Does a Business Need a Physical Address in its Service Area to Rank Well?

[luischavez0104]

Hi, we have a Junk Removal client with a commercial address that is outside of their service area. We advised that they would have a very hard time ranking in their service area if their physical address is not inside said service area. On the contrary, their residential address is inside their service area. I advised we should wait until they find another commercial address inside their service area. Any thoughts here and for google guidelines does your business have to be in the service area? I was looking at the guidelines and it's not explicitly stated so if anyone has any concrete info that would be appreciated!

 

[Powersupport]

Such great information in this thread. I can’t wait to watch your video when it comes out, Joy.

At first I was a little apprehensive about changing my GBP to show my home address but I think it was the right choice.

 

[SEO]

I have a contractor client who wants to change his local service area business address. I can find no option to do this for his Google Business Profile. You may say this is not a problem because he can list the towns and cities in his local service area. Here's the rub. When he verified his Google Business Profile he used his work address which was in a very small town about 15 miles from the major city he gets all his customers from. He is number 1 in the 3-Pack for that small town but of course, that means nothing because it gets almost no searches for his trade there.

He added all the large towns and the major city in his local service area but gets no traction in the GBL search results for that large city. He also has a work address (still should probably be a local service area) in that major city. He wants to change his GBP to that address. How can he do this?

He has a responsive website, good on-page, and off-page SEO, citations (with his new large city address), backlinks, etc. He ranks high in Google organic search results for relevant search terms but not even close in the GBP search results. It's a city with a 200,000+ population but the competition is weak. He should dominate.

Then, as I began to help him I noticed his business now has a duplicate GBP with the address he wants to change his original GBL to. It's unclaimed and of course unverified. Probably caused by his citations.

Should we claim his duplicate GBP that shows his address in the large city, get it verified then remove his original "small town" GBP? If so, I believe we can use the same company phone number. However, if we were to claim it, verify it, and list it as a second business location I believe he would have to use a different company phone number (which he does have).

I would appreciate any advice and suggestions on how to do this effectively. Thank you.

 

[JS Girard]

We have been displaying addresses for most of these (as I mentioned above, sales won't let the rankings tank for the sake of something with such an uncertain and far off outcome), but there are three at least that I can share who refuse to show the address.

 

[JoyHawkins]

Yeah, pretty much, only I usually would wait 24-48 hours between step 3 and 4. @TomW might have some insights here. He's brought this up to Google a few times (about how stupid this process is)

 

[whitespark]

Yeah, pretty much, only I usually would wait 24-48 hours between step 3 and 4. @TomW might have some insights here. He's brought this up to Google a few times (about how stupid this process is)

Ok, so you're suggesting that Google will update the "behind the scenes" verification address if you follow this process:

1. Toggle the "show address" field.
2. Enter the new address.
3. Save
4. Wait at least 24 to 48 hours (let's just make it 72 hours for good measure)
5. Then remove the address again

Correct?

@JS Girard would you be able to test this with those clients of yours that are having this problem?

 

[JoyHawkins]

The last SAB I had that moved was years ago but it did work properly. I'll see if others can chime in that have done one more recently.

 

[JS Girard]

@whitespark @JoyHawkins

One of our cases was showing address for several weeks after a postcard verification and ranking as expected before she demanded we hid it. Within a few days she was tanking again. It really is an on-off switch, with only a delay while the systems catch up.

 

[whitespark]

@whitespark @JoyHawkins

One of our cases was showing address for several weeks after a postcard verification and ranking as expected before she demanded we hid it. Within a few days she was tanking again. It really is an on-off switch, with only a delay while the systems catch up.

In this case, did rankings shift back to the old location (as I would expect)
- OR -
was it just that the rankings tanked (the problem Joy highlights in her recent post)?

 

[JS Girard]

In this case, did rankings shift back to the old location (as I would expect)
- OR -
was it just that the rankings tanked (the problem Joy highlights in her recent post)?

I mean ranking returning to the original location. I deal with cases both of this and inexplicably bad rankings, so I can tell the difference

A quick test just to make sure I'm not mistakenly talking out of my ass:

 

[whitespark]

Works for me all the time

How long do you wait before hiding the address again, @BenFisher?