Service Areas and Physical Address

[BipperMedia]

@BipperMedia I’ll dm you my email address and you can add me to the listings and all of the data that you have for me to review and vet your findings.

I don't want your email address... because I could care less if you review and vet my findings (seriously!?)

 

[keyserholiday]

@djbaxter -- ok, let me ask you this... if your SEO work resulted in increasing a client's phone calls by 50% from Google search, would you agree or disagree that you likewise increased their rankings and presence in search?

Sorry @BipperMedia you don’t have to increase ranking to see an increase In GMB actions. You could rank in the same positions for a full year and if the business like any business is impacted by seasonality or weather conditions than yes calls could increase in peaks seasons. Both of the screenshots I provided earlier have had no had. I changed in rankings at all.

 

[djbaxter]

@djbaxter -- ok, let me ask you this... if your SEO work resulted in increasing a client's phone calls by 50% from Google search, would you agree or disagree that you likewise increased their rankings and presence in search?

No. Not without data to support that claim. That is the whole point.

See my posts above.

 

[BipperMedia]

@djbaxter @keyserholiday @JoyHawkins @whitespark

I woke up this morning and re-read all of my comments... and it hit me like a brick how incredibly unprofessional I've been.

So I just wanted to apologize for my lack of professionalism, my immaturity, and my otherwise lack of leadership throughout this conversation.

Thank you again for the opportunity to engage with like minded people on this forum...

Bobby

 

[Tim Colling]

@BipperMedia Forgive me if you've already answered this question before now: Are you using some form of call tracking to measure calls? It sounds like calls are a primary conversion point for this client, so I just wondered whether you're measuring the call volume.

 

[BipperMedia]

@Tim Colling -- no, we simply use our productivity tool to measure calls... which pulls directly from GMB API

here's the 1 month view, which takes the last full month (September) vs. the previous month (August) and shows the % change and volume

the 66 service areas were pulled on September 21st... so about 9 full days of September are baked into September's call volume without the service areas defined.

 

[Tim Kahlert]

@djbaxter @keyserholiday @JoyHawkins @whitespark

I woke up this morning and re-read all of my comments... and it hit me like a brick how incredibly unprofessional I've been.

So I just wanted to apologize for my lack of professionalism, my immaturity, and my otherwise lack of leadership throughout this conversation.

Thank you again for the opportunity to engage with like minded people on this forum...

Bobby

It´s funny but I was actually about to say that I love this contentious debate as it made me think about new concepts and question things. There is no such thing as a stupid question.

 

[BipperMedia]

thanks @Tim# -- I appreciate the positive perspective on it, and I do agree with you - debate can lead to deeper thinking / concepts and questioning of things, which is certainly a good especially in the obscure world of SEO.

 

[Wirenut]

Can someone please explain this to a layman? The question is whether listing other towns around the business location in the "Service Area" part of GMB will help rank better in those towns, is that correct?

And the test was to remove those towns and then put them back?

3rd question, if my assumption on the basis of the discussion here is correct, then what do the people -who feel that listing those other towns doesn't help- list in the Service Area section of GMB? Only the town that the business is located in?

 

[BipperMedia]

@Wirenut -- in layman's terms, YES... adding surrounding towns, cities, zip codes, etc... to the "Service Area" section on your GMB does help you rank better in those towns.

This is surely going to be refuted / debated... which is fine.

However, I'm 100% confident we have the empirical data and experience that proves otherwise.

Note: as I've mentioned numerous times, this only works when you have sufficient levels of prominence and authority (which I call location authority) to enable your rankings, presence, and productivity in those surrounding areas that you list in your Service Area section of your GMB.

In other words, if your GMB does not have sufficient levels of authority, then "NO", adding service areas to your GMB will not do anything for you.

If you have sufficient levels of authority, then "YES", I'm 100% confident this helps you rank better.

And by ranking better, I'm also confident this comes through in the form of productivity... meaning, increased phone calls from customers as a result of your increased presence (rankings) in growing radius (as defined by Service Areas).

 

[Wirenut]

So that leads to my 3rd question. For the people that think it doesn't help to list the surrounding towns in GMB, what do they list there? Just leave it blank?

I know nothing about this at all so I can't say one way or the other. But from an outside view, it seems as if it is low hanging fruit that can't hurt to do. And we never know if one day Google will do as they have randomly done in the past and sudden switch that on as a ranking factor without warning.

I come up in the 3-pack in 2 other towns next to my own. And when clicking "More Businesses" I come up in the map results in 4-6 other towns. I assume this is due to my landing pages for those towns. Either way, it seems as if the Service Area list in GMB would be a good place to tell Google which cities you would like to come up in and which you don't want to work in. It's a shame that it doesn't work that way.

 

[JoyHawkins]

3rd question, if my assumption on the basis of the discussion here is correct, then what do the people -who feel that listing those other towns doesn't help- list in the Service Area section of GMB? Only the town that the business is located in?

To claim that a factor influences ranking, first testing needs to be done that was isolated so that you can say with confidence it was that thing that made the difference and second, you need to actually see a sizable/consistent increase in rankings. Neither of these happened with this test.

