Service Area Business (SAB)
A business that travels to customers rather than serving them at a storefront, like plumbers, electricians, landscapers, and mobile pet groomers. Google treats SABs differently in local search.
Why It Matters for Your Business
Most home service businesses on Florida's Space Coast are SABs: plumbers, HVAC techs, electricians, landscapers, mobile detailers. Google has specific rules for how SABs appear in search, and getting your setup wrong can hurt your visibility or even get your listing suspended.
The biggest mistake: treating your SAB listing like a storefront listing. Different business model, different optimization strategy.
How It Works
Google handles SABs differently from storefront businesses in several ways:
Never create multiple GBP listings for different service areas. That's a violation of Google's guidelines and can get all your listings suspended. One business = one listing with multiple service areas defined.
A Brevard County mobile auto detailer who correctly sets up their SAB listing, specifies 8 service cities, and builds citations for each area will appear in the Map Pack across multiple cities, while a competitor with a misconfigured listing stays invisible.
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