# Service-area businesses on Google: hiding your address and setting service areas

By Banish Angural · Published August 23, 2026 · Updated November 9, 2026

> If customers don’t visit your location, Google says to hide your address and set service areas instead. You can list towns, cities or postal codes, but your ranking is still influenced by where your business is based. Service areas show where you work; to win searches in other towns, you also need reviews and useful pages for those towns.

## Who counts as a service-area business

Plumbers, roofers, electricians, HVAC techs and inspectors who go to the customer. If you also have a shop customers visit during hours, you are a hybrid business and can show your address.

## How to set it up

1. In your profile, open **Edit profile › Location** and remove the address from public view.
2. Open **Service area** and add the towns or areas you serve.
3. Keep it realistic: the areas you actually travel to.

## What service areas don’t do

Adding a town does not guarantee you rank there. Proximity to your verified location still matters. To show up in [St. Albert](https://banishmedia.com/service-areas/st-albert/seo) or [Sherwood Park](https://banishmedia.com/service-areas/sherwood-park/seo), you also need reviews from customers there, pages about your work there, and local links.

## Don’t fake a location

Virtual offices and mailboxes used to appear in another town break Google’s guidelines and can get the profile suspended.

## Want to rank beyond your home base?

We help trades win customers across Edmonton and nearby towns the honest way. A [free audit](https://banishmedia.com/free-audit) shows where you appear on the map in each town today. See our [local SEO service](https://banishmedia.com/services/local-seo).

## Sources

- [Manage your service areas for service-area & hybrid businesses](https://support.google.com/business/answer/9157481), Google
- [Guidelines for representing your business on Google](https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177), Google

## Questions readers ask

### Should a contractor hide their address on Google?

Yes, if customers don’t visit your location. Google’s guidelines say service-area businesses should hide their address and list service areas.

### Does adding service areas help me rank in those towns?

Not much by itself. Rankings still depend heavily on where you are based, plus reviews, pages and links relevant to each town.