Overview
Service-area businesses (SABs) — such as plumbers, cleaners, and mobile pet groomers — operate from a home or private location and choose not to display a street address publicly. Citation Builder requires an address to create a listing, so this article explains how to handle that requirement without exposing your private address.
What You Need to Know First
The address field in Citation Builder is mandatory and cannot be left blank. Because Citation Builder needs a physical address to generate and submit citations, SABs must supply a placeholder address to proceed. This address is used for citation-building purposes only — it does not have to be your public-facing business address, and you can use a non-public address (such as your home address) purely to satisfy the field requirement.
What You Will Need Before You Start
- A placeholder street address for your business (such as a registered agent address or your private home address — whatever you are comfortable providing for internal use)
- Your business name, phone number, website URL, and service categories
- A list of the cities, regions, or zip codes that make up your service area
Steps: Adding a Service-Area Business
- Open Citation Builder and locate or create the business listing you want to set up.
- Fill in your business name, phone number, and website as normal.
- In the Address field, enter your placeholder address. This is required to proceed — use a registered agent address, a non-public business address, or your private home address.
- Enter your service area by adding the cities, counties, states, or zip codes your business covers.
- Complete the remaining business details — categories, business description, hours, and media — then save or submit the listing.
Important Notes About Address Visibility
Entering a placeholder address in Citation Builder does not automatically hide that address from every directory. Address suppression must be managed separately, typically at the directory level (for example, in your Google Business Profile you can choose to hide your address and display a service area instead). If you are concerned about a specific directory publishing your address publicly, review that directory's listing settings after submission.
Next Steps
Once your listing is saved, review any directory-specific options to suppress the address from public view where needed. If you are unsure how to configure address visibility for a particular directory, our support team can help you identify the right steps for that platform.
If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.