Google's John Mueller caused a bit of a panic yesterday when he started questioning why so many SEO and digital marketing agency web sites do not list the physical address of the business. He had to clarify later that this was just a personal question and "this is not related to any search change on our side," he added.
Here is John's original tweet:
Why do so many SEO / digital marketing agencies not have their address at all on their websites? Not even on the "About us" or their policies/tos pages... ? Is having a postal address too old-school?
— 🍌 John 🍌 (@JohnMu) October 2, 2019
He then added:
Looking at the passionate replies here, it seems some folks just have small offices or work from home and don't want to disclose that + others explicitly don't want/need local business. Is that about right?
— 🍌 John 🍌 (@JohnMu) October 2, 2019
But after a lot of concern when many SEOs said they simply work from home and do not want to list their home address or even the city and state they work in, he added:
Thanks for all your comments on this!
— 🍌 John 🍌 (@JohnMu) October 2, 2019
I just want to clarify: this is not related to any search change on our side. It's purely me having browsed a bunch of legitimate SEO business sites and wondering where folks are based.
I guess if I worked from home, I wouldn't want to list my home address. In fact, I am a bit concerned listing my work address where people who read this site can find me. I mean, for pure work reasons, I am not worried. But sometimes, when I open a package mailed to me, I open it slowly. I did get some interesting packages over the years and now when I get something that I don't expect, I open it very carefully.
But to be honest, I often to look at company web sites and look for the physical address before ordering something from that site or even calling them for a bid on a project. I just think a real business should list an address, even if it is a PO Box.
FYI, John then relaized that in Germany it is the law to list your address. No such law is most other countries, including the US.
I just realized why I rarely see this here -- AFAIK in Germany it's required that all websites publish their address (and this swaps over to nearby countries). Not all of them do it in plain-text (images & noindex pages are popular), but it's findable.
— 🍌 John 🍌 (@JohnMu) October 2, 2019
Although, terms of services, privacy policies, and other legal documents on the site I believe do need an address.
In any event, no need to panic, Google is not going to penalize sites without physical addresses. But honestly, I bet I am not the only one who thinks twice before converting on a site without an address listed?
Forum discussion at Twitter.
