Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Should I change my local listing Service type from Brick and Mortar to Service Area in Google? And will it affect my ranking in a negative manner?
-
Currently my company Big Boy Bail Bonds, Inc is ranking very well for the city it is located and, currently service type is brick and mortar. But my Company does not only service people at our location but we service the entire county of Los Angeles. And I wanted to know if you would advise me on weather I should change the service type from brick and morter to service area. and if doing that would effect me in a negative manner when it came to my ranking? Plz advice Thank you in advance.
-
It's my pleasure. Have a super week!
-
Thank you for taking the time to look and the links and giving me the best advise you have. I really appreciate your time. Thank you in very much.
-
Hi Gayane,
Thanks for the link and the further information. You could go either way with this, but personally, I would stick with designating the business as brick-and-mortar. If you choose the settings for a service area business, Google will determine whether or not to hide your address, and if you are the only business in your locale/industry with a hidden address, there is some chance that you could see a ranking drop in Van Nuys. And, given your location (a busy, competitive place) setting a service radius is unlikely to cause you to show anyplace but Van Nuys, anyway. So, personally, I'd stick with the settings for brick-and-mortar because you are eligible, and I would pursue the work described in my point #2, above.
Hope this helps!
-
Thank you for the respond. Let me be a little more clear. My business is a bail bonds company. Located in the county of Los Angeles, but in a city called Va Nuys. And when it comes to where I service my clients. Its pretty much half and half. Half the time they come to my office. The other half the time I meet the clients at the jail that the inmate is located at, or I will also go to my clients home. And currently I'm ranking very well with my city showing on in the local pack. But if I change it to a service area business, I dont know if it will effect me in a negative way or positive. Or will it not effect my ranking. Because I believe I'm ranking so well on the local pack due to my reviews being a whole lot more then my competition. The link above will take you to my local listing. In case you wanted to take a quick look. And give my your insight. Thank you.
-
Hi Gayane!
So glad you started a new thread on this. This is how this works:
-
Local pack results are all about your city of location. So, if you're located in the city of San Diego, your best hope is rank in the local packs for searches made from devices based in San Diego or searches that contain the word San Diego in them. You are not likely to rank in the local packs for any other city in your county or service area. This isn't the way Google's local results work.
-
So, if you want to rank for these other city terms in your service area, then you need to aim for organic results rather than local ones. This will involve a combination of onsite development of great local content + earning links and other SEO basics in hopes that you can compete for some organic visibility in these areas where you don't have a physical office. You can read more about this here: https://moz.com/blog/local-landing-pages-guide
-
The alternative is to pay to play. Invest in Google Adwords and target ads to these other cities.
-
In Google's local product, brick-and-mortar businesses are those that receive customers, in person, at their place of business. So, this would be a restaurant, dental office, chiropractor, hospital, etc. A service area business would be one that mainly serves customers at their locations. This would be an electrician, plumber, landscaper, etc. You'll need to decide which one of those business models best describes your business. You should pick the one which accurately describes your business best and should not change from one to the other for any ranking considerations.
Hope this helps!
-
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Former tenant Google Map listing still displays
Our tenant closed their business and we now occupy the address, their Google map still displays, albeit "Permanently Closed" along with ours at the same address. I can't seem to get it removed, it's been 2 years. Help 🙂
Local Listings | | KevnJr0 -
Google points of Interest / POI
Hello, Looking for some guidance on how to appear and get listed in Google Points of Interest in the Search Engine Results Page. Like when searching for "attractions Seattle" at the top of the SERP these listings appear. Cannot seem to find some good resources on the topic as well. Thanks Conrad
Local Listings | | conalt1 -
How do I treat multiple buildings on the same college campus on Google for local SEO?
Should I delete them? Simply give them a different address like "City, State, Zip"? I see the benefit of having key buildings on campus in Google Maps, but I don't want those to affect my accuracy score and, thus, my local rankings for SEO.
Local Listings | | GabeGibitz1 -
HELP! Google Local dropped!
I noticed that my Google Local page does not show in any search results anymore. Looking at Moz Local, it appears that I had 250 views on August 30th and 0 after that. It just dropped overnight. I looked at Google My Business and I noticed that I had a duplicate listing (no idea where it came from). It wasn't verified though. I deleted that. I also noticed that my address has been changed to Drive instead Dr. I was very careful in making it the same everywhere, but it changed without me changing it. Perhaps someone so kindly "suggested an edit" and I didn't see that happen. Anyone have any ideas. My organic search ranking is still strong. #3 for most search terms. And we have a very strong Google Local reviews. I mean, it even shows business that have been permanently closed over me!!! And we have photos, great reviews, and regularly post to Google+. I seriously need some help. I am a small business owner that does all of my own SEO because I can't afford a good SEO. 😞
Local Listings | | CalicoKitty20000 -
Google My Business- Will a large service area dilute local search results?
I am considering adding our actual service area to our Google My Business profile, but I don't want this to dilute our local search results. As it is, we come up in the top 3 or so when searched in our HQ's city and several nearby cities when you search for us in Google Maps (although when I look at the top 10 organic for Google for some reason when you search for these cities + our keywords Google doesn't show any local results). Our actual service area is fairly large, comprising the states of CA & Hawaii & parts of CO, AZ, and UT. I would be adding the service area by zip code rather than radius, as a radius wouldn't make any sense in this case (particularly considering the distance between HI and CA). Is it better to keep our relatively high ranking in local results? Will adding the service area not affect local results negatively? Also, do you know why Google isn't showing me local results when I look for our keywords + our nearby cities? When I look for these keywords in larger cities like LA or San Diego, Google always shows me local results.
Local Listings | | BohmKalish1230 -
Google is associating the wrong address with my website in SERPs
I've dealt with submitting address change information to Google (and Yelp, YP, etc.) when they have somehow scraped the wrong address or phone number. This is a little different. I work for the parent company with multiple companies of similar names making up the family of companies. What's happening is that people are searching for one of our companies (Lynden Transport) and getting the correct website results to pop up, but the address/phone # shown below the URL and in the local results screen is for one of our other companies (LTI, Inc.). Customers should be seeing a Fife, WA address but instead are seeing one for Lynden, WA. I've attached a marked up screenshot to better those what is happening. At least customers are generally finding their way to our company but it's causing quite a headache for our customer service reps and customers as they get transferred back and forth on the phone, and confusion for customers unfamiliar with our office locations. I've clicked on the "Send Feedback" link at the bottom of Google and explained what was happening, but beyond that I'm not sure what to do. The information presented isn't wrong, it's just being associated with the wrong company. It seems like a Google logic error and not something I can control or edit. Any ideas? moz-ltia.jpg
Local Listings | | RyanD.0 -
Does anyone use Moz Local + Yext? How valuable is this for local businesses?
For brands that have a budget to pay $600 / year for valuable backlink directories, would you recommend Moz Local + Yext? I would like to hear some feedback on marketers that use Yext. Thanks,
Local Listings | | ColeLusby
Cole0 -
Are citations the way to go even if there is no Google Places listing
If there are no Google Places / Local listing for a keyword search term, for example... "web design vancouver", do building citations still help in enabling websites to move up the organic rankings?
Local Listings | | Gavo0