Content by fisicx in December, 2025

I remember reading a while back about a bunch of service areas all within a relatively small radius. After much argument someone looked on the map and realised they were islands. The whole concept of driving and distance was null and void. Can't recall the outcome but the same could apply to...

2 hours in London could be 20 miles. Out in the countryside this could be 100 miles. And words on the support page are: 'shouldn't be'. Which is Google suggesting there is no hard rule about this.

Don't do it! If your client isn't prepared to properly respond to reviews then do nothing. AI responses stand out like a sore thumb and add nothing of value. Even worse when the AI mangles the response and publishes something that has no connection to the actual review.

It's why many now call this AI slop. Google has slurped everything it can find about a business and regurgitates regardless of quality and accuracy. I suspect once the SEO sausage factories discover the PR trick they will spam everything to death resulting in even more AI slop. Apologies for...

The prime driver is value added. How does this location page add value? Would it be useful for someone searching for a particular service in that location? Are there any citations, referrals, testimonials, case studies and so on supporting the services in this location? It may mean you need a...

Good point. Often is not what is said but how it is said and by whom. Your average press release is dry and boring and about as interesting as watching paint dry. Also important is where the press release is published.

Yuk. Corporate speak and totally lacking in any sort of empathy. It almost reinforces the original review. Maybe something like this: "Thank you for your review we are sorry that we were unable to meet your needs. Whilst we do try to help wherever possible we are a business with bills to pay...

This seems to be an AI driven thing. I ask a direct question and Google will answer using all the data currently available. Which means your content may need to expand to cover a wider range of topics.

Yes. Keep it simple.

When I'm looking for local services one of things I expect to see in the profile is an address. It gives me confidence that they are actually local. So for this question: my answer would be there could be an impact on calls.

If you have done work in those satellite towns write about it. Turn these into a blog on your site with one post for each project. Make sure you mention the location in the title and content. Categorize by location and have the categories on your homepage. This will give Google lots of keyword...

Begin with the primary service pages. A short introduction followed by details of what they get for their money. Provide information about how to book and pay on the page. Add in testimonials and links to complementary techniques. If you want to add details about reiki and it's healing...

But it says: "If you’re a service-area business, you should hide your business address from customers." Should being the operative work. Not must. I'm an SEB. I don't have any signage, I work from home and my address is showing on my profile. Locally to me there are umpteen other businesses...

And always ask yourself before requesting a new link: "does this link add value?". Will it help someone looking for your products and services.

The way I read it an SAB can have opening hours and can have an address. Google suggests you should hide the address but it's not a rule.

Where are the ads displaying? Are they enticing? Maybe the advert content and wording is less attractive than the competition.

Backlinks are less influential than they used to be. Onsite SEO is far more important. If done well you can rank with very few if any inbound links. If you do want to do a bit of link building you need to seek out authoritative and trustworthy sites that are relevant to your business. For...

I thought that tool was for local ranking not GBP

Just do an incognito search. None of the tools will be accurate all the time. Ranking depends on your location, the device you use, your search history and even keyword variance. At best you will be able to see trends. PS: It's not GMB and hasn't been since 2021. It's now GBP.

Not sure what's wrong here. Many locksmiths don't have a B&M store so will show their home address.

Yes but make sure you check the results against the actual data. It suggests you can get average position but when compared to an incognito search there was considerable variance.

The problem with verification tools is they can misunderstand the purpose of the page and allocate the wrong schema type. Schema is easy to implement but difficult to get right. Which is why it's sometimes better to keep it as generic and benign as possible.

If you have a wordpress site use one of the many plugins and make your life so much simpler.

Google says: https://support.google.com/business/answer/6103862

A lot depends on the platform you used to build your site. I wrote a script years ago to check all the pages in a sitemap but the demise of sitemaps as a useful tool it's now hopelessly out of date. And of course it all depends on how you have defined the purpose of the page. Schema can be...

I've seen it in the UK but the results are of variable quality. Some were just plain wrong. Like all current AI tools it suffers from hallucinations.

Have you checked the adverts are displaying when you do a search? Or maybe there isn't the search volume for those keywords on your area.

Or (if you have wordpress) just use one of the many free and low cost booking plugins. As an example: https://wordpress.org/plugins/booking/

I'm confused. @Hec93 you seem to be mixing GBP and organic search (you mention SERP). Google often tries to help and provide a range of option in response to a search query. Search for any brand and you will often get a mix of results.

Then why hasn't google junked the profiles? Reading the threads here it seems Google is killing off legitiamte business almost on a whim yet iffy profiles like this remain. As an aside, my mate lives in Bournmouth and had this chap in to fix his front door.

Have people actually done this? The GBP profile says they are an emergency locksmith - not somewhere you go to get a new key cut. same with the website. I'm not trying to defend then - I think they are breaking the rules - but what battle are you trying to win here? Are you a locksmith? It...

What is your actual issue with this business? Is it just the address or this there something else you feel is wrong?

This is what I think as well. And if so, why do so many business owners choose something like candedly?

That may be the case but there is a GBP, there is a website and the telephone number does connect to the business owner. The fact the address is a restaurant is weird but Google seems to be happy.

It's not adding the booking form I need, it's someone who has tested different ways to add a booking form. Does integrated perform better than an external provider? Do you get more leads from a callback form than a booking form (with date and time)?

Maybe they are the spouse of the restaurant owner. Have you tried calling the number? A google search for the business suggests they do actually exist.