Google+ Local (Places) for Home-Based Businesses

Question: What do address do you recommend for a business that works from home such as a plumber who does not want to make his.her residence address public (but a real legit business)?

Answer:

This is a big problem with Google+ Local for home-based businesses.  They do not have any great solutions here.  Here are your options:

• Use your home address, and make it public.  This is the best option in terms of SEO.
• Use your home address, and hide it.  (You can do this inside of the Google+ Local set up).  This probably hurts the SEO impact of the listing.
• Use a friend’s address, a real business address (such as a fake suite # at a friendly business) or an off-the-grid mailbox ETC sort of place.  This is technically a violation of their terms of service.

They built Google+ Local on the “model” of the local pizza restaurant and because it HEAVILY rewards businesses whose physical address is in the town being searched, it puts home-based businesses (e.g., a contractor who works out of his home) at a HUGE disadvantage to businesses that have legitimate physical addresses.  So you need to work around this.

I have used all three strategies.  #2 is the weakest of the bunch.