Service-Area Businesses vs. Hybrid Businesses

Whether a business has a physical storefront determines if it is a service-area business or a hybrid business. Service-area businesses have members or employees who go to clients’ homes or other locations, like electricians, in-home healthcare providers, and “ghost kitchens” that only offer food delivery. Hybrid businesses do the same but also have actual storefronts, such as dine-in restaurants that also offer delivery and repair places with onsite and offsite services.

Since a key ranking factor for Google is proximity, businesses that display a physical address tend to rank better, especially in Google Maps. That’s why you should include a physical address if your business technically has one — even if you add it to the listing and then hide it. Note that to properly qualify as a storefront, the business must have permanent signage, as well as personnel available at that address during business hours.

Service Business Listing Requirements

Google only allows one service-area business profile per metropolitan area served and a maximum of 20 zip codes, cities, or counties to serve from each listing. To make sure the whole service area is covered, you may want to input zip codes in the outer limits of that service area, though this won’t guarantee appearances in local searches or Google Maps. Moreover, Google suggests that your service-area boundaries are no more than two hours (drive time) from your base of business, but this can be tricky to determine since it is silent on driving speed and traffic conditions.

What Your Business Can Do

Now that you have learned about these Google updates, here are some things you can do to thrive under these changes.

• Leverage your physical presence: Hybrid area businesses have a bit of an advantage because Google favors brick-and-mortar sites with physical addresses that it can pin on Google Maps. If you have a physical business address, make sure you include it on your listing. Vinyl and movable signs are not sufficient, so invest in some permanent signage if you want to take advantage of a storefront. You will also have to staff this location.
• Avoid spam/keyword stuffing: Using keywords in the business title instead of the registered business name or creating duplicate listings for the same geographical area — as service- area business listings tend to be suspended more often for these tactics. Instead of trying (and failing) to outsmart the system, use the business name you registered, and promote your services in your business description, web content, and in Google Posts.
• Manage multiple locations effectively: If there are more than 20 zip codes, cities, or counties served by your business, create separate, distinct (unique) content pages for each locality so that you are more likely to appear in organic search results for those areas and can better control how your websites appear.

Let Us Do the Heavy Lifting

Maximizing your posts, descriptions, and general content, as well as creating and maintaining content pages for different localities, can be work — that you don’t have time for. That’s where In Context comes in. We’re happy to optimize your SEO and content so your business can thrive under Google service-area business listing requirements. Talk to us today.