{"id":5112,"date":"2009-11-05T10:25:58","date_gmt":"2009-11-05T14:25:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/?p=5112"},"modified":"2009-11-05T11:21:05","modified_gmt":"2009-11-05T15:21:05","slug":"google-maps-and-po-boxes-when-can-they-be-used","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/2009\/11\/05\/google-maps-and-po-boxes-when-can-they-be-used\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Maps and PO Boxes &#8211; When can they be used?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Updated 11\/05\/09- Authoritative word on PO Boxes <a href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/reader\/shared\/joel.headley\">from Joel Headley<\/a> of Google:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n<table style=\"empty-cells: show; width: auto;\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; background-color: #c2d9ff !important; width: 1px; height: 1px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-image: url(http:\/\/www.google.com\/reader\/ui\/225120104-corner_tl.gif); background-position: 0% 0%; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;\"><\/td>\n<td style=\"font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; background-color: #c2d9ff !important; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;\"><\/td>\n<td style=\"font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; background-color: #c2d9ff !important; width: 1px; height: 1px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-image: url(http:\/\/www.google.com\/reader\/ui\/417926813-corner_tr.gif); background-position: 100% 0%; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; background-color: #c2d9ff !important; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;\"><\/td>\n<td style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 8px; background-color: #e1ecfe !important; width: auto; padding: 0px;\">\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0.1em; margin-right: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 0.5em; line-height: 14px; font-style: italic;\">PO Boxes have proven unverifiable and are called out as such.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;re working on providing the right solution for businesses that need to hide a home address, however.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; background-color: #c2d9ff !important; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; background-color: #c2d9ff !important; width: 1px; height: 1px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-image: url(http:\/\/www.google.com\/reader\/ui\/438374107-corner_bl.gif); background-position: 0% 100%; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;\"><\/td>\n<td style=\"font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; background-color: #c2d9ff !important; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"line-height: 19px;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal; line-height: 1px;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>The poor man&#8217;s virtual office, the PO Box, has been singled out in the new <a href=\"http:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/2009\/11\/03\/new-google-maps-business-listing-guidelines-whats-changed\/\">Business Listing Guidelines<\/a> as they relate to your business address: <em> <\/em><\/p>\n<ul style=\"list-style-type: disc;\">\n<li>Do not create listings at locations where the business does not physically exist.<\/li>\n<li><em>PO Boxes do not count as physical locations.(italics mine)<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Do not create more than one listing for each business location, either in a single account or multiple accounts.<\/li>\n<li>Businesses that operate in a service area as opposed to a single location should not create a listing for every city they service. Service area businesses should create one listing for the central office of the business only.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Poster Meleighsmith <a href=\"http:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/2009\/11\/03\/google-maps-updates-business-listing-guidelines\/#comment-439000\">noted<\/a> yesterday:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">It&#8217;s too bad for people who conduct business from a home office that P.O. Boxes can not be used as addresses (I have a client that is a Therapist who does this, and doesn&#8217;t want her physical address quite so prominently visible like that). For accuracy&#8217;s sake, I think it would be better to use a true P.O. Box rather than a box at a &#8220;UPS Store&#8221; &#8211; at least with a P.O. Box you&#8217;re not scamming potential customers.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.solaswebdesign.net\/wordpress\/\">Miriam Ellis<\/a> made a <a href=\"http:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/2009\/11\/03\/new-google-maps-business-listing-guidelines-whats-changed\/#comment-439077\">similar comment<\/a> about PO Boxes:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">This is a pain in the neck. Google has got to figure out a solution for local businesses with private addresses\u2026remember, 50% of SMBs are run from home.<\/p>\n<p>But is it Google&#8217;s intention to totally eliminate their use? I think not. In the case that Meleigh mentions and in the case of service businesses, I believe that the use of PO Box is still considered legitimate as long as you only use it instead of your actual physical address and not as a way to create additional, virtual locations. This paragraph from the recently updated <a href=\"http:\/\/maps.google.com\/support\/bin\/static.py?page=guide.cs&amp;guide=21029&amp;topic=21030\">Local Business Center User Guide <\/a>clarifies the point somewhat:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>Every business listing must have a mailing address.<\/strong><br \/>\nUsually this is the physical address of your business, but certain businesses may wish to use a PO Box. For example, if you wish to keep the physical location of your business private, or if your business provides a service at various locations (like a cleaning service).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Updated 11\/05\/09- Authoritative word on PO Boxes from Joel Headley of Google: PO Boxes have proven unverifiable and are called out as such. We&#8217;re working on providing the right solution for businesses that need to hide a home address, however. The poor man&#8217;s virtual office, the PO Box, has been singled out in the new &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-google-maps-google-local"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5112"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5154,"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5112\/revisions\/5154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}