Utilizing a Virtual Office for Your Pressure Washing Business
Since you are running a pressure washing business, you are well aware of the importance of local SEO for getting leads. In order to get leads you need to do everything that you can to optimize your Google Business Profile. But what if your GBP is in a location far away from where your target audience is living? We know that Google prioritizes businesses based on the physical location of the Google Business Profile in relation to the searcher when serving search results to people looking for a local service business. By having a physical location that is farther away from your target customers, you will be negatively effected in the search results compared to competitors who are more closely located to the target customer.
What is a Virtual Office?
An office or coworking space that gives businesses a physical address and office-related services without the overhead of a long lease and administrative staff. With a virtual office, employees can work from anywhere but still have things like a mailing address, phone answering services, meeting rooms, and videoconferencing.
Googles Official Policy on Virtual Offices
It is important to note that virtual offices are in a HUGE gray with regard to Google’s terms and conditions. Google officially states that to meet the guidelines for having a Business Profile, you need to have:
The physical office has to be staffed by one of your employees during the duration of the listed business hours
The listed office phone number of the building must be a direct line to your business
Permanent signage of your business
However…
There are many misconceptions about virtual office use for local service businesses. This murky area in the Google guidelines led to many businesses abusing virtual offices to game google maps and local search results (largely from lawyers and real estate agents…thanks guys). As a result, Google clamped down on businesses utilizing virtual offices as their listed address and began a GMB suspension frenzy around 2020-2021. Since then, it appears the GMB support at Google has gotten better at coordinating with virtual offices and working with local businesses.
Google created a simple solution with two categories of businesses "Storefront" and "Service Area" Google won't accept business listings at a virtual office address that tries to say they are a "Storefront" business. By Google's definition "Storefront" means you have signage visible to the public along with open access to the public during the listed business hours. Google knows the location is a virtual office and is 100% fine with the use of the virtual office with GMB as long as the user lists their business as a Service Area business.
Google does allow the use of a virtual office address provided the location has offices or Conference Rooms the businesses can use for meetings with clients during business hours. Google does recognize the virtual office personnel as part of the business’s "team" and the ability to use offices or Conference Rooms during business hours meets the on-site requirement.
The intent as described to me by a Google representative is to block the use of PO Boxes, UPS Stores, Mailboxes Etc, and other retail-based mailbox locations that really can't be used for conducting in-person business (meeting clients). The use of a true "virtual office" in an office building is perfectly acceptable.
With this being said, I have still heard stories of GMB’s listed at virtual offices getting suspended. The rules Google list are not clear.
If you are planning on using a virtual office and want to avoid potential suspensions then you should:
Not utilize multiple virtual offices in a geographic area.
It seems utilizing Regus Office Spaces are more prone to the GBP suspensions. If you are operating your business in smaller cities then there likely won’t even be a Regus Office. Opting for local coworking / virtual offices seems to be a safer bet.
Posting a picture of a physical directory sign that has the name of your business to your Google Photos.
Making sure you are the only pressure washing business listed at the virtual office.
Not switching business addresses frequently. Google does not like this and can flag your business as spam
Why Is This Important
If you are happy with the amount of leads you are getting and want to avoid potential GBP issues with a virtual office I completely understand. I am merely suggesting this option because when I first started my pressure washing business I wanted to use a virtual office to:
Avoid using my home address. I would prefer customers, competitors, and potentially disgruntled employees didn’t know where I lived.
Wanted to position my business closer to where my best customers lived which was roughly 17 miles from where my home address was located.
In my first two years of business, I switched my business’s GBP profile from my home address to the virtual office. I utilized the local coworking virtual office to great effect. I did not receive any suspensions and immediately noticed my phone ringing more after making the switch in business address. I received mail at the virtual office and even conducted employee interviews there.
Also, note that most local SEO experts I have heard from recommend that if you use a virtual office then you should hide your address and instead opt for a Service Area. I have talked before about the many downsides of using a service area instead of a physical address so I won’t get into that but I will say that I did NOT use a service area with my GBP listing and was never penalized.
Finding a Virtual Office to Use
If you are just starting your pressure washing business then you likely have all your pressure washing equipment in your driveway or in a drive-up storage facility and you do all your admin work from home. The goal is to run a profitable business and reduce overhead expenses. Leasing an office is going to be a minimum of $1000 a month. Good thing you don’t need an office full time and can instead pay $100-$200 a month for a virtual office.
To find a virtual office, you first want to identify where your best customers live. Let’s say they live in City ABC. You should google:
Coworking office in City ABC
Virtual office in City ABC
Micro Office in City ABC
From there, find an office that offers Google Business Profile listing and has a reasonable monthly subscription fee. Just make sure that virtual office does not have another pressure washing company listed at their address.