Setting milage radius versus static location for Places.

[bdisalvio]

I just changed the setting for my client from"all customers come to business location" to "business serves customers at their locations" and set 100 mile radius for pest control company. Will that help or hurt their ranking? I would think for mobile clients especially it will help, as I would think that Google would GPS the location of the person searching mobile, and find fits within that range, otherwise anyone more than a few miles from their location will get someone else in search results.

Also, they will be getting a new office location soon. Should we keep old one for a while and add a second location, or just move location? I heard if you move location for any reason it will hurt ranking.

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[Colan Nielsen]

It sounds like you have a service area business (*Pest Control), so you need to set your service area settings to "business serves customers at their locations" AND you MUST also hide your address in the places dashboard. Google has stated that hiding your address does NOT affect ranking.

When you move, simply go into your places dashboard and make the necessary edits. Google will most likely split off a listing with the old address which you can then go and report as closed via "Report a Problem". Moving to a new location can certainly have an impact on your ranking. You will need to go out and update as many citations for the old location as possible.

 

[Linda Buquet]

I just changed the setting for my client from"all customers come to business location" to "business serves customers at their locations" and set 100 mile radius for pest control company. Will that help or hurt their ranking? I would think for mobile clients especially it will help, as I would think that Google would GPS the location of the person searching mobile, and find fits within that range, otherwise anyone more than a few miles from their location will get someone else in search results.

Also, they will be getting a new office location soon. Should we keep old one for a while and add a second location, or just move location? I heard if you move location for any reason it will hurt ranking.

Service radius does not help ranking. They will usually only rank in the city they are actually located in if it's a competitive market. Setting the radius wider is not going to help them rank 3 towns over. No way. (But totally based on city size and competition.)

Best practice is to just set a 20 mile radius.

Colan is right you MUST hide address or Google is likely to delete the listing and it can take MONTHS to be re-instated.

Should not have more that one listing in close proximity for a service area business, so if they are just moving across town or nearby, edit the address on the existing listing. Moving or changing name or phone will almost always cause a ranking drop and possibly lost reviews. Only safe way to avoid those problems is never move or break NAP.

 

[Linda Buquet]

One other BIG service radius issue.

Don't set up multiple cities or zips in the lower service area setting box. Or at least if you do and address is hidden, check to see where it puts your Map Marker.

I've helped lots of folks in the G forum that have said "Google is stupid, it put my Map Marker in the middle of the forest out in a rural area. There is not even a city there and it won't let me move the marker to any of the cities I serve."

IMPORTANT TIP
When you list multiple areas G will drop you right in the center even if it's in the desert.

If your top setting includes your zip, it will put you in middle of that zip. If however you delete zip and only list the city you are in - even if you are on the outskirts of town, guess where it will put your marker? SMACK DAB CENTER OF TOWN!

 

[Gayle Katz]

Hi Linda,

For Service Area Businesses that already have a page on Google+ Local and already filled in their full address, including zip in the top section/box, Google won't allow you to remove the zip from the zip code field. When you try to remove zip, Google shows the exact error as: You can't leave this empty. Because of this, even though Google hides the street address, the Google map marker is showing where my client lives, not the center of the zip code.

How do I fix this problem?

Thanks,
Gayle

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Gayle, if I understand you right...

The top section for the business info - that MUST be filled out. You can't omit zip there.

Running out the door so no time to log into the new Places dash to refresh myself on how the service area settings work there. But in old dash you could select your city but no zip. So city, state only. Can you not do that in the new dash. (in the service area settings, not in the business info section.)

 

[Gayle Katz]

Thanks Linda! You're correct and that's exact what I did. I selected the city and state, but now the client is in the middle of a field just like you mentioned in an earlier post.

 

[Linda Buquet]

You only have city, state - the city they are located in and it didn't put you in the center of the city? Usually you only land in a bad spot if you enter several citys or zips.

What happens if you add their zip? Does it put you need the center of that zip?

 

[Gayle Katz]

Very interesting. When I input only the city and state, the map marker appears near the city center - according to where Google puts the city/town name on the map - but in a large field. It's a smaller, suburban town which might be the reason for the placement.

When I input the city, state and zip, the map marker appears not far from the center of the zip code - according to where Google puts the map marker for the zip code - at a building off of one of the main streets.

I guess either location is better than the client's home address.

Thanks again for the guidance, Linda!