I've seen many VA websites. Some of them include their actual location and some of them don't. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the pluses and minuses of including your town and state on your website.

Marcia

Well apparently I heard that it is going to be law soon that every business website has it's address on, but I think that has implications for us who work from home. This is in the UK, so I'm not sure if it the same in your country.

I have put my location on as the village I live in, the town and post code and country, so I guess it's almost my full address. I'm not sure if it's a good thing or not, although saying that, my husband's business has been running from the same address (electrical contractors) for 26 years, so I dont suppose it really matters.

I do think it makes your business more approachable, when I placed my first advert, the advertisers advised me that if I include my name and local phone number I would get more of a response than admin@ and a mobile number which could be located anywhere, I am inclined to agree with him.

Sally

For SEO purposes it can be a great boost - as virtual as you may be the fact is people will still run local searches for a VA. We just recently optimized a site for a member VA and she's now placing p1 for her location along with relative search terms - all in all not a bad thing when you consider how hard it can be to boost your organic search results in a sea of VAs.

That's not to say that you need to offer your physical address - but location certainly doesn't hurt.

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Wow, two posts in under 5 minutes! Thanks ladies. I hadn't thought of the realities of the SEO, that makes perfect sense.

MT

I have the city, area and state listed on my site (well, had as I'm still working on things, but it will be going back up there). I put all of them because the actual city I live in is a suburb of a larger city where I want to begin spreading my name, so if people search for someone in that area they will still find me. Tess put a name on what I was doing - SEO - which is cool because I am still trying to figure out SEO and didn't know I was already working with it!

Great thread Marcia!

My location is a township located right next to a large city. In fact, while we still possess a P.O. Box address, we were annexed by the city in 2005, so technically, we are part of the city.

However, there is an undeniable cachet (i.e. multi-million acreage-style mansions) attached to the location of where we are and so, that is part of why I have included it on my website. I also like to distinguish myself from other local VAs and this definitely does it. I would like to do some SEO for the locale, but have accomplished a wee bit on my own.

Hope that helps!

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Kate V. Kerans
Kerans Virtual Assistance

SEO is a valid point, I set my ad words local to the East Midlands of the UK, so it stands to reason, thanks.

Sally

I have my address listed on my site. I think in some potential clients eyes it helps establish the validity of a business.

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Dawn Riley
A Virtual Assistant in Paradise
Our business is about making yours better

We, here in Ireland, also have to put an address on our sites' but as a precaution I have not put the house name on my business address, just the village where we live. The postman know me so I have no problem receiving my bills.

I had not thought of the SEO side of having the location on the site.:huh2:

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Vicky
www.c-vas.eu

I didn't think that the UK were going to have our addresses on website as part of the law!! :O i am VERY shocked as I still live with my parents and they don't want their address on the internet for obvious reasons, plus if I did have my address on the site then we will have to tell the morgage people even though i contribute to zilch of the morgage!! :shock:

I have looked into having a PO box but it is rather expensive, from about 60 pounds to 120 pounds a year depending on service. Hmm have to think about my pricing to cover this.

So, for the moment, I have my town name and county on my site.

Sally, could you tell me when this law comes in, if it is going to come into effect? thanks

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Julia Neal ...because we ♥ admin!
http://julianeal.wordpress.com