SEO for Local Businesses: Google First Asks How You Serve Customers

Three neighbors on the same street open Google Business Profile in the same week.

The electrician enters his home address, because that is the address on his invoices. The manicurist who works out of her own apartment does the same. The personal trainer enters the gym where he teaches every morning.

All three think they did the same thing. Google’s rules give three different answers, and none of them is the one they picked. The scene is made up. The answers come from the rules.

Every list of local SEO tips starts with the category, the photos, and the reviews. Before all of that comes a question almost nobody asks: how does the customer reach you?

The question that comes before the category

The entry rule for Business Profile fits in one sentence. To qualify, a business must make in-person contact with customers during its stated hours. ¹ A business that sells only online is left out. The piece on SEO for accounting firms shows what changes for a firm that serves the whole country without receiving anyone.

For businesses that serve people in person, Google’s guidelines open with two situations. The business has a physical location that customers visit, or it travels to customers where they are. ²

Picture three businesses on the same street. The bakery has a counter. The locksmith has a toolbox and a car. The auto repair shop has both, the garage and the tow truck. Each one reaches customers its own way, and Google gives each way a name and a rule. I call this the service model.

The name is ours, a working label at SEO Genome. Google’s own names for the three models are storefront business, service-area business, and hybrid business. ^{3 4}

The model decides four things. What the profile can show. What proof Google asks for to verify the business. What the site needs to say. And which mistake puts the profile at risk. The guidelines themselves open by saying that following them is how you keep the profile from being suspended. ²

The sign separates a storefront from everything else

For anyone who shows an address on Google, the guidelines make one short request. The business should keep permanent fixed signage of its name at that address. ² The help page on video verification repeats the idea. A storefront business serves customers in person, during business hours, at a location with permanent on-site signage. ⁴

Without a sign, Google itself tells you to switch models. A location without permanent signage does not qualify as a storefront and should be listed as a service-area business. ^{3 4}

Go back to the manicurist from the opening. She receives clients, but the door of her building does not carry her name. Under the sign rule, the apartment does not qualify as a storefront. The help pages I read do not describe someone who receives clients at home, without a sign, and never travels to them. In that situation, take the question to Business Profile support before you sign up.

Storefront: the address on display

What the profile can show. The real address, with a suite number or floor when there is one. ² The regular hours when customers are served. ² Seasonal businesses qualify too. Google’s example is an ice-skating rink open only in winter. It must display permanent signage at its location year-round. ¹ During the off-season, the profile can be marked as temporarily closed. ²

An office in a co-working space qualifies only with clear signage, customers received on site, and your own staff there during business hours. ²

There is a hard rule for businesses that move. Some businesses have an identity tied to the place, like restaurants, lodging, and entertainment venues. For them, Google rejects location edits. A business that moved marks the old profile as permanently closed and creates a new one at the new address. ⁵ Restaurants have more rules of their own in the guidelines, and those are covered in the piece on SEO for restaurants.

The proof Google asks for. In video verification, a storefront shows three things. The surroundings, with street signs, building numbers, and nearby businesses. The storefront, with the name printed on a permanent fixture, matching the name on the profile. And proof of management, like opening the cash register, going into the storage room, or using the point-of-sale system. ⁴

What the site needs. A page with the address written as it appears on the profile, under the name on the storefront. Google’s documentation for local business markup lists two required properties: the name and the address, described as the physical location of the business. ⁸ At a storefront, all four points tell the same story. The sign, the profile, the page, and the markup give the same address.

The mistake that puts the profile at risk. A P.O. box in place of the address. Business Profile policy says merchants who set their business address at a P.O. box will have their profile suspended. ⁵ And when Google determines that the business does not exist at the location it claims, the profile is disabled. ⁵

Service-area business: the hidden address

Locksmiths, plumbers, and cleaning services are Google’s examples. A business that travels to customers and does not serve anyone at its own address is a service-area business. ^{3 4} The electrician from the opening belongs here.

What the profile can show. One profile for the central office or location, with a designated service area. ² The address stays hidden from customers. The guidelines’ example is a plumber who runs the business from home and clears the address from the profile. ²

The service area is set by city, postal code, or other area, up to 20 areas. A radius drawn around the business is not accepted. ³ The overall boundary should stay within about two hours of driving time from where the business is based. ² And the help asks you to set the area as specifically and accurately as possible. ³

Two rules for this model almost never show up in tip lists. The first is about the number of profiles. A service-area business can have only one profile for the whole area it serves. ³ It gets one profile per location only when it has different locations, with separate service areas and separate staff at each. ²

The second is about what you sell. A business tied to products or services with a minimum age, like alcohol or weapons, needs a storefront. ^{2 3}

The proof Google asks for. Here the storefront leaves the scene. The video shows where the business operates, with street signs and nearby landmarks. If you work from home, you can record landmarks and signs in your immediate neighborhood. ⁴ Then come the tools, the equipment, the business cards, or the branded apparel. Finally, proof of management. You performing a service or unlocking a van with your business branding. Or a business permit, an invoice, or a utility bill that matches the name on the profile. ⁴

Notice what that list asks for before the video. Business cards, branded apparel, a branded van, and a bill in the company’s name all belong to the physical world. Whoever has none of them will feel it on the day they have to prove they exist.

