Can One Google Business Profile Cover Several Towns?

Usually not as several profiles. If you travel to your customers, you get one Google Business Profile and you list the towns you cover as its service area. A second profile only makes sense for a second real place you work from. Here is how to tell which one you are, and what to do about the towns your profile can't reach.

Can one Google Business Profile cover more than one town?

Yes, if you are a service-area business. That is Google's term for a business that visits or delivers to customers directly instead of serving them at its own address, which describes most plumbers, cleaners, mobile hairdressers and dog walkers. Google's own overview of Business Profile for service businesses says customers searching on Google can find your profile and the areas you serve.

Google's guidelines for representing your business say a service-area business should have one profile, with a designated service area. They also say a service area shouldn't stretch much further than about two hours of driving time from where you are based. So the towns around you can share one profile, and the list should be places you would honestly drive to for a job.

When can I have a second profile?

When you have a second real location. The same guidelines say there should be one profile per business location, and that you shouldn't create more than one page for the same location. A second shop or unit with its own staff and hours can have its own profile. A nearby town where you simply take jobs cannot.

This table is the quick way through it. It is our reading of Google's guidelines for a small business, not a ruling from Google, so check the situation against the page itself if yours is unusual.

What happens if I add profiles for towns I don't work from?

You risk losing the one you have. Google's guidelines say it reserves the right to suspend access to profiles that break them, and a listing for a place with no real business behind it is the sort of thing the rules exist to stop. A suspension can take your real profile with it, along with the reviews attached to it.

If it has already happened, our guide to getting a suspended profile back walks through the appeal. If you are on the other side, and a rival seems to have a profile in every town, our guide to reporting a fake business listing covers what Google lets you do.

How do I reach the towns my profile doesn't cover?

With your website, honestly. A profile is one listing. Your site can say plainly where you work, and it can carry real proof for the towns that matter to you.

• Start with one clear page. List the towns you cover, your prices where you can, and how to reach you. That alone is more than many sites do.
• Add a town page only when you have something real to say. A job you did there, a photo of it, a local detail a customer would recognise. Three honest town pages beat thirty.
• Never copy one page and swap the town name. Google's spam policies name this under doorway abuse, which includes pages "targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page". You can read the wording in its spam policies.

What should I do next?

Open your profile and look at the service area. Remove any town you would not really drive to, and keep your address hidden if customers never visit you. If the profile isn't showing at all, our guide to why a profile is not showing up is the place to start, and the wider set of fixes sits in fix your website and get found.

If your website doesn't say where you work, that is the gap worth closing. We build your whole website for free, you look round it, and you only pay if you want to keep it (setup from £495, then from £69 a month). Tell us where you work and we will build it with your service area on it.

Frequently asked questions

Can I list my home address in one town and cover another?

Yes, if you work at customers' addresses. A service-area business can choose not to show its address and list the areas it serves instead, so your home town and the towns around it can all sit in one profile.

Does adding more towns to my service area help me show up in them?

Nobody outside Google can promise that, and Google's help pages don't say a longer list ranks you higher. Treat the service area as an honest statement of where you work, not a lever.

What if a competitor has profiles in lots of towns?

If those towns have no real premises behind them, the profiles may break Google's rules. You can report a fake listing, and our guide to reporting one covers how. Don't copy them.