Ever used a virtual office address for SEO reasons?

I will chip in on this one seeing as it's a company I co-own, though will say this thread was regarding for SEO reasons, not specifically as a trading address.

I will agree there are scam companies out there, where some might try using virtual address...but it can't last long.

You'll never avoid scammers but you can take steps to avoid them. Do a credit check and get good, genuine legit references. Who are the owners? Do they have a history? Are they traceable/transparent?

I would say do more than checking they have an address though as that's not really a thorough check of a company by any means. You don't say what else you did so your argument seems to rest on the address, even Googling it as you said.

Did that prove to you they weren't a scam outfit - that you thought it was a real office they resided in so meant they were legit? You can't surely just base your trust in an address alone? So i'm presuming all other checks came up trumps? They passed a credit check? You got references that were from genuine, legit people/companies? You did as much as any reasonable company could before parting with your money?

A virtual office service plugs a gap where a demand exists, mostly for home workers, but for other genuine business reasons too. The scammers are a tiny minority where it cannot operate for long due to the fact it will become obvious to the virtual office providers pretty soon.

It's irrelevant really that it's virtual. If they are going to scam you, they will, and from anywhere. End of the day, if you involve police then the virtual offce would have to declare their private details like the address they invoice to, their bank details (where their payments came from), etc. so clients are nearly always traceable.

We take also ID and most of our clients pay by bank transfer, and a small few by PayPal or Cheque, so again, a means of being traced.

Equally, we check they appear to be legit using common sense when checking things, and will cancel their service if they are - or appear to be - abusing our service in any way, not just in a dodgy way.

Someone actually did turn up to find a client at our premises, and long story short, I was able to get our client on the phone for this visitor to speak direct and resolve the issue.

True, the visitor found out we were a virtual office for our client but that was our clients fault for not providing the service or replying to emails, causing the customer to go looking for them!

There is an element of making sure you don't wholly mislead your customers, but a virtual office is a very modern way of doing business in this modern world we live in. Many large business centres in the UK operate them, they are not known or have a reputation for being a lifeline for scammers.

We have had queries from some very large well-known organisations considering having a Northern 'presence' using our virtual office address. We have also had them using our call answering service - again, it certainly doesn't mean because it's not their staff in their office answering those calls that they are not legit, or that they need to hide.

Even banks and the mighty PayPal cannot avoid scammers using their service, so ultimately how could anyone 100% prevent a scammer using their service? You have to be reasonable in the logic of the argument applied here.

Ultimately the repsonsibility is on the customer, no matter what address the seller uses, to take precautions. That's no different from a bounced cheque - you don't blame the bank for providing the account and a cheque book to a scammer do you?

You say the virtual office was unhelpful and by that I guess you mean they wouldn't supply you with the direct contact details they had for their client? If so, then they are not at liberty to disclose that information unless it is already public information of course. However if you report it as fraud then a police investigation would be able to request that information and follow it up.

You and I both know that dodgy people exist in every walk of life in business and I would say there are more dodgy plumbers than there are scammers using a virtual office, wouldn't you?

Sorry never meant to cause any kind of offense, but the original poster asked the question...Have you ever considered using a virtual office for SEO reasons? And my answer to it yes I have, albeit inadvertently and for me it was a big mistake. I take your point on national companies using virtual offices, but they tend to have a head office somewhere. As a customer you are not going to check the ins and outs of every business you have dealings with, you would never have the time to do so at most you will do reasonable checks. I carry out work for many businesses in London but I don't do a thorough investigation on them all before doing so. My only gripe with virtual offices and I know there are many of them springing up my spam email box often gets unwanted mail from them, but if you have been scammed by a company hiding behind a virtual office, its a long drawn out and costly proccess to get the information you need.. One more thing, I've also noticed businesses saying they operate from a so called virtual office address to give them some kind of credibility but don't, of course this is not down to those running the office, but hopefully you get my point. Like I said no offense meant..

I'm not offended as long as the replies aren't aimed at spoiling our advert - seeing as this was posted in the Marketplace section of the forum.

I understand it can happen and it happened to you, but wouldn't want people to think that it's a regular occurence. It really isn't.

You rarely hear stories where someone hid behind a virtual office and scammed people. Much less than scammers who operate from a legit address actually. There are tonnes that rent an office or hosue then do a moonlight flit after doing people over.

It's the person at fault, not where they operate from.

You wouldn't ordinarily know a virtual office address anyway until you turned up and found out that's what it was. Not sure how you know all your spam emails are from people using legit virtual offices?

It's no different to people who use mobiles with no traceable landline. Or have a website with no mention of their name and address. Loads of them do it but I wouldn't go with anyone who didn't satisfy my basic checks, and more, pending the transaction value involved. I wouldn't think "they have an office on the high street in doncaster so that means they are safe to do business with".

You don't say how you got scammed exactly and what it was to do with SEO that could lead to being scammed? Can you explain more?

Anyway, my point is that they are as traceable just as if they had rented an office.... and then done a runner.

Yep your right it is in the market place, How I got scammed was quite simple, it was because SEO is a totally unregulated market and unaccountable. The plumbing industry has it's fair share of scam artists. But SEO is in a league of its own when it comes to rogues. In fact the whole industry of SEO needs to clean it's act up. It should never be the situation where you pay a proffessional (which means they have some kind of qualification) which as far as I am aware there isn't one, but you pay a large some of money, normally 50% upfront and you may or may not end up with a result. Even if you visit sites like top seo any information from there is all self promoted hogwash. Anyway not realising that this was a market place forum I'm quite happy for the original reply and this be removed, I thought I was replying to a general topical question, as to the other point how do I know about the spam, I was referring to the Virtual office themselves, what tends to happen, they will telephone and if they get no answer they will then start sending emails offering their services at a

I've created this post, as there has been a little debate on the Village market which is a little unfair as that is purely for members who like to advertise their services.

So I'll post the replies here, and the discussion can continue if need be. (erm edit - thread is actually upside down, as the replies have gone above this post... you get the gist...)

Original Question was related to Virtual Offices, and if you had ever utilised them for SEO purposes:
http://www.mylocalforums.com/village-market/3050-have-you-ever-considered-using-virtual-office-address-search-engine-optimization-google-reasons.html

Such as giving you an advantage with geographical related advertising, with things such as Google maps.

It's an interesting concept, and could be worth exploring.

Well the point about call answering Vs answering machine is that the latter is just that - a machine. A lot of people prefer someone to answer and that can make all the difference with conversion. With some, its a necessity.

There are also people who don't need the interruptions, have a large campaign that will generate a lot of enquiries, they might be on holiday and need calls picking up for a week or two, or sudden emergenciesn - you name it, loads of reasons, short or long term. It's not always just to replace you, it's to assist you.

Some clients just pop it on divert when they are in meetings, or having a day off. We don't even need to know when it's on divert or not. It's often peace of mind as much as anything, but it can be a full time receptionist for you too. It's not for everyone so if you can answer all your calls and guarantee not to miss any that might be a potential sale, then it's not for you.

Agree about SEO, it's got to be as bad as the cowboy building trade now.

Have you tried some other virtual office services like Regus?? I think this one worth the price http://www.ukbusinesslabs.co.uk/forums/products-services-offered/6015-have-you-ever-considered-using-virtual-office-address-search-engine-optimization-reasons.html

Many business owners these days use virtual office address for SEO reasons to increase their productivity and empower their business!

good luck!!

Have you checked out the cost of a Regus virtual office before recommending it?

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