Service Area Business (SAB).

Google distinguishes three profile types: a storefront with customer traffic, a service area business without customer traffic, and the hybrid of both. An SAB travels to the customer — trades, cleaning, mobile care, on-site consulting. For this type Google requires the address in the profile to be hidden and a service area to be entered instead. Anyone who publicly lists a private or coworking address although no customers are received there breaches the guidelines and risks having the profile suspended.

The service area is not a wish list. Google limits the number of areas that can be entered per profile, and it still weights distance from the actual location heavily: an area several hours' drive away produces virtually no local visibility. It therefore makes sense to enter only those municipalities where work genuinely happens on a regular basis. The area should also agree with the details on the website and in directories, because Google and AI assistants cross-check these sources against each other.

SAB status has consequences for the website. Without a public address, a strong local signal that a storefront receives for free is missing. That has to be balanced through content: dedicated pages per location with genuine local substance, references and reviews from the area, plus a correctly set areaServed in the LocalBusiness schema. Honest wording matters here. 'We work across the canton of Zurich' is fine; 'our office in Winterthur' without an office in Winterthur is not. Invented locations are a common reason for profile suspensions.

A case from the region: a business based in Zollikon looks after customers along the Goldküste as far as Stäfa and in the Glattal. Set up correctly, that means the address is hidden, the service area lists the municipalities actually served, and there is a dedicated page for each location with evidenced demand, honestly describing whether the work happens on site or remotely. For more distant places such as Bern or St. Gallen, the support is described as regional rather than as a local presence.