268. Demystifying the process of letting your coworking members use your address for their Google Business listing

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Find Amy Toman on:

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Amy Toman,  works as a Local SEO Specialist for Digital Law Marketing,  and she has her own business, Pet Sitter SEO (but she specializes in working with all small businesses).

 

She is also a Google Product Expert for Google Business Profiles. She spends her spare time volunteering to help business owners by answering their questions on the Google Business Profile forum. 

 

In this conversation, Amy demystifies some of the top questions that coworking space owners have about protecting their Google Business Profiles if they allow their members to use their addresses for their own GBP listings.

 

Here are some questions that I posed to Amy:

1. Can I let members use THE SAME address as mine for their GMB listing? 
2. Businesses that don’t need a commercial address
3. Is there a risk that our listings get taken down if they are duplicate addresses or does Google understand?
4. What does Google require of the member company (and me) for the listing to be legit? Do they need to spend time in the space? Do they need signage? What if they are virtual members that are not actually ever in the space?
5. How does Google enforce its rules? 
6. What are the consequences for me as an owner if I don't follow Google's rules? What about the member using my address?

What if... 

- What do I do if I have a virtual member that signs up through a third party lead generator and I get a Google Business verification card in the mail from them...they have no signage, they haven't paid

- What if a member uses my address and then discontinues membership but their Google Business address is still active and they're still using my address?

- What if somehow someone using my address gets control of my Google Business listing and it becomes theirs? (I saw this happen to a very established operator)

What else should we know about protecting my Google Business Profile?