"areaServed" schema

The areaServed schema.org property declares the geographic area where a business provides a service or offers an item. It's a simple but useful piece of structured data for any business that serves customers across a region rather than only at a single physical address — plumbers, electricians, delivery services, mobile trades, consultancies, and multi-location operators.

Common usages

areaServed attaches to an entity to say, in machine-readable terms, "this is the area we cover."

It's commonly used on these schema types:

• Organization and LocalBusiness (and subtypes like Plumber, Electrician, MedicalBusiness)
• Service
• Offer and Demand
• ContactPoint
• DeliveryChargeSpecification

The areaServed property answers a different question from address. address is where you are; areaServed is where you operate. A business at one address in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda might serve all of Metropolitan Melbourne — areaServed is how you express that.

Accepted values

areaServed accepts four expected types. You can use whichever fits your precision needs:

• Text — You want a quick, plain-language area name, e.g. "Sydney"
• Place — You want a named, structured location; A suburb, landmark, or named region
• AdministrativeArea — You serve an official region (state, council, postcode area), e.g. Victoria
• GeoShape / GeoCircle — You serve a specified radius around a point, e.g., a 20 km circle around the CBD

Plain text (simplest)

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Plumber",
  "name": "Example Plumbing",
  "areaServed": "Sydney"
}

Multiple areas

areaServed can take an array, which is the cleanest way to list several suburbs or regions:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Plumber",
  "name": "Example Plumbing",
  "areaServed": ["Parramatta", "Penrith", "Blacktown", "Castle Hill"]
}

Administrative area (more structured)

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "LocalBusiness",
  "name": "Example Plumbing",
  "areaServed": {
    "@type": "AdministrativeArea",
    "name": "New South Wales"
  }
}

Radius with GeoCircle (most precise)

When a business works within a service radius, GeoCircle (a subtype of GeoShape) expresses it exactly. geoRadius is measured in metres.

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "LocalBusiness",
  "name": "Example Plumbing",
  "areaServed": {
    "@type": "GeoCircle",
    "geoMidpoint": {
      "@type": "GeoCoordinates",
      "latitude": -33.8688,
      "longitude": 151.2093
    },
    "geoRadius": 40000
  }
}

Using with a "ContactPoint"

When used inside a ContactPoint, areaServed typically takes ISO 3166 country codes to indicate which regions a contact channel covers:

{
  "@type": "ContactPoint",
  "contactType": "customer service",
  "telephone": "+61-2-1234-5678",
  "areaServed": "AU",
  "availableLanguage": "English"
}

"areaServed" vs "serviceArea"

Schema.org previously offered a separate serviceArea property on Organization and ContactPoint. That property is now deprecated — schema.org recommends using areaServed instead. If you have legacy markup using serviceArea, migrate it to areaServed. There's no reason to use both, and areaServed is the maintained, more broadly supported choice.

Benefits of "areaServed"

While areaServed is not currently a Google rich result trigger, it does contribute to entity clarity. Structured data helps search engines and, increasingly, LLM-powered and AI search systems understand a business as a clearly defined entity, what it does, and where.

For service-area businesses without a storefront that customers visit, areaServed reinforces the geographic details provided by your Google Business Profile, your address data, and your on-page content.

Best practices

• Match your real coverage — only list areas you genuinely service. Overstating coverage to chase more suburbs adds noise and can contradict other signals.
• Stay consistent with your other data — the areas in your markup should align with the service areas in your Google Business Profile and the locations named on your pages.
• Use an array for multiple areas — rather than cramming several place names into one text string.
• Don't duplicate areaServed with the now deprecated serviceArea — Use areaServed only.

Issues to avoid

• Confusing it with address. They serve different purposes — include both where relevant.
• Wrong units on geoRadius. It's metres, not kilometres or miles. A 40 km radius is 40000.
• "Keyword stuffing" suburbs. Structured data should describe reality, not act as a keyword dump for fringe locations you aren't actually eager to service.

In summary

areaServed is a small, but important piece of structured data, particularly for local SEO: it tells crawlers where your business operates. It won't dramatically increase rankings on its own, but for service-area businesses, it rounds out a complete, consistent entity profile — and as AI and voice search lean more heavily on structured data to answer "who serves my area," areaServed plays a key role in this.

Schema

Disclaimer: All information contained herein is for informational purposes only. It is not advice or instructional.