" which is using an "exact address with a phone number listed " on many other different sites that allow business info kinds of post

than when I create/set up a goog places listing G will give me the option of phone verifying, using the number I used in the "citations" and in the setup of my Gplaces listing, instead of doing the postcard?

I understand using a blank or bogus address in an area.

Would it also work using say a commercial biz office buildings address BUT using a suite number that does not exist in that building?

Any more info on this I appreciate.