Google Business Profile with a van and a home address: the UK rules

If you run the business from your house and do the work at the customer’s, take the address off the profile. Google says it directly, and the example is a plumber:

For example, if you’re a plumber and run your business from your residential address, clear the address from your Business Profile.

That is Guidelines for representing your business on Google, checked 31 August 2026. Now the limit: “There’s no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google” (Improve your local ranking on Google, checked 31 August 2026).

Then, before Friday: screenshot your performance numbers, cut the service areas back, make the name match the van, and film the video in one take. The rest of this piece is the evidence.

What a profile can and cannot do for a trade with no shopfront

Google’s ranking page says “Local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and popularity”, then defines each one.

Factor	Google’s definition, verbatim	What is in your hands
Relevance	”Relevance is how well a Business Profile matches what someone is searching for.”	Your categories, and a complete profile.
Distance	”Distance refers to how far each business is from the customer who’s searching. If a customer doesn’t share where they are, Google uses what it knows about their location.”	Very little. Our reading is that a service area does not move your end of that line.
Prominence	”Prominence means how well-known a business is.”	Reviews: “More reviews and positive ratings can help your business’s local ranking.” There are rules on how you ask.

All from that page, checked 31 August 2026. What Google does not publish is whether a service area shifts your business location. Our reading is that adding a town does not move your pin.

Hide your address: the rule, and what you keep

From the service areas page:

If you don’t serve customers at your business address, remove your address from your Business Profile.

Google publishes no sentence saying a home address alone gets you suspended, and we will not invent one. It publishes this:

Businesses showing their address on Google should maintain permanent fixed signage of their business name at the address.

Read the two together and the conclusion is ours, not Google’s. Show the house and you need a permanent sign carrying the business name. Almost no landlord agrees, and clearing the address removes the problem.

Anyone told to rent an address hits two more rules:

PO boxes or mailboxes located at remote locations aren’t acceptable.

If your business rents a physical postal address but doesn’t operate out of that location, also known as a virtual office, that location isn’t eligible for a Business Profile.

A mail-forwarding address is not a fix, it is a second thing to be suspended for.

What you keep: clearing the address does not close the profile, because Google’s own instruction is to set a service area in its place. Reviews, photos, opening hours and the phone number sit in separate fields, untouched. Only the street address stops showing. Google publishes nothing about this, so it is our reading, not policy.

More than one van, or a yard as well as a house

Van count changes nothing. From the guidelines:

If your business doesn’t have a shopfront with clear signage but travels to customers at their physical locations, you’re allowed one service-area Business Profile.

The next sentence on the same page is the exception:

If you have different locations for your service business, with separate service areas and separate staff at each location, you’re allowed one profile for each location.

Five vans out of one house is one business, so it is one profile. Two depots with their own staff and their own service areas each get a profile. A second profile for a second town, run from the same base, breaks the rule that “There should only be one profile per business”, and Google reserves the right to suspend either or both.

A yard can work as an address, because it can carry the permanent signage a rented house cannot. The cost is the rest of the rule:

If you serve customers at your address and want to set a service area, your business location should be staffed by your team and able to receive customers during its stated hours.

A yard qualifies only if someone is there during your published hours and a customer could turn up. A locked compound does not.

Your service areas: 20 maximum, no radius, two hours’ driving

The service areas page sets three limits, checked 31 August 2026:

You can have up to 20 service areas.

You can’t set your service area as a radius distance around your business.

The boundaries of your overall area shouldn’t be more than about two hours of driving time from where your business is based.

Google’s own click path, verbatim:

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

List the towns you would genuinely drive to, then stop. There is no prize for filling all 20 slots. Each of those towns wants a real page on your own site as well, written from the work you actually do there: our Reigate page is the shape we mean, and our services page says what we do about it each month.

Your business name: the most common reason we see trades get suspended

Google’s rule, from the guidelines:

Your name should reflect your business’ real-world name, as used consistently on your shopfront, website, stationery and as known to customers.

Two headings on the prohibited list catch a trade, with Google’s own not-acceptable examples:

Service or product information. Not acceptable: “Verizon Wireless 4G LTE”, “Midas Auto Service Experts”.

Location information. Not acceptable: “Holiday Inn (I-93 at Exit 2)”, “Equinox near SOHO”.

The list also bars taglines, shop codes, trademark signs, all-capital words, opening hours, phone numbers, URLs, and what Google calls “irrelevant legal terms (e.g. LLC, LTD, INC)”. Read that word “irrelevant”. Google carves out the genuine case:

To include special characters or legal terms in your Business Profile name, you must provide real-world proof (e.g. signage, business cards, invoices) that consistently displays those elements as part of your business name.

