Is it impossible to rank in the top 3 here?

[fixascrew]

Hi all.

I am trying to rank for 'garden services Witney', but can only get to 5th on the places search.

I am first for 'gardener witney'

Someone said that its that google determines the location the the town in a village on the outskirts as there is a cluster of competition there. Is that true?

Thanks in advance for any advice

 

[Blake Denman]

I would consider hiding the address on your GMB listing. Your business is a Service Area Business, and you should hide the address. You can then add the cities and zip codes you wish to target. You could essentially triangulate your centroid to be the center of Witney.

I'm not sure if Google's Policies are a bit different in the UK, but SABs that show their address and don't serve customers at the location are in violation of the guidelines.

Hope that helps.

 

[fixascrew]

Thanks Blake,

Should I set a radius or add cities and zip codes I wish to target?

At the moment I have added a radius as adding all the towns and villages would take ages as there are so many.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi fixascrew,

The service area settings won't affect ranking at all. If you say you service 3 cities over or a 50 mile radius, it won't help you rank any further out than you normally would and usually that's just the city you are located in, but depends on the area/competition. So people in outlying areas likely won't even see your business info. Best setting is usually to just use a 20 mile radius from the town you are in.

 

[heckler]

Build an exact match (anchor-text) link on a high-ish authority website. I'll bet that helps you break the 5th-spot ceiling for that term. #linksishard