Virtual office or not

[Durandl]

I am getting confused with google's guidelines regarding virtual offices. Can anyone clarify please.
If i have a client whose business' main address is his home address, would that be considered as a virtual office or not?
This question is specifically for small businesses who operate on a service area level such as a independent plumbers or landscape gardeners who do not require the use of a brick and mortar office.

 

[JoyHawkins]

No, a home address is not a virtual office.

 

[Durandl]

Many thanks Joy

 

[SmallBizGeek]

I rent a virtual address in the nearest city to me, 8 miles away. I operate from home but I rent the ad-hoc office address for the mail forwarding. I used this to register my Google My Business map listing, putting my business location in a prestigious district.

Apparently Google are now trying to police this as it is likely considered map spam. It's still worth having a virtual address, if only to keep your residential address off of the web.

 

[Eric Rohrback]

Darren,

What you're doing is against the guidelines. If you are working from home every day and not physically at the location you're renting, then you need to use your home address and set a service area. You also need to hide your address since you would need to use your home address.

Your residential address would not be visible, since you would hide the address.

Basically, if someone goes to that address you have listed now they will be very disappointed. It's a bad experience. Do not use virtual addresses like that if you are not physically in the building during office hours.