Changing Physical Address and updating to a Service Area Business

[TriciaClements]

A pest company's office physical address (showing on the map) is outside of their service area.

The office is really for their technicians, but if someone wants to come in and pay a bill, they can.

They want to change their address to the owner's home (closer to the middle of the service area) and then hide it from the map. They will still have the office, but don't want to show it as the business address on the map.

Their GBP profile was suspended last year due to some things they were doing that violated guidelines, but all of the issues were resolved and it was reinstated. I'm concerned that changing the address and updating it to a SAB will trigger another problem with their profile and possibly a suspension.

The other option I told them was to move their office so it’s closer to the center of their primary service area, but it isn’t something they can do at this point.

Has anyone changed from a physical address to a SAB especially when they actually do have a physical address, but it's not one customers really visit? Are there other reasons it should or should not be done?

@Colan Nielsen I read your article and was leaning towards having them re-verify as a SAB at the owner's address, but was concerned since the office will still be at the old location it may be a problem. Do you have any other insight or new information since this article? Does the Service Area in Google My Business Impact Ranking? - Sterling Sky Inc

Thank you!!

 

[Phil Rozek]

@TriciaClements, that will be fine. Google can put its boot down on anyone at any time, but switching to the home address won't put your client at extra risk of that, especially if you update/remove/modify the address on the website and on the citations in the same way. If you do that (which I suggest you do), Google won't have much of a way to know the office address is in fact still inhabited, and they won't care. Plus, Google is used to seeing home addresses in general, and especially for SABs.

I assume there aren't other hidden-address GMB pages at the same address. Those could be a toe-popper. If not, then in my experience you don't have anything to worry about.

 

[JoyHawkins]

I would suggest you have them update some of their documentation like their business license so that it lists their home address. This will just help you in case the listing ever gets suspended.

 

[TriciaClements]

I would suggest you have them update some of their documentation like their business license so that it lists their home address. This will just help you in case the listing ever gets suspended.

Thank you! I'll make sure to get them to update their business license and also Secretary of State and maybe a few others too.

 

[TriciaClements]

@TriciaClements, that will be fine. Google can put its boot down on anyone at any time, but switching to the home address won't put your client at extra risk of that, especially if you update/remove/modify the address on the website and on the citations in the same way. If you do that (which I suggest you do), Google won't have much of a way to know the office address is in fact still inhabited, and they won't care. Plus, Google is used to seeing home addresses in general, and especially for SABs.

I assume there aren't other hidden-address GMB pages at the same address. Those could be a toe-popper. If not, then in my experience you don't have anything to worry about.

Thank you @Phil Rozek From my conversation with them, there aren't any other GMB profiles at that address, but I will make sure to double-check it.