I work in SEO but don’t have much experience with local SEO. Often, I end up in conversations with people who have common questions about it. Rather than just guessing, I wanted to start a thread here to share with others in the forum and also to help offer better advice. Here’s a situation I hear about quite a lot:
Question:
I run a home business within a service area. I added my full address to my Google My Business (GMB) page, set it to hidden, and chose the Service Area option. I want to build citations in local directories that include my business’s Name, Address, and Phone (NAP) info, but I don’t want my home address posted everywhere. What’s the best way to keep my address private but still improve my local SEO?
Answer(s):
Ideally, you’d want to include the full address as registered in your GMB page, which should match the entry in your State’s official business registry. It makes sense to want to keep your privacy — not just for security, but also to avoid piles of junk mail from having any address public. If that’s a concern, one option could be to skip the street address and just go with:
BUSINESS NAME
CITY, STATE, ZIP
PHONE NUMBER
NOTES
As I mentioned, I don’t specialize in local SEO, so I don’t have all the data to say this is the best answer. I’m hoping others with more experience here can either share better ideas or support this approach with more insights.
I work in Local SEO but haven’t come across this exact situation. It seems like you have to choose between hiding your home address and building local citations.
Martin3 said:
I work in Local SEO but haven’t come across this exact situation. It seems like you have to choose between hiding your home address and building local citations.
I talk to a lot of freelancers who don’t have offices but also don’t want their home addresses shared. It’s understandable for privacy reasons.
Even Google My Business gives the option to hide addresses, so it seems like a common concern.
Think of people in home services like car detailing, trades (plumbers, carpenters), lawn care, and digital services like SEO where they might want local results without broadcasting a home address.
@Charlie
I get it… I understand why people want to keep their address private, but I’m not sure it’s possible to both hide your address and list it effectively.
Martin3 said: @Charlie
I get it… I understand why people want to keep their address private, but I’m not sure it’s possible to both hide your address and list it effectively.
Exactly… I’m not sure how that would work consistently across directories either. A lot of them might still require a street address, even if it’s just City, State + ZIP.
But I could be wrong, I don’t have direct experience here.
Some office rental places like Regus offer addresses for a fee. Another idea could be finding a local business that would accept and forward mail for you.
A PO Box or mailbox at a private mailing service could work too, although I’m not sure how Google views PO Boxes for local SEO. I’d guess it’s not great since it’s not a physical location.