Optimize Your Service Area Business for Local SEO

Every business owner wants their company to rank highly in local searches. But how?

Your local search ranking is determined, ultimately, by three factors:

  • Prominence
  • Relevance
  • Proximity

These factors impact the ranking of every business. For a service area business, however, it’s a whole different ball game.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably the proprietor or a service area business. Just in case you’re unclear on the terminology, though, here is a quick run-down.

What is a Service Area Business?

A service area business (or SAB) is a business that does not have a storefront location. Rather, the service provider comes to the customer’s location.

In the past, Service Area businesses often ran into one conundrum or another with Google My Business. Previously, SABs were limited in how they could communicate their ‘service area’ to Google and customers. They’d have to submit their address to Google and state the radius that they were available for work.

A recent development in Google My Business’s setup, however, has changed things. SABs can now forgo publicizing their address altogether. Instead, they can simply select their service area of choice. This is a great leap forward for all the SABs in the world. When you’re able to select your service area by region, city, or zip code, you’re able to target the clients that will most benefit from their services.

Before we start working with our clients, they’re unaware of just how easy it is to optimize their Google My Business profile. The other ways a person can optimize their SAB require a little more knowledge of SEO. Thankfully, we’re here to help you and our clients sort out all this information!

How to Benefit from Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)

SERPs are ever-evolving. Just ask any SEO specialist who worked in the industry five years ago. SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) are the pages that Google displays in response to a user’s search queries. As you have probably noticed, your search for “Plumbers in San Jose” yielded not only plumber’s websites, but also a variety of local service ads. How is a local business supposed to compete with those? How is someone supposed to rank higher than the rest on Google’s SERPs?

At LinkNow Media, one of the first things our Local SEO department does is get our client’s businesses into directories. Google recognizes directories as trustworthy links, and so do customers (as many studies have shown). Not only do we create profiles for our clients on the major and niche directories, but we also keep those listings updated. If a company changes addresses, names, phone numbers, or service areas, a business owner might forget to update their many online listings. This can prove disastrous for any SAB. Thankfully, LinkNow Media stays on top of these changes!

Another way to optimize your SAB’s listing? Work hard to get client reviews! The more reviews your Google My Business listing garners, the better your business will look in the eyes of Google—and potential customers!

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