Google My Business- Will a large service area dilute local search results?

[BohmKalish123]

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.

[MiriamEllis]

Hey Brett!

There are some nuances to this I want to be sure I'm understanding.

1. How many physical locations do you have? Are you saying that you have 1 physical location from which you are serving all of those states, or do you have physical locations in each of the states?

2. Are you meeting face-to-face with your customers in each of these states, either at your office or at their homes/businesses?

Please, answer these 2 questions as fully as possible.

Regarding instances in which Google does not show local results for a given query, this is based on their internal interpretation of what is most relevant. Google makes a decision about whether a searcher's intent is local or not, and also, they determine whether there is enough relevant local data to show on a given query. No one (but Google) knows all of the ins and outs of these decisions, but it's not something you can really influence. The important thing is to recognize whether Google is showing local or organic results for your core queries and then do everything you can to become dominant in those results, either via local or traditional marketing methods. Remember, too, that results are personalized - so you searching from Hawaii are not seeing the same results that your customer is searching from California

I'll look forward to your replies on questions 1 & 2.

[RyanPurkey]

Hi Brett. The biggest changes that you'll want to address / consider when working on this come from last July's Penguin update: http://a-moz.groupbuyseo.org/google-algorithm-change (see: Penguin - July 24, 2014). Mainly that, "Google has released a new algorithm to provide a more useful, relevant and accurate local search results that are tied more closely to traditional web search ranking signals."  It sounds like you'll want to create content on your site that does as well traditionally as your HQ content for: CA, Hawaii, CO, AZ, and UT.  This will help spur your localized results on as well.

More in-depth on the disappearance, check: http://blumenthals.com/blog/2014/07/25/google-updates-local-algo-with-more-web-based-signals-turmoil-in-serps/, "In searches I follow there has been both ups, downs and the disappearance of the pack where it was previously prominent. In one case a detached listing which had been doing well both organically and locally but wasn’t in the pack returned to the pack."

It's likely your current listings will stay as long as you don't nuke content on your site. The addition of service areas else where matching additional content on site would be a natural fit.  Cheers!