What is the latest with using a PO Box and/or an address @ somewhere like a UPS store?

[chrish]

Hi,
I have a client that is selling the building to their physical location and moving their business, they are going to run it out of their house. They do not want to use their home address as their business address.

I know PO Boxes and addresses at UPS stores used to "work" then they didn't. More recently I've heard that may have changed again?

The search function on the site isn't returning any results, so apologies if this exists already somewhere.

What is the latest and greatest with regards to local search optimization using a PO Box and/or a UPS/USPS store address?

Thanks!

 

[BenFisher]

UPS Store and PO Boxes are not allowed on Maps, the location must be where someone can come and visit the business. Instead setup a home address as a service area business. This is within the guidelines, will not show the address (only used for verification) and they can designate their service areas.

 

[Tim Colling]

@chrish, what @BenFisher said above is right on. If you use a PO box or a similar ploy as if it is a physical office address, you run the risk of Google finding out about it and when that happens, there is always a risk that they will make an example of you.

 

[whitespark]

What @BenFisher said, and I think I can predict your next question, which is "Ok, but then what do I do about citations?" Here you go:
https://whitespark.ca/blog/how-to-build-citations-if-you-want-to-hide-your-address/

 

[chrish]

@BenFisher @Tim Colling @whitespark -- Thanks so much for the insight! We'll see how it goes

 

[chrish]

@BenFisher @Tim Colling @whitespark (and all) -- one follow up question here -- Darren you mentioned how to build citations with a hidden address, but what should you do with existing citations pointing to the old address? Should you try to delete them? Leave them (since the phone number is the same)? Other?

Thanks again.

 

[Tim Colling]

There are a lot of moving wheels here, with Google apparently changing things every few days or weeks with GMB these days. Personally, I would be inclined to change nothing for a while and see how things go. I may not have as much insight as the Google Product Experts here like @JoyHawkins or @Colan Nielsen or @BenFisher on this, though.

 

[Yan Gilbert]

.... I may not have as much insight as the Google Product Experts here like @JoyHawkins or @Colan Nielsen or @BenFisher on this, though.

How to name drop by Tim Colling

 

[Tim Colling]

Hehe...

 

[BenFisher]

Well, in this case, the old citations are pointing to a location they no longer are at, so why keep the old ones? Change citations on places that Darren pointed out to the new location (hide the address). Remove the old citations (old address) only for the fact that old citations can create new GMB listings