So “Smith Roofing Ltd” keeps the Ltd when Ltd is on the van, the invoices and the business cards. Strip a real Ltd out and the profile stops matching the documents you would send with an appeal.

The consequence, in full:

Google reserves the right to suspend access to Business Profiles on Google or other Google Services to individuals or businesses that violate these guidelines and may work with law enforcement in the event that the violation is unlawful.

An invented example: “Marlow Heath Driveway Cleaning” is allowed only if that is the name on the van, the invoices and the bank account.

Two things here are ours, not Google’s. A stuffed name is what we most often find behind a suspended trade profile, though Google ranks no causes. And removing the town can cost you positions short term, by an amount nobody can predict. What you get back is a profile a competitor cannot get removed.

Categories: pick the specific one and let Google add the rest

Verbatim from the guidelines:

Use as few categories as possible to describe your overall core business from the provided list.

Select categories that complete the statement: ‘This business IS a’ rather than ‘this business HAS a’.

For instance, when you select a specific category like ‘Golf Resort’, Google implicitly includes more general categories such as ‘Resort Hotel’, ‘Hotel’ and ‘Golf Course’.

The narrow category gets you the broad ones free, so stacking near-duplicates buys nothing. The “IS a” test settles the rest: a driveway cleaner is a pressure washing contractor, not a paving contractor. Pick the option that names your trade, not the surface. The picker only accepts what Google offers, so nothing freehand sticks. We print no category names, because the list sits behind a signed-in profile and Google changes it without notice.

Passing video verification with no signage: the shot list

Google’s requirements, verbatim from Video verification, checked 31 August 2026:

Your video must be: An unedited, unique and complete recording with no breaks. At least 30 seconds long. Recorded and uploaded from a mobile device through your Business Profile.

Your video must not include: Sensitive info like bank account, tax or ID numbers. Private info about you or others. Other people’s faces.

Then the three things a service-area business has to prove, buried under instructions for shops:

Show where your business operates: To confirm your location, record street signs, nearby landmarks or other identifiers at your business address.

Show proof that your business exists: Show the professional tools, equipment or products that you use for work.

Show proof of management: Prove that you manage or represent the business. Record yourself performing a service or accessing business-only assets, such as unlocking a van that has your business branding. You can also show business documents like a business permit, invoice or utility bill that matches the name on your Business Profile.

Google adds a tip under the first of those, for exactly this reader:

If you run a Service Area Business from your home, you can record landmarks and signs in your immediate neighbourhood to verify the address.

So “at your business address” is the street you have just hidden, but neighbourhood landmarks and signs will do. You do not have to put your front door on camera. The third proof is better news: Google names the branded van and the business document, so you need no shopfront and no storeroom.

The video verification run sheet

Google marks the requirements quoted above, Ours marks our practice. Every timing is ours: Google publishes one number, the 30-second minimum.

VIDEO VERIFICATION RUN SHEET
One take. Do not stop recording.

BEFORE YOU PRESS RECORD
[ ] Quiet hour, good light. Early Sunday works.   Ours
[ ] Nobody else in shot, no faces.                Google
[ ] No bank, tax or ID numbers in shot.           Google
[ ] Phone, started inside your Business Profile.  Google
[ ] Van outside, signwriting facing you.          Ours

THE TAKE. ONE UNBROKEN RECORDING, 60 TO 90 SECONDS.
0:00-0:15  The street sign, or a nearby
           landmark or shop sign.                 Google
0:15-0:35  The signwritten name on the van,
           then unlock the van on camera.         Google
0:35-0:55  Pan across the tools and the stock.    Google
0:55-1:15  An invoice or business utility bill
           showing the profile name.              Google

If anyone walks into shot, start again.           Ours
MINIMUM 30 SECONDS. NO CUTS. NO EDITS.            Google

Verithora, rules checked 31 August 2026

On your registration plate, Google lists two separate bans: “Sensitive info like bank account, tax or ID numbers” and “Private info about you or others”. Only the first is itemised, so a number plate is not named either way. We film the van anyway, because Google’s own proof-of-management example is “unlocking a van that has your business branding”. A neighbour’s face is banned outright, and the recording must be unedited, so you cannot cut anyone out.

Then upload it. Google says: “After you upload your video, we’ll review it. This process can take up to five working days.” That is the video review, not appeals, and the two get mixed up.

When verification is refused, or you are not offered video at all

From Verify your business on Google, checked 31 August 2026:

Verification methods are automatically determined by Google and can’t be changed.

Live video verification may not be available for all businesses.

