If customers don’t come to your place of business, Google wants your address hidden and the areas you serve listed instead. In your Business Profile, open Edit profile, then Location, edit Business location and turn off Show business address to customers. Then edit Service area and add up to 20 cities or ZIP codes. That’s the switch.
The parts that trip people up sit around it: whether you qualify, which areas to pick, what verification asks for, and whether your website tells the same story. This walk-through is for contractors who work from home, a truck or a yard customers don’t visit. It’s one piece of how we think about websites and search for contractors, where the profile and the site work as a pair.
First, check which kind of business you are
Google sorts local businesses into three setups, and the right one depends on where you meet customers, not on what looks best. Its Business Profile guidelines spell them out:
- Storefront. Customers come to you, and the place is staffed during the hours you list. Show the address.
- Service-area business. You go to the customer. Hide the address. Google’s own example is a plumber who runs the business from home.
- Hybrid. You have a shop or yard where customers can come during your hours, and you also travel to job sites. You can show the address and set a service area, as long as the location is staffed and can receive customers during its stated hours.
Some setups never qualify. The guidelines rule out virtual offices, and P.O. boxes or mailboxes at a remote location aren’t accepted as an address. A desk at a co-working space only counts with clear signage and staff there during business hours. Google’s eligibility page also lists online-only businesses and lead generation companies as not eligible, and says a business has to make in-person contact with customers during its stated hours. A contractor who meets customers at their homes and job sites meets that test.
Hide your address, step by step
Sign in with the Google account that owns the profile, then:
- Open your profile from business.google.com, or find it in Google Search or Maps while signed in.
- In Google Search, select Edit profile, then Location. In Google Maps, select Edit profile, then Business information, then Location.
- Next to Business location, select the edit (pencil) icon.
- Turn off Show business address to customers, then save.
Once the address is hidden, the profile shows a service area instead. If you never entered one, Google picks a local area for you by default, so go straight to the next step and replace it. These steps come from Google’s help page on setting or hiding your business address. Google renames menus from time to time; if a label doesn’t match what you see, that page has the current wording.
Set your service areas within Google’s limits
From the same Location screen:
- Next to Service area, select Edit.
- Pick from the suggested areas or type your own: cities, ZIP codes or another area type Google offers.
- Remove anything you don’t serve, then select Save.
Google’s service area help sets the rules: up to 20 areas, no radius distances, and an overall area that shouldn’t reach farther than about 2 hours of driving time from where you’re based. Google does allow that some businesses can justify a larger area. Approved edits can take up to 48 hours to show on the profile.
Choosing your 20
- Start with where the work is. List the towns where you’ve done jobs and want more, most important first.
- Leave out places you’d turn down. If you’d decline a job in a town because of the drive, don’t list it. A customer who calls from there and hears no has wasted a call, and so have you.
- Use a larger area only when it’s honest. If your work really covers a wider area evenly, a larger area type, where Google suggests one that fits, can say that in one entry.
- Note the edges. If a trip charge or a minimum job size starts past a certain point, say so on the website.
Listing an area tells customers where you work. It doesn’t guarantee you’ll appear in searches there, and Google doesn’t claim it does.
What verification may involve
A new profile has to be verified before customers can find it, and an existing one is sometimes asked again. Google’s verification page covers the basics:
- Google picks the method, and you can’t change it. Options include a phone call or text, email, a live video call, a mailed postcard and a recorded video. You may be asked for more than one.
- Reviews take time. Google says verification reviews take up to 5 business days, occasionally longer. Mailed codes usually arrive within 14 days and expire after 30.
- Don’t edit while a postcard is pending. Google says changing the business name, address or category can stop a mailed code from working.
- Answer the phone yourself. For phone verification, an automated phone menu won’t pass the code along, so someone has to pick up or read the text.
If you’re offered a video recording, Google asks a service-area business to show three things: where it operates (street signs or landmarks near where you’re based), proof the business exists (the tools or equipment you work with), and proof you manage it, for example opening your branded work van with your own key. The video has to be one unedited take of at least 30 seconds, recorded live on a phone through the profile, not filmed earlier and uploaded. If you run the business from home, Google says you can film landmarks and signs in your immediate neighborhood to verify the address.
Google’s help on verifying a business says a request to verify again usually comes after business details were recently updated. So make the switch in one sitting, check it, and leave the name and category alone for a while afterward.
Make the website match the profile
The profile and the website should describe the same business. A customer who sees one name on Maps and another on the site, or a phone number that doesn’t match, has a reason to hesitate.
- Same name. Google’s guidelines say the profile name should be your real-world business name, the one you use on your website and paperwork. Don’t add services or towns to the profile name, and spell it the same way on every page of the site.
- Same phone number. One number, as text and tap-to-call, on every page and on the profile. Google also asks for a number the business controls directly.
- Same hours. If the profile says 7 to 5, the contact page shouldn’t say 8 to 4.
- The same service areas, stated honestly. List the areas from your profile on a service area page or in the footer, with anything that changes at the edges. Give a town its own page only where you have real work and details to show; our guide to service area pages for contractors explains how.
- No address you’ve hidden. If the profile hides your home address, don’t publish it on the site. “Based in [town], [state]” is enough. Never list an address you don’t work from, and don’t rent a mailbox to look local somewhere else.
- Structured data that agrees. The site’s schema.org markup can list the same areas with the
areaServedproperty. Leave out a street address you don’t show customers. - The right link. Point the profile’s website field at your home page, or at the page that best represents the business.
If you also want help with what the site itself needs, our contractor website checklist goes through it point by point.
A five-minute check after the switch
On your phone, in a private browser tab so you see what customers see:
- Search for your business by name. The profile should show a service area and no street address.
- Tap the website link. It should land on a working page with the same name and number.
- Tap the phone number on the profile and on the site. Both should ring the same phone.
- Compare the hours and the list of areas in both places.
- Look over the site’s footer and contact page for an old address left over from before.
Fix anything that doesn’t match on the website first. It’s the side you control completely.
How we can help
We build contractor websites that line up with the Google profile: the same name, the same number, the same service areas, and town pages only where there’s real work to show. We can also prepare the profile details for you, while the sign-in and verification stay with you as the owner. If your profile and site don’t agree today, send us both links through our contact page. Our contractor websites page shows how the two fit together on a finished site.
