New Display for Service Areas on Mobile

[JoyHawkins]

Last week, I noticed a new format on mobile browsers for service areas. It shows a truck icon and mentions a city the business serves. When you click on it, it lists the other areas the business has put in their service areas in Google My Business.

@TomW made us realize this might be dynamic so we checked a different listing in the Greater Toronto Area that had tons of cities listed. The person searching from Toronto saw Toronto, the person searching from Newmarket saw Newmarket. The rest of us were outside the service areas and we mostly saw Brampton (which is a bit odd).

What are you guys seeing with this? I'm only able to trigger it on mobile devices using browsers. It doesn't appear for me on the Google Maps app.

 

[djbaxter]

Yes I can see that for specific SABs in my area. The areas listed when you tap the little truck are dependent on the service areas specified in the GMB.

 

[Scott Rawlins]

Yep, see the same thing here in Atlanta. Like Joy said, only on browsers and not the G Map app.

 

[BenFisher]

I am seeing this.
I am located in Phoenix, my address used to verify is Austin, however the listings show me Houston?

I would think I should see Serves Phoenix and the following areas.

Seems to be a wonky test at the moment, but does explain the reduction to 20 service areas. (For display purposes)

 

[Wirenut]

My business is just coming up with ZIP Codes. I guess I should change it in GMB to list the city names?

 

[Wirenut]

I can’t edit my above post so I will add this new one.

Originally when I added the towns I serve to GMB I entered them with the ZIP Code. So it said Townname, NJ 01010

I just changed it now by entering the town name into the search for each town, and now it’s listed in GMB as Townname, NJ, USA.

Even though it says “under review” in GMB, it has now changed in the mobile search results to list all the towns that I serve instead of the ZIP Codes like I mentioned above.

 

[Wilsongs]

I can’t edit my above post so I will add this new one.

Originally when I added the towns I serve to GMB I entered them with the ZIP Code. So it said Townname, NJ 01010

I just changed it now by entering the town name into the search for each town, and now it’s listed in GMB as Townname, NJ, USA.

Even though it says “under review” in GMB, it has now changed in the mobile search results to list all the towns that I serve instead of the ZIP Codes like I mentioned above.

checking that as well. we use counties since GMB limited the number of cities we could use. interested to see if that has a negative effect on our listings.

 

[ray]

they make many none relevant changes but still dose not explain all the ranking fluctuations that are still going on

 

[Wirenut]

checking that as well. we use counties since GMB limited the number of cities we could use. interested to see if that has a negative effect on our listings.

When looking at it in mobile, I assume it lists the counties?

 

[nathangdavidson]

Not seeing this in the UK yet, but then we're always a little late to the party.

 

[djbaxter]

Not seeing this in the UK yet, but then we're always a little late to the party.

Remember it's only visible on mobile, and only in browser searches, not in Google Maps.

 

[Wilsongs]

When looking at it in mobile, I assume it lists the counties?

you assume correctly

 

[nathangdavidson]

Remember it's only visible on mobile, and only in browser searches, not in Google Maps.

Yep, not seeing this for my clients in the UK

 

[Ian Hammond]

Seeing this same thing for accounts I am checking. On mobile using a browser.

When I click the truck or text it does show me all geos listed, not just a few. Maybe this is because I am way out of the service area of the clients I am checking on?
To that, for the listing that we used zip codes for a bunch of their service area it doesn't make for great UX to just see that list. We will probably change those over to the geo names themselves.

As for the geo it chooses to show for "Serves _____ and nearby areas" is anyone seeing any consistency? It seems pretty random and for now it does seem to ignore the query itself. For ex, for three searches I did with a +city that I know is listed in their service area, "insulation charlotte, NC" "insulation easton md" and "insulation portland maine" it shows a county. For 2 of the 3, the city named in the query isn't even in the county shown.

 

[MonicaH]

Seeing it in NC as well. I'm outside the service area and it's showing one of the smallest possible towns the client serves, instead of the largest (which is where they're physically located and verified). Odd choice of which town to show beside the truck icon... And that stupid truck makes it look like a delivery service!!

 

[Wirenut]

As for the geo it chooses to show for "Serves _____ and nearby areas" is anyone seeing any consistency?

For mine it shows the town that my company is located in. Even though I am a service area business, I gave GMB my address back when it used to ask for it.

 

[Travis Van Slooten]

Just chiming in here on January 8, 2020. I'm seeing what everyone else is seeing here in Minneapolis, MN. And this still hasn't rolled out on the app.

Travis