New features for service area businesses on Google My Business

Let’s say you’ve started your own business. The office you’ve leased is a 22 by 14 foot sprinter van. Every day, you find a new challenge in a new location across the areas you serve. You might be a plumber or an electrician or a landscaper, but above all you’re a business owner. We’ve recently made a few updates to Google My Business, so you can now share your service areas and information about your business via Google Maps and Search—so you can get found and tap into the many people searching for businesses like yours everyday.

For business owners signing up for the first time, we’ll guide you through the setup process with prompts for your local service area business. The process kicks off with the question: “Do you want to add a location customers can visit, like a store or office?” If the answer is no, you’re routed down the path tailored specifically for service-area businesses. This path lets you add the various areas you cover instead of a static address, which helps potential customers who find your business profile on Google know you serve their area.

Service areas are different from business to business. To help present the most accurate information to customers, you can configure your service area by adding the specific postal codes or cities you cover. Taking into account the changes every business goes through, these settings can be adjusted as needed—so there’s no need to worry about being locked into any specific area.

If you’re an existing Google My Business user, you can already edit your business information from the Google My Business dashboard. You’ll notice that the “service area” and “storefront address” can now be edited separately—if an address isn’t applicable to your business, you can easily clear it.

With this update, we hope to better connect you with potential customers in your service areas so consumers get the services they need and you find new (and hopefully returning!) customers.  Sign up for Google My Business online or download the app on Google Play or the App Store.