There is no number to ring and ask for video instead of postcard. The page describes trying another method where the profile offers one, and the “Get verified” prompt returning after a failure. After a refusal, fix the likeliest cause first: a name that does not match the van, or an address still showing with no sign at it.

Suspended: the appeal, and the 60-minute trap

Read this first, from Suspended or disabled Business Profiles, checked 31 August 2026:

Once you open the evidence form, you must submit it within 60 minutes or it won’t be attached to your appeal.

60 minutes is not long enough to find a utility bill. Google’s accepted evidence:

Evidence that can help strengthen your appeal includes: Official business registration, A business licence, Tax certificates, Utility bills for the business such as: Electricity, Phone, Water, Internet.

For any documents that you submit as evidence, check that the business name and address match the profile that you want to make an appeal for.

That matters if you have ever had two profiles.

GATHER BEFORE YOU OPEN THE FORM
[ ] Official business registration, if you have one
[ ] Business licence, if your trade has one
[ ] Tax certificate
[ ] Business utility bill: electricity, phone, water or internet
[ ] All files named clearly, in one folder
[ ] Names and addresses match the profile you are appealing
[ ] Profile already fixed to follow the guidelines

Verithora, checked 31 August 2026

The last line is Google’s own first appeal step, “Make sure that your profile follows all the guidelines.” Appealing an unfixed profile wastes the attempt.

Then open the Google Business Profile appeals tool and pick the profile. It shows “The restricted profile, The reason for the moderation action, A link to the violated policy”. That reason names the policy you broke. Then “At the bottom right, select Submit Appeal.”

Two more, both verbatim:

Do not create a new Business Profile for the same business while your appeal is under review.

We’ll review your appeal and send you an email with a decision.

Google gives no timescale. The tool shows a status, and Google lists five: “Submitted, Approved, Not approved, Can’t be appealed, Eligible for appeal.”

The UK evidence problem for a sole trader

Google’s list assumes a registered company, and most readers here are sole traders with none of those documents. The right-hand column is our judgement, not Google policy.

Google’s document type	What a UK sole trader holds, our estimate, not Google policy
Official business registration	No incorporation certificate exists. Nearest equivalent is HMRC self-assessment correspondence showing the trading name and address.
A business licence	Most trades hold none. Waste carrier registration, Gas Safe or NICEIC registration, or a local authority licence where one applies.
Tax certificates	HMRC self-assessment documents, or a VAT registration certificate if you are registered.
Utility bills	A business mobile or broadband bill in the trading name, because household utilities sit in a personal name.

We cannot promise this gets a sole trader reinstated, but it is what there is to send.

The five things that will get you suspended again

The choice of five and the order are ours, because Google ranks no causes. Every rule is Google’s, quoted in full earlier, from the guidelines and the service areas page.

The thing	The rule it breaks
A town or a service word in the profile name.	”Location information” and “Service or product information”.
A home address left showing with no sign at it.	The permanent fixed signage rule.
A second profile for the same base, or one created mid-appeal.	”There should only be one profile per business.”
A virtual office, mail-forwarding address or PO box.	The PO box and virtual-office rules.
A service area wider than you can drive.	The two-hours-of-driving-time boundary.

Write these four numbers down before you change anything

Google keeps no baseline for a period you did not record. Change the name and service areas without writing anything down and you will never know what it cost. This step is ours.

Open the profile in Google Search or Maps, go to Performance, choose a date range and select Apply. The performance and insights page describes those metrics as taps on the call button, direction requests, clicks on your website link, and the search terms people used to find you. Calls counts taps, not connected calls.

DAY ZERO, DATE: ______________
Date range used: ______________ to ______________

Call button taps   ______
Directions         ______
Website clicks     ______
Searches           ______

Screenshot the whole panel and save it.
Repeat with the SAME date range one month from today.

Verithora, rules checked 31 August 2026

Comparing one month against three tells you nothing.

Everything above is free to do yourself, and most readers should. If you cover one town, the profile is verified and the name matches the van, you do not need us. Work down the sections and give it a month. If you are weighing this against paying for clicks, we compared the options separately. One closing line, ours not Google’s: a service area does not move your pin, so distant towns have to be won on your own website.

If the profile is suspended, or a previous designer owns the account and has gone quiet, that is the job we get paid for. Profile management sits inside the monthly tiers on the pricing page from £49 a month, and the website side is local SEO. We quote no fixed price before looking, because a name fix and a locked account are different jobs. Send us the profile link and what happened.

Rules checked 31 August 2026. Google’s help pages carry no last-updated date, so we re-read every page cited here quarterly and re-stamp this line. This is a plain-English summary of the rules as we read them on 31 August 2026, not legal advice.

Written and checked by Verithora, a one-founder web studio in East Dulwich, London SE22.