SAB closing PO Box

[david.victor]

One of our clients is an SAB, and they do not maintain a physical address, except for receipt of official mail.

To stay right with GMB, the conventional wisdom seems to be that they should close their PO Box and use the private residence address (e.g., of one of the principals).

However, they have built lots of citations to the PO Box address, and we're wondering what the best way is to quietly close the PO Box and hide their address. We're concerned that going back "into hiding" address-wise might tank their listing.

Thoughts? Thanks!

 

[JoyHawkins]

It will definitely change their ranking in the sense that they will now rank when the searcher is closer to their house instead of the PO box location. Depending on how far away their home is from the PO Box, this could be a noticeable difference.

I wouldn't worry about the citations at all. I updated the address for an SAB that moved and didn't update a single citation and nothing bad happened with his rankings. I would suggest updating the citations to avoid confusion but it's not something that has to be done immediately before updating GMB.

 

[david.victor]

Thank you very much for your insights, Joy! Glad to hear the rankings didn't tank for your client.

To "unset" the address, it sounds like you simply remove it from the listing. But then is there a second step for the postcard verification..? They don't make that obvious, and I want to be sure I do it correctly!

In any event, the business will still receive their official mail at their PO Box, so updating citations seems counter-intuitive, since the company's address is still officially their PO Box. Please let me know your thoughts...

Thanks again, Joy!

 

[JoyHawkins]

I would just update the address to the new one, send the postcard, and once it's verified you can go in and clear it in the dashboard.

The only risk you take with leaving the citations as the PO box is that a competitor might think you're using the PO box on your listing and report you. I'd suggest updating the citations that allow you to hide your address to be consistent with Google > Hidden Address Sites

 

[david.victor]

Okay, very good, Joy! Thank you for your additional insight and that hidden address sites resource.

 

[david.victor]

Okay, I updated the address to the residence. Now it won't let me delete the street address (leaving the city, state and zip). It says "You can't leave this empty".

 

[JoyHawkins]

you have to put it in originally to get the postcard sent. Once it's verified you can clear it.

 

[david.victor]

Makes sense. But the weird thing is, I changed it to the residence address, it said "In Review", then later that day, it showed the address and there was no "In Review" tag any longer.

It just changed it without the need for the postcard.

 

[JoyHawkins]

Oh, well that is unexpected! If it's all published then you should see a "clear" button near the address field.

 

[david.victor]

Yes, and when I do "Clear" and then try to save, it gives me the error "You can't leave this empty." and highlights "Street Address"

 

[JoyHawkins]

Sounds a bit strange - you might want to reach out to GMB support and ask them how to convert it to an SAB listing >

Sign in - Google Accounts

 

[david.victor]

Ah, so "Clear" the whole thing, yes? Don't have city, state and zip in there either, but leave everything blank, correct? If so, I was able to do it, save it, and now it says it's under review. So, that's progress, I guess.

Is there an article about building citations to a business with no address? Or should I simply keep building citations to the UPS Store (official) mailing address?

 

[JoyHawkins]

David,

Instructions on removing your address are here: Add or edit your business address - Google My Business Help

A list of citations that don't require an address are here: Hidden Address Sites

 

[david.victor]

Thank you, Joy.

 

[Joshua Estrada]

Hi all. New here. Don't mean to hijack this post, but I have a question that seems relevant/related. I thought PO Boxes were a strict no from Google? Are you saying there is a work around/gray area for SABs?

I ask because I recently discussed with my client about removing the street address from his GMB because he operates a SAB with his home address listed. He has found himself somewhat of a small time Tik Tok celebrity and doesn't want to broadcast his home address anymore (which of course is not allowed for SABs). In our discussion he brought up his PO Box and he asked if we use that in for his GMB. I was typing up the email to give him the "bad" news, but I figured I should look first. I did stumble on to this forum with a different issue, which you all helped me solve while I was digging, so I figured I would look to see about PO Boxes. So here I am, first post

Thanks in advance.

Josh

 

[JoyHawkins]

Hey Josh,

David switched from a PO box in this example, so PO Boxes are definitely a no. If you follow the instructions above, you can use his home address still but clear it so it doesn't show up anywhere.

 

[Joshua Estrada]

Joy,

Thanks! I suppose I should have opened my eyes a little wider last night while reading this post

Josh