Google Business Profile service areas for tradespeople who work from home

Can a tradesperson who works from home have a Google Business Profile?

Yes. A Google Business Profile (GBP for short) is the free listing that puts a business on Google Search and Maps, and Google's guidelines open by saying you can create one if your business has a place customers can visit, "or travels to customers where they are". That second half is you. A roofer who keeps the van on the drive and the ladders in the garage is exactly the kind of business Google calls a service-area business.

The thing that trips people up is the address. Google needs to know where you are based, because that is how it checks you are real and works out the areas you cover. It does not need to show that address publicly, and for a business run from home its guidelines say you should not.

In Google's terms there are three kinds of profile. A storefront business has a physical location that customers visit. A service-area business (people in the trade shorten it to SAB) goes to its customers and hides its address. A hybrid business does both.

Should you show your address or hide it?

The deciding question is simple: do customers come to you? Most trades will land on the first row of this table.

Google's own example is a plumber. If you "run your business from your residential address", its guidelines say to clear that address from the profile. The hybrid row only applies if people genuinely turn up at a place you work from, such as a timber yard with a trade counter.

How do you set up a Google Business Profile as a service-area business?

Have your trading name, phone number and the list of towns you cover to hand before you start. Verification is a separate step, covered further down.

1. 1Enter your business name exactly as it appears on your van, quotes and invoices. Leave out towns, services and slogans.
2. 2Choose the category that describes the trade itself, such as roofer or electrician, and add the extra categories that are genuinely true.
3. 3Say that you visit customers, then enter your real physical address so Google can verify you. Do not use a PO box or a rented mailing address.
4. 4Add your service areas as towns, cities or postcodes. You can list up to 20.
5. 5Add a phone number you answer yourself and your website, if you have one.
6. 6Complete the verification step Google offers, then check the public profile shows your service areas and no street address.

How do you hide your address on Google Business Profile?

If you set the profile up with your address showing, you can change it later. Google's service-area page puts it plainly: "If you don't serve customers at your business address, remove your address from your Business Profile." At the time of writing, the steps in Google's article on managing your business address are: go to your Business Profile, select Edit profile, then Location, select Edit next to Business location, turn off the "Show business address to customers" setting and save. Add your service areas at the same time, because if you leave them blank Google picks a local area for you. If approved, service area edits can take up to 48 hours to show.

Which service areas should you list?

List the towns and postcodes you genuinely work in and would take a job in tomorrow. Google asks you to be as specific and accurate as possible. It caps the list at 20 areas and asks you to name them, so a radius drawn round your postcode is not an option. Its guidelines also say the whole area "shouldn't extend farther than about two hours of driving time" from your base, though it allows that some businesses genuinely cover more. A Doncaster plasterer who works across Rotherham, Barnsley and the Isle of Axholme is well inside that. The profile only covers the map listing, though. Ranking for searches like "plasterer Doncaster" also depends on the website behind it, which is what our local SEO for Doncaster trades and our SEO programme for Rotherham businesses work on. Filling all 20 slots with towns you have never worked in is a different matter: the numbers allow it, but it makes the profile less believable to the people reading it.

Can you switch an existing profile from an address to a service area?

Yes, and you should keep the same profile when you do. If the profile still shows a unit or office you have since left for home, the same rule applies: you no longer serve customers at that address, so remove it and enter your service areas. Do not open a second profile to start afresh. Google's guidelines say not to create more than one page for each location, and it may suspend profiles that break its guidelines.

Does hiding your address affect where you show up on Google Maps?

Google does not say that it does. Its page on local ranking says results are mainly based on relevance, distance and prominence, and that there is no way to request or pay for a better position. It gives no advice to show an address you do not serve customers from in order to rank, and following the guidelines is what keeps the profile live. Treat any claim that showing your home address will lift you up the map as a guess, and weigh it against the rule that tells you to hide it.

What does Google not allow on a trade profile?

These are the rules from Google's guidelines that most directly affect someone working from home. Google may suspend a profile that breaks them.

• Virtual offices. Renting a postal address you do not work from does not make it a business location, and that location is not eligible. A co-working space only counts if the office has clear signage, receives customers during its opening hours and is staffed by your own people in those hours.
• PO boxes and remote mailboxes. These "aren't acceptable", in Google's words.
• Extra words in the business name. Your name "should reflect your business' real-world name". Google's own examples strip "Auto Service Experts" from "Midas", and it lists service information and location information among the things you cannot add. "Smith & Sons" is fine; "Smith & Sons Roofing Doncaster Emergency Repairs" is not, unless that is genuinely what is painted on the van.
• Using categories as keywords. Google's wording is "Do not use categories solely as keywords". Pick the ones that describe what you do.
• More than one profile. Google says not to create more than one page for each location, in one account or several. A second profile for the next town over counts.
• Phone numbers you do not control. The number "must be under the direct control of the business", premium-rate numbers are never accepted, and Google prefers a local number to a call centre line.

How does Google Business Profile verification work for a home-based business?

You do not get to choose. Verification methods "are automatically determined by Google and can't be changed", and the options depend on your type of business, your region and the information already public about you. You might be offered a phone call or text, an email, a live video call, a postcard or a video recording.

For a trade with no premises, the video recording is the one to prepare for. Google's video verification page asks a service-area business for three things in one continuous, unedited clip of at least 30 seconds, filmed live on your phone through the profile:

• street signs, landmarks or something else that shows where you are based;
• the professional tools, equipment or products you use for work;
• you doing the job, or opening something only the business can access, such as the locked van.

You can also show a business document, such as an invoice or a utility bill, that matches the name on the profile. Google asks you to keep bank, tax and ID numbers, other people's private details and other people's faces out of shot. Plan the route before you press record, because a clip with a break in it will not count.

Once you have finished, verification reviews take up to five working days. If you are sent a postcard, most codes arrive within 14 days and stop working after 30. Do not edit the name, address or category while you wait, and do not request a second postcard, because the new code cancels the old one.

Why do Google Business Profiles get suspended?

Google may suspend or disable profiles "that don't follow our guidelines". The guidelines are the list, and for a home-based trade the rules in the section above are the ones to check first: the address, the name, duplicate profiles and the phone number.

A suspended profile is hidden from the public and its owners cannot make changes. To get it back:

1. Fix the cause first. An appeal for a profile that still breaks the rules is wasted.
2. Gather proof that the business is real at that address. Google suggests business registration, a licence, tax certificates or a utility bill, with the name and address matching the profile.
3. Submit through the Google Business Profile appeals tool. Google says appeals "can only be submitted once", so do it properly the first time. If it is refused, you may be able to ask for one further review with new evidence.
4. Do not create a new profile for the same business while you wait.

Google emails you the decision. It does not say how long that takes.