If you visit customers and they do not come to you, Google treats you as a service-area business. Turn off your public address, add the towns or postcodes you serve, and keep one profile for the whole area. Home-visit physios, mobile beauticians, tutors, and repair or cleaning businesses usually fit here.
Service-area or hybrid?
Google uses two definitions:
- Service-area business: one that visits or delivers to customers directly but doesn't serve customers at its business address. A tutor who only teaches in students' homes fits.
- Hybrid business: one that serves customers at its business address and also visits or delivers to them. A physio with a clinic who also does home visits fits.
Google says a service-area business should have one profile with a designated service area, not one profile per town it covers.
Hide your address
Google says to hide your address only if you are a service-area business. If you do, your profile shows your service area instead. A hybrid business keeps its address showing.
- Open your Business Profile on Google Search or Maps and select Edit profile, then Location.
- Next to Business location, select edit.
- Turn off Show business address to customers.
- Select Save.
Add your service areas
- Open your Business Profile and select Edit profile, then Location.
- Next to Service area, select Edit.
- Pick from the suggested areas or type the towns, cities or postal codes you serve.
- Select Save.
Address: hidden. Patients never come to her flat. Service areas: Baner, Aundh, Pashan, Balewadi, Wakad and Kothrud, all within about 40 minutes' drive. Six areas, well under Google's limit of 20. Not added: Mumbai, more than 2 hours away, and a 10 km radius, which Google does not accept. One profile covers all six areas.
Mistakes that break Google's rules
- A virtual office. Google says a rented mailing address that you don't operate from isn't eligible for a Business Profile.
- A PO box or remote mailbox as your address. Google does not accept them.
- A co-working desk. Google only allows one with clear signage, customers received there and your staff present during business hours.
- A separate profile for every town. Keep one profile and list the towns as service areas.
- A home address left on show when customers never visit it.
Common problems
- Why can't I set a radius, such as 15 km around my home?
- Google says you can't set your service area as a radius around your business. Add the towns, cities or postal codes inside that distance instead.
- I cover more than 20 places.
- Google caps service areas at 20. Choose larger areas, such as a city or district, instead of every neighbourhood, and keep the whole area within about 2 hours of driving.
- Some clients come to my home studio. Am I hybrid?
- Under Google's definition you are hybrid if you serve customers at your business address. If you do, keep the address showing and add service areas too. If customers never come to you, hide it.
- My changes have not appeared yet.
- Google says profile changes usually show in about 10 minutes but can take up to 30 days.
Keep service areas current as you take on new ones
With Reach
The Service areas card on your Reach profile page lists the places you travel to and adds new ones by name, up to Google's limit of 20. For some locations it also suggests nearby towns. Changes publish when you press Save to Google, and Google has to match each name to a real place.
If your listing is a storefront today, Reach asks you to confirm before adding areas, because that tells Google you also travel to customers. Reach does not hide your address and cannot remove your last service area; do both in Google.