Hide your address if customers don't come to you
Google's own rule for a plumber, cleaner or contractor working from home is to hide the address:
"If you're a service-area business, you should hide your business address from customers. For example, if you're a plumber and run your business from your residential address, clear the address from your Business Profile." (Google Business Profile Help: Guidelines for representing your business)
Hiding it does not mean leaving it out. You still enter a real address Google can find, because that is how verification works; customers just don't see it (Google Business Profile Help: Manage your business address). Once hidden, your profile shows only your service area.
To hide it: open your Business Profile, select Edit profile, then Location. Next to "Business location", select Edit, turn off Show business address to customers, and save (Google Business Profile Help: Manage your business address).
Service-area business or storefront?
Which one you are depends on where you serve customers, not where you work.
| You | Google type | Address shown? | Service area? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plumber, cleaner or roofer working from home or a yard customers never visit | Service-area | No, hide it | Yes |
| Shop with signage, staffed and open to customers, that also goes out to jobs | Hybrid | Yes | Yes |
| Office customers visit, no field work | Storefront | Yes | No |
Without permanent on-site signage, Google says "it's not eligible as a storefront and should be listed as a service-area business" (Google Business Profile Help: Manage your service areas). A hybrid's location must be "staffed by your team and able to receive customers during its stated hours" (Google Business Profile Help: Guidelines).
How big can the service area be?
Up to 20 areas, picked by city, postal code or another named area. A radius around your address is no longer an option (Google Business Profile Help: Manage your service areas).
"The boundaries of your profile's overall service area shouldn't extend farther than about 2 hours of driving time from where your business is based. For some businesses, larger service areas may be appropriate." (Google Business Profile Help: Guidelines)
To set it: Edit profile, Location, then Edit next to "Service area".
Can I rank on Google Maps in another city?
Not by listing it. Google ranks local results mainly on relevance, distance and popularity, and defines distance as "how far each business is from the customer who's searching" (Google Business Profile Help: Tips to improve your local ranking). Google's help pages do not say that adding a city to your service area moves your ranking there. They also say there is no way to pay for a better local ranking (same source).
What Google allows instead:
- A real second location. If you have separate locations with separate service areas and separate staff at each, you're allowed one profile per location (Google Business Profile Help: Guidelines).
- Pages on your own website for the services and towns you really cover. Keep each one useful: Google's spam policies list "multiple domain names or pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page" as doorway abuse (Google Search Central: Spam policies).
- Ads, which can target any area you choose. See Google Ads for plumbers and HVAC.
What gets a service-area profile suspended?
Breaking Google's guidelines: Google "reserves the right to suspend access" for businesses that do (Google Business Profile Help: Guidelines). The rule service-area businesses most need to know is about addresses:
"If your business rents a physical mailing address but doesn't operate out of that location, also known as a virtual office, that location isn't eligible for a Business Profile." (Google Business Profile Help: Guidelines)
A co-working desk only counts if it has clear signage, receives customers and is staffed by your business during business hours (same source). And a service business gets one profile for its whole area, unless it has separate locations with separate staff and service areas (same source). Common mistakes:
- A mailbox or virtual office in the city you want to rank in.
- A second profile for the same business to cover more towns.
- Showing a home address customers aren't meant to visit.
If it already happened, see Google Business Profile suspended.
Example
Plumber working from home
One truck, based in a suburb, covers the metro area. He hides his home address, verifies with it, and lists 12 cities and postal codes, all within about an hour's drive. The profile shows "Serves: ..." with no street address.
Cleaner who wants a second city 3 hours away
A fake address there isn't eligible. A second profile is allowed only once there is a real location there with its own staff and service area. Until then: website pages for that city's services, and ads.
Roofer with a showroom
Staffed showroom with signage, open set hours, plus crews on the road. That is a hybrid: show the address, add a service area.
Different for you?
- Profile suspended after a change: Google Business Profile suspended.
- Asked to verify by video with no storefront: Google Business Profile video verification.
- Profile live but not showing up: Google Business Profile not showing.
- Competitors ranking with fake addresses: Report fake Google Business listings.
- Ongoing local search and listing work: SEO & GEO.