I added state service areas, but can't find myself?

[ColoradoChris]

Hello forum friends,

So just a quick question:

So I have a client who mainly serves the western United States. I added the states to the service area of GMB, but I never see it in any local pack other than the clients home state

So just curious if I'm looking at this wrong? Or does Google take into account my suggested search area?

Thank you

Colorado Chris

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Chris,

No the service area settings don't affect ranking at all. They will usually only rank in the city they are located in or sometimes surrounding towns IF not very competitive market.

In fact I kinda think that setting a wide service area waters down your power to rank in your own backyard. Most advise no more than a 20 mile radius because you won't rank beyond that normally.

 

[chadkimball]

Most advise no more than a 20 mile radius because you won't rank beyond that normally.

this is a big flaw in google's model. Plenty of really great businesses that serve customers beyond a 20 mile radius.

 

[James Watt]

There's only 3 (soon to be 2) spots in the 3-pack for businesses for any given city. Why should one company that covers a whole region block out a local contractor even in his own back yard? It is a little strange that the hidden address of an SAB is a ranking factor, but regardless of what a person thinks of that, I don't know that it'd be a good thing to let the big players start taking one of those 2 or 3 3-pack spots across whole regions. Personally I hope it stays this way, there's plenty of other options for SAB's to extend their range.