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!

 

[whitespark]

To change the address, you simply add the new address to the listing. If, weeks later, it is not ranking in the new area, that's when you have an issue to reach out to support about.

Because this issue isn't widespread, the majority of the people picking up these cases at Google will have no clue what you're talking about. So IF this issue ends up happening, you might be better off trying the Google help forum since the Product Experts are familiar with this issue.

@JoyHawkins if you're an SAB with the address removed, how do you add the new address? Are you suggesting that you would:

1. Toggle the "show address" field.
2. Enter the new address.
3. Save
4. Then remove the address again?

From what I've seen, when you remove the address, that actually removes it. It's not just hidden (like it used to be). It's gone. Google can't use it.

Google no longer has an address associated with your Profile other than the verification address, which isn't viewable or editable. This is why rankings shift back to be centred around the address the Profile was originally verified at.

So, then you need to contact support and ask them to update the secret "behind the scenes" verification address, and this is a challenge because no one at support will have any idea what you're talking about.

 

[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)?

 

[BenFisher]

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.

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.

Works for me all the time

 

[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?

 

[keyserholiday]

This information about asking support to change the address on the back end is something I heard from @keyserholiday. He may have some suggestions on how to word the request to support.

This stopped working when Google removed the address. We used to be able to see it with the API. The only ways to fix is to create a new profile from scratch, show the address, or hope that Google can fix the issue.