If customers come to your shop, Google wants your address shown. If you go to the customer, like most plumbers, roofers and HVAC companies, you're a service-area business, and the rules are a little different.
Getting this setting wrong is one of the most common Google profile mistakes we see.
#Storefront or service-area business?
Ask one question: do customers visit your location during business hours?
- Yes: show your address. You're a storefront, or a hybrid if you also go out to jobs.
- No: hide your address and set service areas instead. Most contractors working from home or a yard that customers don't visit fall here.
Showing a home address that customers can't visit goes against Google's guidelines, and it also puts your home on a public map.
#How to set your service areas
When your address is hidden, you tell Google where you work by adding service areas: cities, ZIP codes or counties.
Some tips:
- Be realistic. List the areas you actually drive to. Adding far-away cities doesn't help you rank there and brings in calls you'll turn down.
- Use cities and ZIP codes your customers know. "Frisco" means more to a homeowner than a county name.
- Keep it focused. A tight area you really serve is better than a huge one you don't.
#Will hiding my address hurt my rankings?
Your business still has a location in Google's systems even when it's hidden, and distance still matters. Hiding the address doesn't remove you from the map. It just stops showing the address publicly.
What matters more for your visibility is everything else: categories, services, reviews, website pages and citations.
#Don't use a fake address
Virtual offices, mailbox stores and coworking desks you don't actually staff are a fast way to get a profile suspended. If you want to show up in another city, the honest way is to do real work there, earn reviews from customers there, and build a useful page about your service in that city on your website.
Not sure your profile is set up right? Our Google Business Profile management covers it, or start with a free audit.