I'm Ayman, from Ayman Results in Western Sydney. Nearly every tradie I work with runs the business from home. Plumbers, electricians, cleaners, tank cleaners, pressure cleaners. And nearly every one has asked me some version of "do I have to put my home address on Google?"
No, you don't. And if customers don't come to you, you shouldn't. Here's how to do it properly.
The short version
- If customers don't visit you, you're a service-area business. Hide your address and set a service area.
- Pick the suburbs or regions you actually work in, not the whole state.
- You'll rank strongest near your real address. Area pages, local job photos and reviews help you reach further.
- Never use a virtual office, PO box or someone else's address. It's one of the most common reasons tradie profiles get suspended.
Who counts as a service-area business?
Google splits businesses into roughly three types. A shop or office customers visit. A business that only goes to customers. And a mix of both, like a landscaping supplier with a yard that also delivers.
If you go to customers and they don't come to you, you're a service-area business. Most trades are. You still need a real address to set up the profile, because Google verifies it. You just don't show it publicly.
Step 1How to set it up
- In your Google Business Profile, open the business information and find your location settings.
- Switch off showing your business address to customers. Your address stays on file for Google, but it isn't shown.
- Add your service area: suburbs, cities or regions.
- Save, and avoid making lots of other big changes at the same time.
Google moves these menus around now and then, so the exact labels may differ. If you already have a profile showing your home address, hiding it is a normal, allowed change.
Step 2Choose your service area properly
Google lets you add up to 20 service areas. A common rule of thumb is to keep the whole area within about two hours' drive of where you're based. Pick the places you genuinely work and want more work in.
Setting your area to "Sydney" or "New South Wales" won't make you rank across it. Your service area is mostly about what you show customers. It isn't a ranking switch. And a huge area can look like a spam listing.
Your service area tells customers where you'll go. It doesn't tell Google to rank you there.
Step 3Ranking beyond your own suburb
Google still uses your real, hidden address as your location. So you'll naturally rank best around home, and fade with distance. That's why a Penrith electrician can be in the top 3 in Penrith and nowhere in Parramatta.
You can push your reach further by building relevance and prominence in the places you want:
- Area pages on your website. A genuinely local page for each main suburb or region: jobs you've done there, typical problems with homes in the area, how quickly you can get there.
- Job photos from those suburbs. Real photos of real jobs, posted to your profile regularly.
- Reviews that mention the suburb. Ask customers if they're happy to mention the job and where it was. Here's how to ask for reviews without being awkward.
- Google posts about recent jobs in your target areas.
These steps are all part of our full process in how to rank higher on Google Maps.
Address tricks to avoid
I see these all the time, usually because someone online said it would help them rank in a bigger suburb. They're all against Google's guidelines, and they're a common way profiles get suspended:
- Virtual offices and coworking addresses you don't staff.
- PO boxes and mailbox shops dressed up as a street address.
- A mate's or family member's address in a better suburb.
- One profile per suburb for the same business.
When a suspension hits, your reviews and rankings go with it. If it's already happened, here's how to get a suspended profile reinstated.
Verifying without a shopfront
Google often asks service-area businesses to verify with a short video. Have these ready before you start:
- Your signwritten van or ute, showing the business name.
- Your tools or equipment.
- Something that proves you run the business, like your ABN details, licence or a business document.
- Your general location, like your street, so Google can match it to the address on file.
The name on your van, documents and profile should all match exactly.
Try this week
- Check whether your home address is showing on your profile. If customers don't visit, hide it.
- Rewrite your service area as the 10 to 20 suburbs or regions you actually want work in.
If you're in Western Sydney, here's how we run SEO in Penrith and across Western Sydney.