A lot of local SEOs are talking about a possible new local SEO ranking factor from Google and looking to confirm it. Darren Shaw posted X that while your service area settings have historically had no influence on your local Google ranking, it may now have changed.
Darren wrote: “Local SEOs have always known that setting service areas on your Google Business Profile has no impact on rankings. We’ve come to call this ‘factor’ a local search myth.” But now he said: “I’ve heard a couple of people say they think they’re seeing an impact now, and yesterday @JimAlle76608945 showed me some reasonably compelling data to support the idea.”
Darren will be testing this further, but he did some quick testing and shared:
Using Pleper’s lat/long data, Jim realized that the “pin” for his mobile notary business was in the middle of a farmer’s field. Falcon’s local scans showed that it was ranking around that spot, but it didn’t rank very well in the main area I wanted to target. (see “before” image). Updated service areas in GBP to focus more on the area it wanted to rank in. Local Falcon’s updated scans now show you higher ranking in this area! (see “after” image). Changing service areas to GBP also changed the lat/long in Pleper to the area it was targeting.
He also shared this before-and-after chart of changing the service area:
I see a lot of local SEOs buzzing about this, and it reminds me of the old days of web search SEO…
Here is Darren’s post:
🚨 I think there is a NEW local ranking factor!
Local SEOs have always known that setting service areas on your Google Business Profile has no impact on rankings. We’ve come to call this “factor” a local search myth.
But, I’ve heard a couple of people say that they think… pic.twitter.com/vkNrB0860p
— Darren Shaw (@DarrenShaw_) May 14, 2024
Discussion in the forum a X.
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