If your or your client’s business has no physical address, here’s what you should know about local SEO:
- Physical proximity is a key ranking signal for local rankings on the SERPs. That means the local search algorithm will favor businesses with verifiable addresses for local search queries.
- Businesses without physical addresses may not use virtual office addresses on their Google My Business, now Google Business Profile, listings to compete with storefront businesses. This is against Google’s GBP guidelines, and doing so puts you or your client’s business at risk.
How can your non-physical business compete for the SERPs with storefront businesses when the odds seem stacked against you?
Two things.
One — identify your specific business model. You’ll need that information to optimize your local search strategy.
Two — capitalize on any local specialties, expertise, or connections your business has in your service areas and market those local nuances.
Let’s explore how your business can succeed in local search even without a physical location.
But First, Identify Your Business Model.
If your business is without a physical address, chances are your business model falls into one of these categories below:
Service Area Business (SAB)
Unlike brick-and-mortar establishments with walk-in physical locations, service area businesses provide services to customers in a specific geographic area without a physical presence.
This category includes services such as housekeeping, landscaping, painting, pest control, roofing, commercial cleaning, and plumbing.
It’s possible to have a physical street address that acts as a headquarters or office, but the critical feature of SABs is that you provide your services on-site at the customer’s location.
Keep in mind that Google allows only one business profile per metropolitan area. For instance, if you operate a roofing company serving the greater Los Angeles area, including locations like Hollywood, Burbank, and Pasadena, you cannot create separate listings for each location.
Instead, you can only create one GBP for the entire LA metro area.
Home-Based Business
If you run a business out of your home and use that as your business address, you fall under this category.
Your home address is your physical location, allowing you to serve nearby clients there. For example, a piano teacher, hairstylist, or babysitter can serve clients in their homes. You can also visit the client’s location to provide services like a dog walker, home-based therapist, or counselor.
Virtual Business
Businesses in this category only operate remotely without face-to-face interactions with clients. They’re not geographically limited to a specific region and can provide services nationwide without storefronts.
For example, you may have an eCommerce business in which you deliver products to customers’ locations or offer virtual services such as being an online customer representative or virtual assistant. Because you can operate from anywhere, you never have physical interactions with your customers.
However, your non-physical business can still use local SEO to rank in local SERPs and influence the buying decisions of localized audiences.
5 Tips to Make Your Non-Physical Business Visible on Local Search
Competing for local visibility with storefront businesses might be tricky since Google favors physical proximity as a ranking signal. But ranking on local search isn’t impossible for your non-physical business. You just need to tweak your local SEO strategy, and you’re golden.
We’ve identified your business model. Let’s discuss some tips you can apply to improve your local rankings and visibility.
1. Properly Configure Your Google Business Profile
Google’s strict guidelines for Google Business Profile pages reveal:
“…to qualify for a Google My Business listing, a business must make in-person contact with customers during its stated hours.”
This might seem counterintuitive for service businesses without physical locations as you don’t have a “public address” to make contact. However, your business qualifies for a GBP listing, even if it’s a SAB or home-based business.
When setting up your listing, simply provide an address and instruct Google to hide it.
As per Google’s guidelines, listing and hiding your address is mandatory if you’re a service area business that visits or delivers to clients at their location. If you’re a hybrid home-based business like a plumber or housekeeper, Google also expects you to list and hide your address.
When configuring your GBP for this, don’t enter an address under the “Info” tab; the “business location” field should remain blank.
For regular SABs or home-based SABs, you must specify the area you serve by city, postal, or zip code. You can also have up to 20 service areas in one metro area, but they must be within 2-hour driving distance from your business address.
Suppose your service business has multiple locations with separate staff two hours apart and non-overlapping service areas. In that case, you can have another Google Business Profile listing catering to that area alone.
If you don’t mind your home address being public, it’s best to treat it as a brick-and-mortar business, including putting up public signage to verify the location. Avoid using P.O. boxes or virtual addresses because Google doesn’t like any of that.
How to Optimize Your Virtual Businesses for Local Visibility Without GBP:
On the key factors used to determine search results, Google says:
“We use your country and location to deliver content relevant for your area.”
So, even if your virtual business doesn’t have a GBP listing, it can still compete for local visibility via organic SERPs. The key is to build specific landing pages that provide localized information for the cities or areas you’re targeting.
According to Google reps, 46 percent of searches carry a local intent. Therefore, these pages should target long-tail keywords with strong local nuances to have a chance of being visible on the organic SERPs. We’ll discuss this more in a bit.
