👉 What is a Service Area Business on Google Business Profile (GBP)?
Usually, businesses provide their services at a physical location, which is marked accordingly on Google Maps. But what should you do if your business serves customers not at its business address but instead visits or delivers to the customer's address?
A service area in GBP is the geographical area where the business provides its products and services, such as a city and its suburbs. Such a business is called a Service Area Business (SAB).
To use a service area, your business must be either a SAB or a Hybrid business type. When setting up a service area, keep in mind that: 👈
You can have up to 20 service areas per location.
The boundaries of your overall area should not extend farther than about 2 hours of driving time from where your business is based.
Being a Hybrid type of business, enter both your address and service area.
Being a SAB, leave the address field empty and only enter your service area.
Managing Service Areas in PromoRepublic
☝️ In order to create a location in PromoRepublic, defining an address is mandatory. If you want to create locations for businesses that only have service areas and no physical location, we recommend you add your invoice address to the platform.
Service area is available as a field in a Location’s Basic Data tab where you can define the name of the relevant service area, such as a city, postal code, state, region, etc. Feel free to use the suggestions that are auto-pulled in from Google.
The location's address will not be displayed. However the pin will be placed on the coordinates set in our platform. Defined service areas are not visually displayed on the Locator, nor listed on Pages.
Service Areas can only be managed on a per-location basis in the platform and via API, but not via the export function.
👉 Just like in Google Business Profile, you can set up your location in 3 different ways.
1. Location with just an address
1. Location with just an address
In PromoRepublic, the location will have an address, the option to hide the address is turned off and no service areas will be added.
2. Location with an address and service areas
2. Location with an address and service areas
In PromoRepublic, the location will have an address, the option to hide the address is turned off, and a service area will be added.
3. Location with only service areas with a hidden address
3. Location with only service areas with a hidden address
In PromoRepublic, the location will have an address (mandatory), an option to hide the address will be turned on, and a service area should be added. If no service area is specified, we will by default, send the zip code of the saved address as a service area:
🚩 Important notes
Hiding address | Setting up locations with only service areas requires hiding the address. This is not always possible on Google because only certain business categories are allowed to do it, such as supermarkets and gas stations.
Turning off the address display for a location that is currently verified will trigger a re-verification on Google. |
Bulk Verification | SABs are not eligible for Google's bulk verification. To verify a SAB, you will have to complete the standard verification methods that Google offers, such as email, phone, postcard, and business video. |
Post Card Verification | Even if your business has no physical location, Google might ask you to verify your business with a postcard. The address that you'll use won't be displayed on Google, and it will be used only for verification purposes. |
Video Verification | Being a SAB, you don't have a physical location, still Google might ask you to prove that your business is actually operating. In this case, you can demonstrate the equipment you use, a branded vehicle, marketing materials, business documents, invoices, utility bills, etc. |
Multiple Service Areas | Google currently supports up to 20 service areas per location. If more are needed, we recommend expanding the existing ones to cover larger areas. |
Setting a Service Radius | With September 3, 2019, these SABs are not longer supported on Google. All locations that used to have a radius are automatically converted to the closest named area. |
If you have any further questions, please contact us at
[email protected].