For the first thing, there was a huge algorithm update right in the middle and too long of a time frame that allowed opportunity for other things to influence the results. GMB changes normally take 24-48 hours to have an impact on rankings.

Second, there was no sizable/consistent increase in rankings as Darren Shaw pointed out earlier.

So to answer your question, just list the areas you service but don't stress about it.

 

[BipperMedia]

@Wirenut -- I choose to be encouraged by this because I do, in fact, believe it works this way.

And I also agree with the point you are alluding to... we build city pages for clients that want to rank in markets where they do not have verifiable offices.

The intent of a city page is to rank organically in those markets... pointing to our strong belief that proximity matters even in organic search results.

Second, the intent of the city page is to add yet another signal to Google about the relevance of the business in that surrounding city.

This affect is compounded when you have that same city defined in your Service Area within your GMB.

And I respectively disagree with @JoyHawkins' assessment.

She states that a huge algorithm update occurred.

I believe whatever algorithm update occurred is inconsequential because this GMB has been showing increased productivity in the defined service areas for well over a 1 year period.

How many algorithm updates have occurred in the past 12+ months?

My point is, isolating one single algorithm update that occurred during the test is insufficient compared to the history of results... meaning, this GMB has grown consistently in productivity from wider radiuses as defined by the service areas despite continual algorithm updates.

Second, the evidence is found in that the client's phone calls "completely dried up" (our client's words, not mine) since removing the service areas.

And since adding them back, their phone calls have "bounced back" (again, our client's words, not mine).

I guess it ultimately comes down to whether you put more trust in a keyword ranking tool and keyword rankings themselves...

Or do you put your trust in actual business productivity and growth?

I choose the latter.

 

[JoyHawkins]

I guess it ultimately comes down to whether you put more trust in a keyword ranking tool and keyword rankings themselves...

If you're literally stating something is a ranking factor I'm not sure how it's logical to ignore rankings.

I'm not expecting you to agree with me at this point though lol.

 

[BipperMedia]

@JoyHawkins @Wirenut -- I think keyword rankings are important to track and pay attention to. As I've mentioned, we've become big fans of Whitesparks keyword ranking / tracking tool and are considering moving to it in mass.

We leverage these types of tools for our own internal analysis to help us gain insights into our work. Sort of like beacons that help tell us if we are moving in the right direction or not.

But to ultimately measure / determine success based on the performance of a pre-defined list of keyword phrases, you are making an unrealistic assumption that your list of keyword phrases sufficiently captures and represents the market.

However... I do not believe anyone can fully understand and capture the full scale and magnitude of search -- which is why productivity is a more realistic point of measurement.

How many different ways does someone search for "lawn maintenance" in any given city?

If your keyword tool shows 10 searches per month... the reality is probably more like 10,000 searches per month when you account for the "intent based AI" of Google search, not to mention the influence and impact of voice searches, misspellings, key phrase variations, mobile vs. desktop, and so on...

This is why I believe it's insufficient to trust pre-defined lists of keyword phrases, and their performance in rankings, over actual productivity.

The productivity (phone calls from new customers, for example) is a more sufficient indicator because no matter what obscure keyword phrase(s) someone searched... if they searched > tapped the call button > and are now a new customer... you, the business owner, would consider your presence in search as productive, no matter how obscure the keyword phrase was that was searched.

In other words, I think it's more prudent to measure productivity vs. keyword rankings because I believe productivity is a function (direct result / outcome) of keyword rankings.

You cannot possibly assume to know the volume and magnitude of searches that are occurring in any given market... to think otherwise is -- in my opinion -- a reflection of not fully understanding the scale, magnitude, and value of the true nature of search.

P.S. I'm typing fast because I have to run... I apologize for typos, sentence structure, etc... this is a challenging conversation (which I appreciate) and I feel a bit reckless typing my thoughts on the fly.

 

[djbaxter]

Can someone please explain this to a layman? The question is whether listing other towns around the business location in the "Service Area" part of GMB will help rank better in those towns, is that correct?

And the test was to remove those towns and then put them back?

3rd question, if my assumption on the basis of the discussion here is correct, then what do the people -who feel that listing those other towns doesn't help- list in the Service Area section of GMB? Only the town that the business is located in?

1. The so-called "test" that BipperMedia ran was fatally flawed on a number of levels.

2. Listing in surrounding towns may help if you actually provide services to those other areas. If not, you'll probably get dinged for spam.

3. @BipperMedia I have to confess I am disappointed in your latest posts. I thought you had learned something in this thread but these latest posts make it clear you have not.

 

[Adufar]

there's a new update on Google My Business for Service Area business. Service area businesses are now limited to having a maximum of 20 service areas per business
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-my-business-20-service-area-limits-28495.html

2. Listing in surrounding towns may help if you actually provide services to those other areas. If not, you'll probably get dinged for spam.

in addition to @djbaxter this does make sense especially for businesses that have loyal customers. and willing to go extra mile.

 

[LewisSEO]

The only time when you wouldn't want to show your address would be if your location is a place that isn't actually an office (ie. a virtual office or an employee's home. etc.)

There are a ton of service businesses like pest control and carpet cleaners etc.. that operate out of someones house. Its perfectly legitimate for them to not show their address thats specifically why its there.