Are Virtual Offices Allowed on Google My Business?

[Greg Schueler]

I know about the risks of using a Regus office and virtual offices in general, but I have a client that uses leases an office in a Regus complex that they use and have staffed M-F.

All has been well since they moved into the office until 2 weeks ago the GMB listing was suspended and no longer visible in the search results. They had the hours listed as 24/7 since they have after hours call answering services, but they only staff the office 830-5. So I switched the hours in case this was the issue. (The suspension didn't say why, just 'quality issues'. There was also an additional category that was similar, but I removed that extra category too. Once done I resubmitted for appeal.

I received a canned response stating:

The address used in your listing doesn’t match the address of your business. You must list your business at its correct location.

In particular: Do not create a listing, or place your pin marker at a location where the business does not physically exist. P.O. Boxes/Virtual offices are not considered accurate physical locations. Your business location should be staffed during its stated hours. Please note that mailboxes at mail receiving locations are also not considered accurate physical locations.

Please change your listing to comply with our policies and submit it for review. We’ll review your listing and if it complies with our policies, we’ll lift the suspension.

The address formatting that is used in this office complex is a little strange in that the main address is 1234 Example Ave Suite#100. Then inside that suite #, there are individual room numbers. All offices inside use the same Suite#100. The preferred mailing address is just the client's business name and the Suite #100 address. they normally don't need to include the Room #, but in response to the GMB message I added the Room# in addition to the suite# and sent back a full explanation of how the office formatting was at this location.

One day later I get the same response:

The address used in your listing doesn’t match the address of your business. You must list your business at its correct location.

The address DOES match the address of the business. It is listed on the website, they get mail there, it is formatted correctly, and it is staffed (small staff, but still staffed.)

Is there any way to reason with GMB Support or any way around this issue? It's like they don't listen, or the address is flagged as a whole.

We are not worried so much if search results get filtered for keywords, but this office has lots of caregivers and vendors that need to find the address by business name searches and stop by to drop off and pick up supplies, so showing up in maps for them is very important.

Thanks for any insight.

 

[keyserholiday]

Is this stated in their policy / documentation, or inferred?

Edit: Missed the link above - woops!

It's spelled out here in Google's TOS.

 

[Larry Linson]

Greg, you could have gone an extra step by providing proof they have a business license with that address and also a BBB Accreditation. That would have been sufficient to keep the address.

@adammaxum Virtual Offices have come under scrutiny more in the past year simply because of the abuse by many industries, lawyers being the biggest one.

I will reply to your thread on the support community and see if I can help.

So are you saying lawyers are being targeted in particular regarding virtual offices?

 

[keyserholiday]

So are you saying lawyers are being targeted in particular regarding virtual offices?

Nowhere did I ever said that. I can’t even see how you made that leap. If a lawyer is using a virtual office and they don’t have an actual office with signage and they are not there during posted hours according to their GBP hours, then they are in violation of Google’s TOS. I don’t know I can be any clearer here.

 

[Larry Linson]

Ben Fisher said that.

 

[keyserholiday]

Ben Fisher said that.

That’s new to me. Google always targets businesses at coworking does Ed

Ben Fisher said that.

Larry, I am officially exhausted with this continued back and forth. I have attempted to educate you about Google's TOS and continue to seek advice contrary to Google's TOS. I wish you the best of luck.

 

[BenFisher]

So are you saying lawyers are being targeted in particular regarding virtual offices?

Nope, I did not say lawyers are being targeted. Virtual offices are a large portion of abuse on Google Maps, you must have an office with signage, the same as Keyser is stating.

 

[keyserholiday]

Nope, I did not say lawyers are being targeted. Virtual offices are a large portion of abuse on Google Maps, you must have an office with signage, the same as Keyser is stating.

Larry wants to break the guidelines and is looking for somebody to encourage him. Larry is looking for a yes person to agree with him. Please see this thread where I looped in all of his threads. Larry is not looking for help or advice, he is looking for permission to break Google's TOS.