How do I set my service area on Google?
Short answer
Open your Google Business Profile for editing, go to the location section, and add the places you serve by name, such as cities or postal codes. List where your crews really go, within a reasonable drive of your base. The setting tells customers where you work. It doesn't make you rank there.
You set your service area by editing your Google Business Profile and adding the places you serve, by name, in the location section. It takes a few minutes. Deciding which places to add takes more thought than the clicks do, and the setting does less than most owners expect.
The steps
- Sign in to the Google account that owns or manages the profile.
- Search Google for your business name, or open the profile in the Google Maps app.
- Choose the option to edit the profile and find the location section.
- In the service area field, start typing a place and pick it from Google’s suggestions. Repeat for each place.
- Save. Google may review the change before it shows on the public listing.
Google moves these menus around. If your screen doesn’t match the steps above, the Google Business Profile help pages have the current version.
Which places to add
List where your trucks go in a normal week. You choose areas by name from what Google offers, such as cities or postal codes, and each has its use.
| Type of area | When it fits |
|---|---|
| Cities | You cover the whole city, and you want a list customers can read at a glance |
| Postal codes | You cover part of a large city and not the rest of it |
| A larger region, where Google offers one | You really do cover all of it on a normal schedule |
Take a hypothetical electrician based in La Mesa who works the eastern neighborhoods of the city of San Diego but not the coast. Postal codes describe that better than adding the whole city. A company in Chula Vista that reaches Fallbrook once a year should leave Fallbrook off.
Google limits how many areas a profile can list, and its guidelines expect the whole area to sit within a reasonable drive of where the business is based. Both are Google’s to change, so check what the field currently allows before planning around a number.
What the service area doesn’t do
The point your rankings are measured from stays where it was. Adding Oceanside to the list doesn’t make a company based in El Cajon appear in the map results for someone searching in Oceanside. Distance is the reason, and it’s also why you rank near your office but not across town.
A longer list isn’t a stronger one. The list tells customers where you’ll come, and it should be true.
Service area and address belong together
If you don’t receive customers at your address, Google’s guidelines say to hide the address on your Google Business Profile and rely on the service area. If you have a staffed location that customers visit and your crews also travel, the address stays visible and the service area is added alongside it.
After you save
Check the public listing from a phone, signed out of your account, to see what a customer sees. Then make sure your website names the same places. A profile that lists twelve cities and a site that mentions three describe two different companies. For the cities that matter most, service area pages are where the site can say something specific.
Update the list when your territory changes. I use the same set of places for the rank grid, so the area being measured is the area the profile claims. That check is one piece of service area setup.