Google Maps Finally Supports Service-Based & Home-Based Businesses in 2010

Google Maps has added a new feature that enables those in the service industry to include their “service areas” as well as allowing those working from home the option of excluding their home office address from the listing.

In the past, companies like plumbers and window retailers could only include the address of where their business was located, however, Google now allows you to include a range of cities that your industry serves, giving you more of a chance to be found when your prospective customers are looking for you.

When logged in to your Local Business Center account, users will see a new option called “Service Areas and Location Settings.”

If your business serves customers at their location, rather than having a brick and mortar location where customers come to you, “click yes” and additional choices will appear.

As you can see, you have several options. You can choose not to show your business address, which is ideal for home-based businesses who don’t want to include their home address but want to show up locally.  In addition, you can choose how many miles from your location that your company serves.  If your company serves particular cities, type in those locations.

As with most new technologies, this new feature is a bit buggy, and not available to everyone just yet. But we’re excited to see Google implementing a feature that allows service based and home based businesses to more accurately reflect their offerings.