Proximity Filter Issue: Why Is It So Hard to Rank City-Wide?

[nralla6]

Hi everyone,


I’m struggling with the proximity filter in Google Maps rankings and wanted to share my case here. Maybe some of you faced the same problem.


I run my business in a small city with around 200,000 population. When someone searches from outside the city, my business is ranking #1 for the main keywords. But inside the city, if the user is not in my direct neighborhood, my visibility drops a lot. In short, my business is strong in my own area, but I can’t expand much beyond it.


I already tried most of the obvious solutions:

• Full Google Business Profile optimization (categories, services, photos, posts, etc.)
• Review and Q&A strategy
• Citations and backlinks from local/niche sites
• Map embeds / MyMaps usage
• Local-focused content optimization

Still, the proximity effect is too strong and I can’t rank city-wide.


Do you have any experience with this? Are there any advanced or creative methods to overcome the proximity filter?


Note: My English is not very good, this text was written with the help of AI.


Thanks in advance.

 

[nralla6]

Tiktok vidoes can be uploaded onto the GBP. Google *loves* pushing video content, especially on mobile.

If you edit videos directly into the app (I don,t use tiktok myself so I genuinely don't know how it works), there are plenty of sites out there to download tiktok videos. But bbe mindful of malware. One of my coworker had no adblocker and got infected by a facebook video downloader.

I’ve already been applying your suggestion. Since we started professional shooting, I’ve uploaded all our vertical videos to the profile. I didn’t have an idea about its functionality, but with your suggestion I’ve learned that it’s useful. Thank you.