Service area for mobile groomers

Two ways to describe the area

Open Service Area. There are two tabs:

ZIP Codes. Type the ZIPs you cover, separated by commas: 78701, 78702, 78704. Every entry must be exactly five digits; anything else is rejected with the offending values named, so paste a clean list. Save replaces the whole list. This is the better choice when your coverage is a shape (one side of a river, three suburbs) rather than a circle.

Radius. Pick 1 to 50 miles. The default is 10. This is the better choice when you drive roughly the same distance in every direction.

Saving the ZIP tab clears any radius, and saving the radius tab clears any ZIP list. The listing shows whichever one you saved. The completeness score counts the service area as done when either is set.

Where it shows

On your listing, in the Plan your visit section:

• If your listing is flagged mobile, the block is headed Where they go and reads "{business} comes to you around {city}, {state}, within about {N} miles." Your ZIP list, if you used one, appears as a row of chips underneath. A fixed line follows: "Most mobile groomers need a place to park the van near your door. Ask about power and water when you book."
• If your listing is a salon that also travels, the block is headed Where to find them with your address and directions, then Also serves with the radius or ZIPs.

Nothing about the service area appears on the search result card.

What search actually does with it

This is the part to understand. Search on GroomLocator works from each listing's single map pin, the location of the business itself, taken from its address or its city. When a pet parent searches a town, we return listings whose pin is within their chosen distance of that town: 25 miles by default, adjustable from 1 to 200. The map shows the same pins.

Your ZIP list and radius are not used to match searches today. A van based in one town that covers three others will show up in searches for its own town and any search radius that reaches it, but a search of a ZIP on the far edge of your list will not pull you in unless your pin is within the searcher's distance.

Two practical consequences:

1. Keep your listing's city as your real base. That pin is what search uses. Do not set it to the centre of your service area if you do not actually start there; the address on your listing should be where you are.
2. Say the far towns in your description. Search does not read the description either, but the pet parent does, and a listing that says "covering Duckburg, Fowlbridge and everything along Route 9" gets the call from someone in Fowlbridge who found you on the Duckburg page.

If your listing has no address at all, add at least the city and state on the Profile page so the pin exists. A listing without a location cannot appear in distance searches.

The "Comes to you" label

Pet parents can filter search to Comes to you, and mobile listings carry that tag on the search card, the homepage cards and the listing page. The tag is earned, not assumed. Every listing has one of three states: mobile, not mobile, or unknown, and only the first one shows the tag.

Listings we imported from public business data are marked mobile only when the source itself said so: the business name or category included the word, or its website did. Roughly one listing in twelve qualifies. A listing with no street address is not treated as mobile; that guess was wrong too often, and it was removed. An imported listing that looks like a salon is marked not mobile, and one where the source said nothing is left unknown, with no tag either way.

Listings you create with Add New Business ask you to tick Mobile Grooming, Salon, or In-home when you create them, and the tag follows your answer.

There is no switch for this on the Profile page. If your listing was imported and is a mobile business but shows no tag, or shows Salon and should not, contact us with the listing link and we will set it. Setting the flag also changes the "Plan your visit" block from an address to "Where they go".