2. Consider Alternative Directories
Alternative platforms and directories like Yelp, Bing Places, Facebook Business Listings, and Apple Maps offer some opportunities for local SEO beyond Google.
These directories help to boost your online visibility by allowing you to create business profiles with less stringent rules than Google.
You can reach potential local customers actively searching for services on these directories. What’s more, with consistent NAP (Name, Address and Phone number) information online, you get to build online credibility and generate leads for your business.
3. Create Service (Landing) Pages and Local Blogs
Creating city-specific landing pages should be part of your content strategy for local search, regardless of your business model.
Use a simple landing page builder like Leadpages or Instapage to build something dynamic. These service pages should contain dedicated information about the services you offer in that area, as well as local testimonials and region-specific exclusive offers when and where they apply.
Also, avoid duplicating content across these service pages. Instead, insert relevant locations into each landing page, personalizing it for the user, e.g., ‘California housekeeping,’ ‘Chicago piano lesson tutor.’
Taylor Group Plumbing in Manhattan uses the SAB landing page tactic to increase local visibility on the SERPs.
Source: Taylor Group Plumbing
Each page looks similar, but they all target different locations.
That aside, don’t neglect to build blogs and local links, too.
“This helps Google form an easy-to-understand connection with the area where you want to source clients from,” says Patrick Herbert, Director of a local SEO service agency.
This strategy is beneficial if you’re trying to rank your new service business on local search. “Google will see those pages, links, and blog posts about a place and respond by ranking your website in those places.”
4. Create Content With Industry and Location-Based Keywords
Incorporating industry and location-based keywords into your content helps amplify your visibility in search results.
For example, if you run a dog-walking service in Manhattan, you can write a blog titled “Top Tips for Choosing a Reliable Dog Walker in Manhattan.” This title references the location and your value proposition.
The key is to “add unique local flair or flavor to your content to boost relevance and authority,” says Salvatore Surra, Director of SEO and Content at SeamlessAI. He used the same tactic to help a business rank in a competitive market.
According to him, this business geared most of its marketing toward its industry, not the location(s) it was servicing. “My first suggestion was to create location+industry specific content and optimize some of the main landing pages towards the area they were in.” This made them a topical authority on the service area.
Taylor Group Plumbing also does this well:
Source: Taylor Group Plumbing
All their blogs focus on industry customer pain points, but they also include location-based keywords to keep information anchored to their service areas.
How to Target Local Keywords for Your Virtual Business
To conduct local keyword research, list the general terms people search for your kind of business, e.g., pet sitter, dog walker, etc. Then, add the customer pain points: “mid-day dog walker,” “dog walker for holidays.”
Next, add location keyword modifiers like “nearby,” “near me,” and “local.” and location-specific names to the list.
This will give you a list of local keywords to play around with for that service area. Feed these keywords into an SEO research tool like SE Ranking or SEMrush to get relevant keywords for your blog or landing page.
After you publish content for your original keywords, set up keyword suggestions using Keyword.com. This allows you to discover new keywords to target in future content.
Simply set parameters for new search queries, such as impressions, geolocations, and click-through rates. The local SEO keyword tracking tool will automatically add keywords matching these parameters.
5. Build Your Reputation and Encourage Local Customer Reviews
Building a solid local reputation is an easy way to get Google to notice your business and rank it on the SERPs. There are several ways to go about this.
- For instance, experiment with the PR route and share your content on local news sites and social media. You should also “get on as many profile and review sites as possible,” says Salvatore of SeamlessAI. “Join local groups and chambers to get more exposure and possible local links or mentions on authoritative sites. Do charity events and sponsor local teams to earn more local influence and build a reputation.” you network and canvass, encourage these potential local customers to leave a Google and social media review when they eventually patronize your business.
Albeit offline, local SEO can benefit significantly from these tips because the more people talk about your business, the better your odds of showing up on the SERPs.
One More Local SEO Tip for The Road
Most Google searches are done on mobile. Therefore, focus on mobile-first indexing for your website. Use structured data markup to help search engines better understand your business information.
This will help to highlight important details like services, operating hours, and contact information, making it easier for customers to find you.
Rank Better with Keyword.com’s Local SEO Keyword Tracking Tool
If you or your clients are trying to improve local SEO rankings for a non-physical business, always track the performance of your target keywords to ensure you’re taking advantage of all opportunities.
To monitor local keyword performance easily and accurately, use Keyword.com, the best local rank tracker in the industry.