Google Business Profile Update: Country and State Disallow Adding to SABs

Google Limits Broad Service Area Listings for SABs

Google has officially changed the rules for Business Profiles, which is a big deal for Service Area Businesses (SABs). SABs can no longer list whole nations or states as service areas in their business listings, according to the new update.

Targeting Locally Is Now Required

Google’s policies have changed. SABs can no further refer to their service areas by vague terms like “regions;” they must now provide more specific details like cities, ZIP codes, or areas. The goal of this change is to assist people identify businesses that really do serve their area. This will make local search results more accurate and useful.

Quiet Rollout SEO Community Found It

Business owners and SEOs started to see that adding a state or country to a Service Area Business profile was either prohibited or caused error messages. Google hasn’t made a big deal about the change in public, but it has already been put into place in the Business Profile backend.

Why the Change?

The update is designed to:

• Stop service areas from being wrong or misleading
• Make local visibility more accurate
• Make sure listings match where businesses really work

Google wants to make things better for both users and business owners by limiting the number of service regions. This is especially true in busy or competitive local marketplaces.

What SABs Should Do

If your business serves a country or state right now, you should:

• Log into your Google Business Profile account
• Update your service areas to include specific places (like towns or postal codes)
• Make sure your information follows the most recent rules so you don’t have problems with visibility or account restrictions.

Final Thoughts

This move shows that Google is still focused on making sure that searches are accurate and that local results are correct. Service Area Businesses need to quickly change their listings to make sure they match the new rules.

 

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