Why Your Google Business Profile Needs an Address & How to Get One

A Google Business Profile (GBP) has been the biggest local ranking factor for businesses for over a decade now. But until recently, having an address on your GBP didn’t matter much when it came to local ranking; we at Digital Dynamo managed many service-area businesses that did just fine without displaying an address.

That was until late last year and into 2025, when we started having a much harder time getting some of our local clients to rank, despite throwing best practice SEO (and GEO/LLMO) at those projects. We were flabbergasted – why were these clients struggling to get a foothold – or dropping precipitously in local rankings – when we knew we were delivering great all-around optimization?

After an analysis and competitive comparison, the one common thread we could find was that the struggling clients weren’t displaying an address on their Google Business Profile, while their competitors were.

We immediately added addresses to the Google Business Profiles and behold, there was an almost immediate and startling uptick in local rankings and visibility.

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Additionally, one of our clients – who has always had extremely strong local rankings – let her office lease lapse. Without alerting us, she decided to take the address off her GBP and become a service area business. The drop in her rankings happened quickly, and now we’re working on a plan to get her a new office address. 

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So we have established that showing an actual address on your GBP is now a requirement for strong local search rankings. But what do you do if you don’t have an office? Here are 4 options to consider to secure an actual office address.

Having an actual office is the most straightforward way to get an address for your Google Business Profile. There are plenty of companies that do office rental, like Regus, and a quick Google search will pull up dozens more options local to you. But business owners may not want to pay the multiple hundreds of dollars a month to rent office space, especially if they would rather work from home.

However, negotiation is an option. According to the National Association of Realtors, the vacancy rate on office properties rose as of Q2 2025, and growth in occupancy across all commercial class types was weak, especially for Class C properties (older, less advanced commercial properties). Given the still weak commercial property market, it’s not out of the question to find an office building in your desired geography, see if they have a hole in the wall space, and try to negotiate a rent 20% below asking.

There is a great comment on a Reddit thread from last year that outlines the importance of going into a commercial real estate transaction with the intention to negotiate:

From timreg7:

The asking price is just a starting point. If you’re not in a position where you NEED to rent a particular space, you have leverage because they do need to rent it.

Your realtor is not on your side. They make more money when you pay more for the place, and are not likely to tell you to walk away when it’s in your interest.

Make sure the building is up to code and any repairs you will be responsible for right away get taken care of by the owner. Also make sure it is zoned appropriately for your use before you rent, and after renting make sure you get all inspections lined up ASAP.

Lastly, negotiate terms that meet your needs and the owners. We got another month of abatement, an exit clause after 2 years with a fee, and an escalating monthly rent to give our business less of a burden in the first 2 years while also making the deal reasonable for the owner.

Now, timreg7 was renting a space for a pottery studio, which may have required a more intense negotiation and be much larger than what many small business owners need. But use this as a reminder that this is a good time to get a deal for an office space – so give it a shot before completely dismissing the possibility.

An office share or sublet is how many business owners secure a cheaper space that gives them an address to add to their Google Business Profile. The idea is simple – find an already existing business with a large office or commercial space, and ask them to rent or share part of their space. Often, business owners with a large commercial office are drowning in overhead and don’t need all the space included in their lease, so they can afford to sublet a piece of their property.

But you have to prove you actually work out of the space, and that can require doing a video verification with Google. This isn’t hard – set-up a desk with a computer and your business’s paperwork nearby, add signage with your logo and company name to the space (it has to look official though – decals on window panes can do wonders), and get a sublease in writing from your “landlord”, i.e. the person whose office you’ll be renting from. You also need to have a different address from your landlord/office mate – so make your space a specific suite number under that address, to achieve differentiation.

So many business owners we know have achieved verification with this method; it saves them money, and is a welcome boost in income to their landlords/office mates.

I want to be clear here – do not get a virtual mailbox or dedicated desk, get an ACTUAL office at a coworking space to serve as your address. Something with a suite number and a door on it that closes off the outside world.

If you try to use a virtual mailbox or desk, you might get away with it for a little while, but then the worst could happen – you get reported for not having an actual office space, and your GBP will get suspended. Which means you’ll lose all your reviews. You can try appealing the suspension, but given how important reviews are, the risk is too great. I do not recommend chancing it.

But keep in mind, there are so many coworking spaces beyond WeWork. I recently found out about KhoSpace, which is like a WeWork for therapy practices. You can rent out a space that you use to meet patients, and even though you don’t get a lease, you do get a suite number. Many therapists use KhoSpace as their actual GBP address.

Niche coworking spaces continue to pop-up, so explore this as a possibility when you’re searching for an office space. Co-working spaces are often cheaper and more flexible than a traditional commercial real estate office building. As long as you get a private space with a suite number that you can call your private place of business, you should be all set.

It may come as a surprise, but you CAN use your home address as your place of business. Google’s guidelines allow you to use your home as your business address, provided you are ready to actually use your home as a public place where customers can come see you. Be prepared to put signage outside your home to get fully verified.

Many people hesitate to use their home address as their business, and I get it. But if you’re hesitating because you don’t want your home address proliferated across the internet, that ship has already sailed. If you’re worried about customers ACTUALLY coming to your home address for business purposes, that is unlikely if you run a service-based business. As a business owner you have to weigh the pros and cons, and appearing on Google is a major, major PRO. Talk to your spouse or housemates about the prospect of using your home address on Google, but this business owner is in favor of it if you have no other option.

Bottom line – if you want the best shot at ranking locally, you need an actual, verifiable address on your Google Business Profile. You might think an address is too costly of an investment, but negotiation, office shares, coworking locations, and using your home as your office may provide a very affordable option. You need to be ready to video verify the location with Google, so prepare your office by adding signage, procuring a lease or sub-lease, and setting-up the location with your work equipment.

However you go about it, if you’re interested in ranking locally on Google, an actual office address should be factored into your 2026 operational plans.

If you need help with your business’s SEO and local rankings, book a call with me here.