What the site needs. A page that says where the business serves customers, with the same cities or areas as the service area. This is where a temptation lives, and Google’s spam policies give it a name. Their examples include multiple pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page. Google calls this doorway abuse. ⁹ Twenty city pages with the same text and a swapped name fit that description.

The hidden address also calls for care on the site. The guidelines say Google determines how best to display the address from the business’s information and from other sources. ² Local business markup asks for a physical address and does not cover service areas. ⁸ In my reading, a business that hides its address on the profile does not publish it on the site or in the markup. The areas it serves go in the text of the page.

The mistake that puts the profile at risk. The virtual office. A rented mailing address where the business does not operate is not eligible. ² And a service-area business can list an office like that only when it is staffed during business hours. ²

Hybrid business: the garage and the tow truck

The guidelines’ example is an auto repair shop with a garage for repairs and roadside service. ² The service area help gives another one, a dine-in restaurant that also delivers. ³

What the profile can show. The storefront address, the hours when staff are available, and a service area. ³ There is one condition. Say you serve customers at your address and want a service area. Then the location should be staffed by your team during its stated hours, ready to receive customers. ²

The proof Google asks for. The same as a storefront: the surroundings, the sign with the name, and employee-only access. ⁴ The sign decides here too. Without permanent signage, a hybrid goes back to being a service-area business. ³

What the site needs. In my reading, two separate parts. The address page, for people who come to you. And the service area page, for people who call you out, with the same areas as the profile.

The mistake that puts the profile at risk. A service area with an empty storefront. With nobody from the business at the address during business hours, the hybrid condition is no longer met. ²

More than one address

A chain with several locations follows two familiar rules. The same name and category across all locations, and one profile per location. ²

The rule that tends to slip by sits in the website field. The guidelines ask for a phone number or a website that represents each individual location. ² In my reading, each location’s profile points to that location’s page, with its own address and phone number.

The cases Google turns down, by name

The list of ineligible businesses is short and written down. ¹

1. An ongoing service, class, or meeting at a location you don’t own or have the authority to represent.
2. Lead generation agents or companies.
3. Brands, organizations, artists, and other online-only businesses.
4. Rental or for-sale properties, like vacation homes and vacant apartments. A sales or leasing office does qualify.
5. A business with a minimum-age product or service that operates without a storefront.
6. A P.O. box or mailbox address in a remote location.

Go back to the personal trainer. The gym belongs to another business, and his class happens there every morning. The first item on the list describes exactly that situation. If he also goes to his clients’ homes, the definition of a service-area business fits him. ³

The site the profile points to, in any model

Four rules apply to all three models, and all of them touch the site.

The website and phone are the authoritative ones. The eligibility policy has a section for people who manage a profile on the owner’s behalf. A third-party SEO company is among the examples. It says the profile’s phone number and website should be the single, authoritative ones for the business, verifiable by the owner. It also says website content must be owned and managed by the business owner. ¹ SEO Genome is that kind of company, and the rule applies to us.

The site’s address belongs to the business. The guidelines ban pointing the profile to pages other than the business’s own, and they name pages on social media sites. ² They also ask for a local number under the business’s direct control, instead of a central call center line. ²

Verification talks to the site. The verification options depend on the business type, public information, region, and business hours. ⁶ In some cases, verification can be instant. One of them is when the business website is verified in Search Console. ⁶

Name and address match the documents. If the profile is suspended, the appeal may ask for evidence. Official business registration, a business license, tax certificates, and utility bills can help. Each document should show a business name and address that match the profile. ⁷ And the help asks you not to create a new profile while the appeal is under review. ⁷

With the model settled, the fight for a place on the map begins. The factors in that fight are in the article on the three factors. The whole section is at local SEO. What an owner can do alone is in SEO for small businesses. And the work of getting your town to confirm your name is in becoming the go-to business in your town.

Three questions before you touch the profile

From now on, before you change a photo, a category, or the description, answer three questions on a sheet of paper.

Do customers come into your address? Is there a fixed sign with the business name there? Is someone from the business on site for all of the stated hours?

Three yeses point to a storefront. If you go to customers and answered no to the first, the model is service-area. If you do both, with the three yeses at your address, it is hybrid.

Then open the profile and the site side by side. Both need to tell the same model, with the same name and the same address or the same area.

Start today at the door. Step outside, take out your phone, and photograph your storefront straight on. If the business name does not show in the photo, you already know which model Google expects from you.