How to set a Google service area if you work from home or a van

Most of the trades I look after do not have a shop. A plumber, an electrician, a landscaper or a roofer leaves home or the van and goes to the customer. Google still wants an address it can check, and a service area that shows where you will come out.

Both settings sit on your Google Business Profile. I will not invent a figure for map positions. Match the area to the jobs you take.

Shop front, or service area

Google uses two setups. A service-area business visits the customer and does not serve people at its own address. A hybrid business does both.

If nobody comes to the house or the van, you are a service-area business. Hide the address and list the places you cover. Google's guide to service areas says this kind of business should have one profile for the area it serves.

If people can walk in, show the address. A yard with a counter, or a workshop with a sign and staffed hours, can be a shop front. Add a service area only for the jobs you still travel to. Google's Business Profile guidelines say that place should be staffed during the hours you publish, and that a site with no permanent sign is not a shop front. A lock-up you never open does not qualify.

A painter and decorator with ladders in the garage is the first type. A roofer with a trade counter the public uses is the second.

Hide the home address

The address you give Google does not have to appear on the public listing.

Sign in at business.google.com with the account that owns the profile. Open Edit profile, then Location. Next to the business location, choose Edit, and turn off "Show business address to customers". The same steps are on Google's page about managing your business address. If the labels have moved, search that help for hiding your address.

The listing should then show the service area. Leave that area empty and Google says it picks a local area for you, so set the towns yourself and check the public listing on your phone.

Choose areas you will actually drive to

You cannot draw a circle of miles around the house. If an old profile still has a radius, Google says you cannot edit that circle. Replace it with cities, postcodes or other areas. You can add up to 20. Keep the whole area within about two hours' drive of where you are based. Google says some businesses can cover more. A one-van firm rarely needs the extra reach.

List places you have worked in the last few months. A plumber in Hove who usually covers Brighton, Hove, Shoreham and Worthing should list those, and leave Eastbourne, Crawley and Kent off unless the jobs are really there. A landscaper who will not cross the A27 for a half-day job should leave the far side off. Use a postcode where a town name is too wide. Twenty places you decline are a worse list than eight you mean.

Skip the fake office

A virtual office, a mailbox shop or a rented postal address is a poor shortcut. Google's guidelines say a mailing address you do not operate from is not eligible for a profile. A service-area business cannot list a virtual office unless it is staffed during the hours you publish.

Use the real home address and hide it. Do not borrow a friend's unit, a customer's yard or an old employer's shop. This is a frequent reason a profile gets suspended. Show a real workshop later, once it has a sign and staffed hours the public can use.

Let the website name the same towns

The profile and the site should describe one patch. If Google lists eight towns and the website lists two, the customer has two stories.

A page for each service, and for each area you cover, holds detail that will not fit in a list of 20. Only add a page for a place you will go. Use one spelling in both places, so Shoreham-by-Sea and Shoreham do not drift apart. Put the phone number you answer from the van on both.

Mistakes, and the fix

The house is still public. Turn the address off, save the service area, and check the listing on another phone.

An old radius is still there. Replace the circle with towns or postcodes.

The list is every town inside two hours. Delete the ones you turn down.

A second profile covers another town. You get one profile for the area you serve. A Worthing listing and a Lewes listing are duplicates. Edit the one you have.

The address is a virtual office or a PO box. Remove it, enter the real address, and hide it before any appeal. This is not legal advice.

The site, or the business name, tells a different story. Update the site in the same week. Towns belong in the service area. The name stays the one on the van and the invoice.

A short checklist

1. If customers cannot visit, set the profile up as a service-area business.
2. Enter the real address, then hide it.
3. Replace any radius with the towns or postcodes you work, up to 20, inside a drive you will make.
4. Leave out virtual offices, mailbox shops and borrowed units.
5. Keep one profile for the whole area.
6. Use the same town names on the website, and only add a page for a place you will go.
7. Open the public listing and read it as a customer would.

If you want me to read the area already on the listing, start with a free website and Google review. Tell me the trade, and the towns you will actually drive to. I will say whether the address should be hidden, and which places I would take off.