There has been an update to the Google Maps terms and conditions that will affect freelancers and companies that service customers at their home. On February 24, 2012, Andrew Shotland of LocalSEOGuide.com received a phone call from a Google employee who asked him if served clients at his listed address. He answered that he had both local and national clientele. The call ended, and the next time Andrew Shotland looked, his A-listing had vanished from Google Maps.

On March 22nd the official Google Places Quality Guidelines were updated to include the following language:

If you don’t receive customers at your location, you must select the “Do not show my business address on my Maps listing” option within your dashboard. If you don’t hide your address, your listing may be removed from Google Maps.

However, it is now believed that choosing the “Hide Address” feature will not negatively impact any type of local-focused rankings.