Service-area business.In plain English.

If customers don't come to your address, Google's guidelines ask you to hide it on your Business Profile and list the areas you serve instead.

That includes running the business from home. Google's own example is a plumber working from a residential address, who should clear the address from the profile.

You can set up to 20 service areas by city, postal code or other area, but not as a radius, and the overall area shouldn't reach more than about 2 hours' drive from where the business is based. Google asks you to be as specific and accurate as possible.

Google's video verification asks you to record street signs, nearby landmarks or other identifiers to confirm your location.

Listing the towns you really serve also gives AI assistants a clear answer when someone asks who covers their town.

Example: a roofer working from home clears the address, lists the 12 towns and ZIP codes the crews actually cover, and leaves out the city two and a half hours away.