How do I do local search engine optimization for a company that has a PO Box?

I am new to search engine optimization but I'm trying to learn as much as I can. I'm building a website for a company but they have no real physical address. Everything they do those to a PO Box. They are a legitimate company but in their line of work it works okay for all the contributing partners to work from home. I have heard that you are not supposed to use a PO Box for local search engine optimization but this is their only option at the moment. What should I do to try and get the most out of this situation?

 

Local Search Optimization your referring to Google places correct?

Now.. organically you can rank any site locally regardless of address, so you can link straight to them no problem and rank in the top 10 for any given keyword.

Now with Google places (which I believe you are referring to) using a PO box is not prohibited although due to the many lead generation experts creating virtual businesses to market usually do so with a cheap PO box. This could potentially cause you a large amount of problems later on down the line if Google are not convinced that the business is legit.

A solution would be to ask them if they can have any friends addresses they could use or even if they could use their accountants address, I know accountants can offer such a service whereby they forward the mail to the business (needed when google sends a google place pin code)

Another alternative would be for them to find a virtual office.

I hope this helps,

 

Thanks for the info. I appreciate it. I'm sure this is a dumb question that I will regret asking as soon as I post it. What is a virtual office.Local search engine optimization as a whole is new to me. Do you have any advice on how I should go about doing it. I know it is about link building and making sure that you have your information in the right directory or search places, but that is the extent of my knowledge. So I would appreciate if anyone could shed more light on the issue for me.

 

I think using some robot txt would help, using "distribution" tag...
I just thought of this not 100% sure

 

Hi,
Well, but how to do it for multiple cities....

 

If you want to rank for multiple cities and hundreds of keywords go to the site in my signature. Most times we outrank Google places anyway.

 

to rank in local search engine faster
you need to
- host your website in local with local IP
- use local domain extension
- submit google place
- submit local directories
- build more backlink from local sites
- interact more with local traffic

 

Thank you to everyone for the help I am really looking forward to getting the opportunity to put all of the ideas into practice.Now I have a couple of questions.1 what is a local IP2 what is a local domain extension.3 how do you backlink with local sites

 

As far as local optimization is concerned for you need a phone number or postal address in order to verify your business.

You don't have a physical address then you can use a phone number to verify your information. But my suggestion is whereas you are running a business you should have a physical address.

You can use the address on the phone number as well.

 

A way around not having a physical address is the virtual post mail which you can find at www (dot) virtualpostmail (dot)com and it provides you with a real street address to use and they then scan and email or forward anything you receive at that address.