"Hybrid" GBPs and service area ranking

[Tim Colling]

One of our clients is a franchisee and the franchisor company insists on making changes to our client's GBP from time to time with which we disagree. The GBP in question is a "hybrid" business, that is, they have a storefront location where they interview prospective new employees AND the client provides services to their clients in the clients' homes. They fit the description of a "hybrid" business per the description here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kamrannasser/#:~:text=Founder-,AidQuest,-· Full-time

The most recent disagreement is mostly a theoretical one: the franchisor claims that having the GBP include service areas (cities, in this case) will help them gain ranking advantage for their recruiting efforts. In my experience, that is not accurate. Am I wrong?

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Hey Tim! Would showing them this help? Does the Service Area in Google My Business Impact Ranking? - Sterling Sky Inc.

 

[JS Girard]

My immediate thought is "a GBP is not where a business should be focussing its SEO for recruitment". You should probably point out that quite often the service area on hybrid business is not shown (I think there are clear factors ow, but I don't recall them since we don't really care for it being visible here).

Also putting an address on a hybrid business has been a recurring source of annoyance for clients (our clients, at least!) because it directly leads to numerous reviews that never appear because the customers haven't visited the location (and why would they visit the HVAC shop or electrician's office, after all).