Answers

Should a home-based business show its home address on its website, Facebook page and listings?

Ascent Vision · Published October 25, 2026

Usually not. Google's guidelines say a business that travels to customers should hide its address, and they do not accept remote mailboxes or virtual offices as a profile address. A home-based business can show the towns it serves and say it works by appointment. The FTC's position is that commercial email needs a valid postal address, which can be a registered mailbox. This is a plain summary, not legal advice.

What Google says

The related answer on marketing a mobile or home-based business covers Google's rule for a business that travels to customers: hide the address and use a service-area profile. One detail it adds here: Google's guidelines say P.O. boxes or mailboxes at remote locations are not acceptable, and a virtual office is not eligible, so a mailbox is not a way around the home address on Google. For taking an address out of search results, see the related answer on removing a home address or phone number from Google.

Your website and Facebook Page

A business can usually name the towns it serves instead of a street. On a website, a service area, a phone number and a booking form often do the work an address does. On Facebook, look at what your Page shows the public under About. Meta's help page on a Page's address says only people with Facebook access to the Page can edit it, so start with whoever holds that access.

Commercial email is a separate question

The FTC's compliance guide for the CAN-SPAM Act says a commercial email must include your "valid physical postal address". It says this can be a current street address, a post office box registered with the U.S. Postal Service, or a private mailbox registered with a commercial mail receiving agency. That is the FTC's position, and the requirement it describes is for email messages. As general advice, a home-based business can often put a registered mailbox in its email footer and keep the home address private. This is a plain summary, not legal advice.

Appointments and safety

The same guidelines say certain types of business, including those that operate only by appointment, shouldn't provide hours. On the website, plain wording usually works: say you work by appointment, how to book, and the area you cover.

As general advice, think about who might arrive uninvited. A public street address may lead to unannounced visits, and meeting at the customer's location or in a public place is a common alternative.

Sources

1. Google Business Profile Help, "Guidelines for representing your business on Google"
2. Federal Trade Commission, "CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business"
3. Facebook Help Center, "Add or edit an address for your Facebook Page"

Related answers

• How do you market a mobile or home-based service business with no storefront?
• Can you get your home address or personal phone number out of Google results?
• Can you add customers to your email list without asking them first?