SAB with City Postcodes as Area Covered but showing Country Instead

[Caroline]

I have a personal trainer client who hides her home address and uses GMB as a SAB. We had used a radius around the city but noticed on the knowledge panel that Google is saying "personal trainer in Scotland". We would like it to say "personal trainer in Edinburgh" as we feel that this is diluting her ability to rank in the city. We then changed to postcodes but nothing has changed? Still says "personal trainer in Scotland"
Does it take time for Google to acknowledge we changed it to postcodes and we sit tight? Or is there fundamentally something that we are not doing right with the SAB location. What is the best practise?

Thanks for any help.

 

[James Watt]

It sounds to me like that 'personal trainer in Scotland' line is a Google editorial summary, but without seeing it I'm not 100% sure. If it is, and it looks like that with the little -Google there next to it, I wouldn't worry about it. They're dynamically generated, and I've never heard of the exact text there having any influence on rankings. Don't go messing with the address to try and influence it, that can cause other problems. What do you mean 'changed to postcodes?' I only work with clients in the US so I'm not familiar with the Scottish post system, but you should really make sure you have the correct address there and leave it be.

Editorial summaries are generated (as far as I know) from the text content of customer reviews, the information on your website, in the citations, and other sources. If you have an incorrect summary, calling in or filling out this form are where to start, but it'd be a waste of everyone's time to pursue such a small change. You've got far more important things to do for your client.

 

[Margaret Ornsby]

Hi Caroline

Just to be clear, do you mean this - in the knowledge panel?
<a href="https://content.screencast.com/users/Margarets_Files/folders/Snagit/media/31b90b16-286e-4e6c-9b33-72c16ec529dc/2017-06-15_10-51-56.png"><img class="embeddedObject" src="https://content.screencast.com/users/Margarets_Files/folders/Snagit/media/31b90b16-286e-4e6c-9b33-72c16ec529dc/2017-06-15_10-51-56.png" width="492" height="296" border="0" /></a>

or do you mean this - in the dashboard?
<a href="https://content.screencast.com/users/Margarets_Files/folders/Snagit/media/1b93fc2f-4225-4901-a2b7-762de9e66347/2017-06-15_10-34-07.png"><img class="embeddedObject" src="https://content.screencast.com/users/Margarets_Files/folders/Snagit/media/1b93fc2f-4225-4901-a2b7-762de9e66347/2017-06-15_10-34-07.png" width="419" height="204" border="0" /></a>

If the top one - that I believe is algorithmically created. I have seen that do funny things when using postcodes to define a service area.

Have you tried entering in the city name for the area, not postcodes? You may have to apply the change twice to get it to stick, too.

 

[djbaxter]

Have you tried entering in the city name for the area, not postcodes? You may have to apply the change twice to get it to stick, too.

I second this. I just had this issue myself with a new client website.

I went back in and added just the city, and three small surrounding towns or "suburbs" that they also serve, and then deleted the postal code. Google now correctly identifies their service area on the map.

 

[Caroline]

Hi Margaret,

That is exactly what I mean. OK i will go in and delete the postcodes again. Will the change take weeks or does Google change these quickly?

Thanks for the help

 

[djbaxter]

It took only a week or less in my case.

 

[Caroline]

OK. I'll let you know what happens.

 

[Caroline]

Well, Google changed it within a week but not to "in Edinburgh" but to a suburb of Edinburgh. All quite strange but better then just "in Scotland".