Service area businesses have been neglected by Google for too long. They want to treat us like a retail shop and pigeon hole us in to serving only the area we have an address.
This new update is a step in the right direction. Google is now eliminating the the “distance” option in your Google My Business account. They are only allowing for specific cities or zip codes.
This is good news! In my opinion it shows that Google is putting some resources into understanding how we operate.
This does not mean that we can rank (yet) in multiple areas, but Google will now tell our potential clients of where we work when they find us on Google.
NOTE: If you are an SEO client with Big West we have already made this change for you.
If you are not an SEO client then watch the video to learn how to do it yourself.
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Hey guys, this is Joe Burnich with Big West Marketing.com. We’re trying to simplify all this marketing stuff so you can just focus on your business and take it to the next level. In this short video, I just want to talk about a new Google announcement. Google is making changes to the Google My Business account for distance based service areas.
So if you have a service based business, you go out and you perform a service at somebody’s house or their business. If that’s your business, you’re going to want to watch this video all the way through and you’re going to want to make these changes before it’s too late. Let’s get started right now.
Okay. So last November is when Google first announced that you need to go in and set up different service areas or zip codes in your Google My Business account as opposed to setting a mile radius. They used to give your the option that say, “I’m in this city, but I want to go 20 miles radius around that city,” something like that.
They’re doing a way with that option and they’re saying the only thing you can put in there as far as the service area, the place that you are going to tell clients that you work is by zip code or specific cities. Okay. So we announced this last November and we took care of it for all of our SEO clients and we take care of it for any new SEO client that comes on with Big West.
But if you’re not one of our clients, you’re going to need to go in and do this yourself because Google is now… Now, that it’s been almost a year, Google is basically saying we’re going to eliminate that other option. We’re not exactly sure what’s going to happen to your account if you don’t do this, but why take chances, right?
So basically here’s the article. I found it, I’ll put a link to this article down below the video so you can read the article as well. But Search Engine Journal, one of the big search engine SEO informational websites out there that we follow basically comes out and says, “Google’s making changes to distance based service areas.”
Most likely your business if you’re doing any kind of service based work. Then basically what it’s saying is Google is going to automatically apply changes. They’re going to decide where you service rather than where you tell them. It’s very important to get in and take care of this stuff. It says the last distance based service areas are going to be removed. That’s the little radius thing I was talking about. That’s going away.
They’re going to take it out of there and they’re going to decide for you where you’re located, where you service. So, I don’t know exactly what that looks like. Like I said. So managers of Google My Business listings effected by this change will have the opportunity to review these updates after logging into their accounts. So if you never log into your account, you’re not even going to see this big warning.
But they’re going to say if you do log into your account after they make this final change, you’re going to see a big warning and it’s going to tell you you need to go in there and tell Google which service areas you work in. Okay. This is not a sudden change. Google does things in phases. So it’s a process of phasing out since last year. They’re doing this in order to accommodate businesses that provide service outside of a set distance where they’re physically located.
This has been our big struggle, especially for home-based service businesses, is we have this issue where we want to work in all these different areas. But Google’s saying, we’re only going to tell people that you work in this one little area. Okay. So is this going to make it so you can rank in 20 different cities? Not yet.
That’s not what Google is saying here, but they’re saying you can at least tell people if they find your listing on Google, at least tell people that you do work in all these different areas. Okay. So this is a step in the right direction in my opinion. I feel like, and a lot of you guys probably feel like that Google has kind of given us the short end of the stick. If we’re a home based service area business. Okay.
Or even if we have a commercial address, we’re still kind of limited. They don’t want to work with us or treating everybody like we’re a retail shop and we’re not because we go to all these different cities. So this is a step in the right direction. Google is finally making some strides as far as helping out service based businesses like us.
So I think this is a step in the right direction. It’s not there yet. It’s not where we want it yet, but this definitely shows that Google is paying attention to the struggles that we’re going through and making efforts to at least move forward in the right direction. So, important that you go in and do this stuff.
So, like I said, I’ll put a link down below to the article so you can read that. But let’s use my account. Let’s use my Google My Business account to show you where you go in and do this exactly. So how to do this. Go to business.google.com that will take you to your Google Business account.
You’re going to have to log in. I’m already logged in under my Gmail. So, it’s going to automatically put me in here. Now, what are you going to do on along the left hand side. You’re going to click on info. Okay. Click on the info link right there. Then you’re going to see down here where you can edit your service areas. This is the key. This is where you want to put in all the cities/zip codes that you service.
You’re going to hit this little pencil icon and since I’m serving basically these four countries. That’s where I’m going to put it in. You’re most likely going to be located in a metro area and you’re going to put your main city, number one. Then you’re going to list all the different suburbs and all the surrounding cities and or zip codes right up here. Okay. Right up in this little box here.
So if I wanted to put 59803, which is Missoula, Montana, where I’m physically located. We do business in all of these different countries, but I’m physical located here. I can apply that. So I’m going to do that. Click apply, of course, give Google their minute to save everything. Info updated. That’s a good sign. Okay.
Then it’ll say pending probably for an hour to 24 hours until it actually will update that for you. But that’s what you want to do. You want to go in there and add all that stuff. Don’t let Google decide that for you. You know which cities you want to work in. You know what city you want Google to tell people you work in. This is where you’re going to do it. Once again, you’re going to click on info and then under service areas and hit the little pencil icon.
If you have any questions on this stuff, give us a call at (406) 493-1881. Like I said, if you’re a current SEO client of Big West Marketing, we did this for you back in November when it first became an announcement. You don’t need to worry about it. If you’re an SEO client, we’re on top of this for you. But if you’re not, you need to go do it yourself and if you can’t figure it out, give us a call and we’ll help you. Like I said, joeburnich@bigwestmarketing.com, (406) 493-1881 and I’ll talk to you soon.
