I work from home. Should my address show on Google Business Profile?

Let us imagine a cleaner who runs her small company from the spare room at home. She has two employees, a van, a phone that never stops, and a Google Business Profile she created one evening in a hurry. During setup she typed her home address, because Google asked for an address. Now her house appears on Google Maps with her company name on it, and strangers could, in theory, knock on her door on a Sunday.

She has two worries. The first is privacy. The second is the fear many trades owners share: if she hides the address, will her business vanish from Google Maps?

Google has written clear rules for this situation. Let us read them together, and then look honestly at what Google does, and does not, say about ranking.

What does Google mean by a service-area business?

Google's help page on service areas defines it in one sentence: "A business that visits or delivers to customers directly but doesn't serve customers at their business address." Plumbers, electricians, cleaners, dog walkers, mobile mechanics and painters usually fit this description. They go to the customer.

A storefront business is the opposite: the customer comes to you, at an address with a door and opening hours. A restaurant, a hair salon, a dental clinic.

And there is a third kind, which Google calls hybrid. Its guidelines give the example of "auto repair shops that have a garage for repairs and offer roadside service." Customers visit the garage, and the mechanic also drives out to them.

| Your situation | What Google's guidelines say to do | |---|---| | Customers come to your premises, and you never travel to them | Show the address. No service area is needed. | | Customers come to your premises, and you also travel to them | Show the storefront address and designate a service area. | | You travel to customers, and nobody visits your premises | Hide the address and designate a service area. | | You work from home and customers never come to your home | Clear the home address and set a service area. |

So should the home address show?

For our imagined cleaner, the answer from Google is direct. Its guidelines for representing your business say: "If you're a service-area business, you should hide your business address from customers." And then, as an example that could have been written for her: "if you're a plumber and run your business from your residential address, clear the address from your Business Profile."

So hiding the address is the correct setup, according to Google. It protects your home, and it follows the rules.

There is one exception worth thinking about. If customers do come to your home, for example a hairdresser with a small salon room in the house who welcomes clients during stated hours, then your home works as a storefront, and you would show the address. The question is always the same one: do customers come to this address to be served?

What about a virtual office or a mailbox address?

Some owners think of a clever solution: rent a mailing address downtown and put that on the profile. Google does not allow it. Its guidelines say: "If your business rents a physical mailing address but doesn't operate out of that location, also known as a virtual office, that location isn't eligible for a Business Profile."

The same guidelines say a service-area business "should have one profile for the central office or location with a designated service area", and they warn: "Do not create more than one page for each location of your business, either in a single account or multiple accounts." So one profile, with the real base hidden and the service area set. A profile that breaks the guidelines can be restricted by Google, and we describe what that looks like in what to do when your Google Business Profile is suspended.

How do you hide the address?

Google's help page on managing your business address gives these steps.

1. Go to your Business Profile.
2. Select Edit profile, then Location.
3. Next to Business location, select Edit.
4. Turn off Show business address to customers.
5. Select Save.

Google explains the result: "If you hide your business address, your Business Profile will only show your service area. If you don't enter a service area, a local area is chosen for you." That second sentence is important. If you skip the service area, Google chooses an area for you, and it may not match where you actually work. So always set it yourself.

Changes to a profile are not instant. Google's address page says edits usually appear within 10 minutes, and in some cases can take up to 30 days.

How do you set the service area, and what are the limits?

The steps, again from Google's help page on service areas:

1. Go to your Business Profile.
2. Select Edit profile, then Location.
3. Next to Service area, select Edit.
4. Select a suggested service area or enter one.
5. Select Save.

Two limits apply. The first is a number: "You can have up to 20 service areas." The second is distance. Google sets the outer boundary of your overall area at 2 hours of driving time from where your business is based, and it describes that limit as approximate.

Naturally, "where you are allowed to list" and "where you should list" are two different questions. A cleaner based in one suburb who lists 20 towns, including some she visits once a year, is describing her business less honestly than one who lists the eight places where most of her clients live. Choose the areas you truly serve, and you will spend your time on customers you can reach.

One more rule, for completeness. If a business wants to remove all service areas, Google says "you must be a storefront business with your business address in your Business Profile." A service-area business, by Google's own design, always has a service area.

What happens to your Maps ranking when the address is hidden?

This is the question our cleaner cares about most, and here we must be honest about the limits of what is documented.

Google's help page Tips to improve your local ranking on Google says local results are based mainly on three things. Relevance is how well a profile matches what someone searched for. Distance, in Google's words, "refers to how far each business is from the customer who's searching." Prominence "means how well-known a business is", and is based on information such as "how many websites link to your business and how many reviews you have."

Google's help pages do not explain how distance is calculated for a profile whose address is hidden, and they do not describe any ranking change caused by hiding the address. You will find many opinions on the internet about this. We will not add another guess.

What is documented is enough to decide. Google tells a home-based service business to hide the address. Following that rule keeps the profile within the guidelines, and a profile outside them can be restricted. And the ranking work that Google does describe is the same for every business: complete and accurate information, accurate hours, replies to reviews, photos. As Google itself writes, "There's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google."

For the wider strategy, including service pages on your website for each area you cover, read our guide to local SEO for service-area businesses. And if you are starting from zero, the Google Business Profile setup guide walks through every field.

What should the website say about the address?

This part is outside Google's help pages, so take it as our advice. Once the address is hidden on Google, check your own website with the same eyes. Many home businesses still print the full home address in the footer or on the contact page, because a template asked for it years ago. If you hid it on Google for privacy, remove it from the site as well. In its place, write the towns and neighbourhoods you serve, in plain words, the same list you entered as your service area. A customer then reads one consistent story in both places: who you are, how to call you, and where you come to work.

What should our imagined cleaner do this week?

The plan is short. Hide the home address with the five steps above. Add the towns and neighbourhoods where her clients actually live, staying inside Google's limits. Check that her phone number, hours and categories are complete. Then return to the steady work: asking every happy client for a review, and adding photos of real jobs.

Licheo does the website, search and AI work that big companies pay whole teams for, done for your small business, including a Business Profile set up correctly for the way you work. If you would like a first look at how your business shows up online, the free Get Found Check reads your homepage and your domain settings and returns a grade in under 60 seconds.

Sources

1. Guidelines for representing your business on Google, Google Business Profile Help, Google, accessed 29 September 2026.
2. Manage your service area, Google Business Profile Help, Google, accessed 29 September 2026.
3. Manage your business address, Google Business Profile Help, Google, accessed 29 September 2026.
4. Tips to improve your local ranking on Google, Google Business Profile Help, Google, accessed 29 September 2026.