Google My Business Service Areas For SEO (Guide)
Google My Business service areas allow business owners and managers to specify locations their business serves. You can set up to 20 service areas based on the cities, postal codes, or other areas that your business serves.
Follow this guide to leverage service areas for your business profile:
When to use service areas
Businesses who use service areas should be either a service area business (also known as SAB) or a hybrid business.
✔️ Service area business – A business that provides services or goods directly to customers, but does not serve customers at their location / business address.
Example service area businesses:
- Professional cleaners
- Plumbers
- HVAC contractors
- Electricians
✔️ Hybrid business – A business that serves customers at their business address / storefront, and also serves or delivers directly to customers at customers’ locations.
Example hybrid businesses:
- Pizza restaurant (that offers dine-in and delivery)
- Home builders
- Interior designers
- Photographers
Pro Tip: Additionally, Google My Business attributes can be used to reinforce that your business delivers services or good directly to customers. This is especially true for restaurant businesses that offer dine-in, takeout, and delivery.
How to add service areas
Eligible businesses (such as those listed above) may add service areas to their Google Business Profile.
Follow these steps to add service areas to your business profile:
- Login to your business profile
- Select the location you wish to manage (if multiple locations)
- Click the Edit profile button
- Navigation to the Location info tab
- Add service areas
The Edit profile button found in Google Search once you’ve signed into your business profile.
Once clicked, find the Locations tab and the Service area section to add your business’s service areas.
Note: You can add up to 20 service areas to your business profile, and the boundaries of your overall area should not exceed more than about 2 hours of driving time from you business’s location.
Where service areas appear
Service areas appear in Google Search on mobile and other places across the web. Google will display relevant service areas with a Service areas profile feature.
Upon clicking this section, users will be taken to the business’s listed service areas (see below).
Service areas also may appear as local justifications, although this may be less common due to proximity as a ranking factor. For all of these reasons, service areas should not be overlooked when optimizing your Google My Business profile because they enhance SERP features and may positively influence click-through rates.
Additional considerations for SABs
For service area businesses (or SABs), it’s recommended to create an optimized local landing page for prominent service areas to generate more visibility in Google Search & Maps.
If you’ve followed these steps and have added service areas to your Google Business Profile, you should be on your way to generating more visibility, engagement, and conversions from your Local SEO campaign.
Happy SEO-ing 🙂