Google Local options for service area based businesses

Run a local business which doesn’t have a physical location but services a specific area?  Is your service area so specific that defining it is more applicable than simply providing the address of your main office?  Google’s Local Business Center wasn’t a friendly place in the past for those situations, at least until recently.

A new feature in Google’s Local Business Center now allows the business owner a few new options:

1. The ability to strike the business address from one’s listing
2. The ability to specify the areas where your company does business

Here’s a few local business examples where this new option works well:

• A mobile car detailing business
• A courier service that works in specific Zip codes
• A franchise business with rights only to specific cities or Zip codes
• A wedding florist who has no sales office but works regionally

Basically any business where the physical business location is less relevant (or irrelevant) but the service area is defined.

The settings are pretty simple.  If you already have a Google Local Business listing, here’s what you need to do:

Setting Service Area in the Google Local Business Center

1. Log in to Google and go to the Google Local Business Center
2. From the Dashboard tab, click the Edit link beside the listing you wish to update
3. Below the Basic Information heading there is now a new heading titled Service Areas and Location Settings
4. Select the radio button labeled Yes, this business serves customers at their locations
5. You can now specify if you wish your business address to appear or not as well as the area you service

There’s more information on service areas in Google Maps Help.

Tagged as: Google Local, Local Business Marketing, Local Search