A registered office address is the official address of a UK limited company or LLP, recorded at Companies House and shown on the public register, where legal documents and letters from government bodies are sent. It does not have to be where the company trades, and it is often the address of the company’s accountant or a company formation agent.
How a registered office address works
Every company must have one from the day it is incorporated, and it must be in the part of the UK where the company is registered: England and Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland. Since March 2024 it must also be an “appropriate address”, meaning post sent there will come to the attention of someone acting for the company. A PO box on its own no longer qualifies.
The address is public. Anyone can look it up on Companies House, and company websites, emails and order forms must show it as part of the trading disclosure rules, together with the company’s registered name and number. A sole trader has no registered office, because only incorporated businesses register at Companies House.
A company can change its registered office at any time by filing the change with Companies House. Its trading address, where customers visit or the work is run from, can be completely different.
Why it matters
For local marketing, the registered office raises one important decision: which address do you show to Google and to customers? Many small businesses register at their accountant’s office in a nearby town, or at a central London address supplied by a formation company, then put that same address on their Google Business Profile because it is on the paperwork.
Google’s guidelines say a profile address must be a real location where the business serves customers in person during its stated hours; businesses that visit customers instead hide their address and list service areas. An accountant’s office, a mail-forwarding service or a virtual office does not qualify unless customers really are served there. Using one risks suspension, and it places your local visibility around the wrong neighbourhood.
The decision then shapes NAP consistency. Whichever address you settle on for local listings, use it identically on your website, directories and profiles. The registered office still belongs in your legal disclosures, but label it as such, so neither Google nor customers mistake it for your trading location.
Common mistakes
- Putting the accountant’s address on a Google Business Profile because it matches Companies House.
- Showing the registered office on some directories and the trading address on others, which splits your citations between two places.
- Leaving the registered office off the website altogether, which breaks the trading disclosure rules for a limited company.
- Using a home address as the registered office without realising it becomes public. A registered office service or your accountant’s address keeps your home off the register.
- Forgetting to update listings after moving premises, so the old address lives on in citations for years.
How to act on it
Write down three addresses: the registered office, the trading address customers visit (if there is one), and the address you will use for local listings. If customers come to you, the listing address is your premises. If you go to them, set up your Google profile as a service area business with the address hidden, and decide whether directories will show your trading address or no address at all.
On your website, put the registered office in the footer or on a legal page, labelled “Registered office”, next to the company number, and keep the trading address and phone number on the contact page. Settling this before building citations is one of the first things I look at in Google Business Profile optimisation.