Google has updated its Business Profile guidelines to state that countries or states should no longer be added as service areas. The updated help document now explicitly says: “Do not add countries or states as a service area.” This signals a shift in how Google expects service area businesses (SABs) to define their geographic reach—focusing on local, not broad regions.

This change, along with several other guideline updates, was first spotted by Stefan Somborac, who posted the news on X, noting: “Google just updated the rules for Business Profile service areas.”