GBP for Service Area Businesses: Complete SAB Guide
If your business travels to customers instead of customers coming to you, you're a Service Area Business (SAB). This guide covers the specific GBP rules, strategies, and common pitfalls for SABs.
What Is a Service Area Business?
A Service Area Business (SAB) is a business that serves customers at their location rather than at a physical storefront. Common examples include:
SAB vs Storefront: Key Differences
| Feature | Storefront | SAB | Hybrid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Address shown | Yes, public | Hidden | Yes, public |
| Map pin | At business address | Center of service area | At business address |
| Service area | Optional | Required | Optional |
| Directions link | Available | Not available | Available |
| Proximity ranking | From address | From hidden address | From address |
| Example | Restaurant, Salon | Plumber, Cleaner | Florist with delivery |
Setting Up Your SAB Profile
- Create or claim your GBP — Enter your business address during setup (this stays hidden for SABs)
- Select "Yes" for service area — When asked "Do you deliver goods or services to your customers?" select Yes
- Clear your address — In business info, toggle off "Show address" or clear the address field so it's hidden from the public
- Set service areas — Add up to 20 cities, counties, states, or zip codes you serve
- Complete verification — You'll still need to verify at your hidden address via postcard or other method
🚫 Critical Rule
Your address MUST be hidden if you don't serve customers at that location. Showing a home address, PO Box, virtual office, or coworking space address violates guidelines and risks suspension. See our suspension recovery guide.
Choosing Your Service Areas
Google allows up to 20 service areas. Strategy matters:
✅ Best Practice
- • Set areas you actually serve regularly
- • Be honest about your service radius
- • Use city names rather than zip codes
- • Keep total drive time reasonable (~2 hours)
- • Prioritize areas where you want more work
❌ Avoid
- • Setting an entire state as service area
- • Adding areas you rarely serve
- • Overlapping service areas of multiple listings
- • Changing areas frequently
The Proximity Problem for SABs
Here's the biggest challenge: even though your address is hidden, Google still uses it to determine proximity ranking. This means:
- You'll rank best for searches near your hidden address (usually your home)
- You'll rank poorly for searches on the other side of your service area
- There's no way to "choose" where Google centers you differently than your actual address
Strategies to Compensate
- Get reviews mentioning specific cities — "Great plumber in [City Name]" helps signal serving that area
- Create city-specific pages on your website — Link each to your GBP profile
- Post about jobs in different areas — "Just finished a water heater install in [City]!"
- Build citations in local directories for the areas you want to rank in
- If budget allows — open a legitimate office in a key market area
Content Strategy for SABs
Your website content should support your GBP with location-specific pages:
Recommended Page Structure
/services/plumbing-repair/
/service-areas/austin-tx-plumber/
/service-areas/round-rock-tx-plumber/
/service-areas/cedar-park-tx-plumber/
Each city page should have genuinely unique content — mention local landmarks, common local plumbing issues (e.g., hard water in specific areas), service call responses times to that area, etc. Avoid thin, templated city pages that just swap the city name.
SAB Optimization Checklist
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