What are your tricks for ranking a SAB in other cities?

[Den]

Since adding service areas seemingly does nothing to the ranking, how do you make sure your GMB pops up in other cities which you are not located in?

Location keywords in descriptions & GMB posts? Getting reviews with those keywords? Is there anything else you can do?

I've got a website ranking 1st organically for several location keywords but not even showing up on GMB for those location keywords.

That said, i'm not even sure how possible it is to get a SAB ranking in another city because when I look at the results in Google Maps for said service+location, all the locations that pop up are in that area..

 

[JoyHawkins]

So the short answer here is that it's likely not possible for main keywords because proximity is too much of a ranking factor so the listing will only rank if the searcher is located somewhat near the address you used on the listing.

It is possible to expand your radius for long-tail keywords because there is not as much competition.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Hey Den,

The short answer is that it is rare to rank in the 3-pack for cities you aren't physically located in, as you alluded to.

Whitespark did a great write-up on the topic - https://whitespark.ca/blog/rank-in-cities-with-no-physical-address/

Also, Joy's presentation in the upcoming LocalU event in Colorado is all about "How to Win at Local Search with SABs" so I would check it out if you can!

 

[Den]

Thanks for the answers guys, albeit being terrible news.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

The best you can do is rank organically and get some review rich snippets going. And I agree, it's not the most pleasant news ever. I wish it was different.

 

[whitespark]

If the amount of leads they can drive from having a GMB listing in the other city/cities make the expense worth it, then you could get an actual, physical, real, non-virtual, office, that is staffed during business hours, and then you could make a new GMB listing with that office location. This usually isn't worth it for most SABs, but it could be in cases where their main office is in the tiny suburb, and they need to to drive leads from the big city.

Even then, you'll only rank within a 10 mile radius around the location. You won't rank across the whole city.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

If the amount of leads they can drive from having a GMB listing in the other city/cities make the expense worth it, then you could get an actual, physical, real, non-virtual, office, that is staffed during business hours, and then you could make a new GMB listing with that office location. This usually isn't worth it for most SABs, but it could be in cases where their main office is in the tiny suburb, and they need to to drive leads from the big city.

Even then, you'll only rank within a 10 mile radius around the location. You won't rank across the whole city.

Honestly, I think this strategy is underrated. I can't imagine for most SAB's that are trying to drive more traffic (meaning they probably have a high supply of labor and not enough demand) that $500 a month for a little office space wouldn't pay for itself with good SEO. The trick would be staffing it in line with GMB guidelines. But maybe just stick a service guy there and have it be his home base?

 

[JoyHawkins]

Honestly, I think this strategy is underrated. I can't imagine for most SAB's that are trying to drive more traffic (meaning they probably have a high supply of labor and not enough demand) that $500 a month for a little office space wouldn't pay for itself with good SEO. The trick would be staffing it in line with GMB guidelines. But maybe just stick a service guy there and have it be his home base?

Clients of mine that have used this strategy have found a good ROI from it. Between the labor and the rent, it's usually a few thousand but it's still worth it if you are generating more than that in profit due to the number of sales.

 

[Den]

How would Google even make sure there actually is staff there? Seems like it would be very easy just to rent an office space and use it as storage.. or heck rent it out in 2nd hand to someone who needs office space..

 

[JoyHawkins]

I used to see competitors report this stuff all the time back on the Google My Business forum. It was pretty easy to do - they'd just show up at the location with a video showing the business isn't there and Google would remove the listing. So I guess it all depends on how much your competitors (or their SEO companies) know about the GMB guidelines.