Ranking On Local MAP Pack For a Service Area

[Concept]

Context
At the moment I have two sites that get traffic through Local SEO.

I'm listed as an actual location for both, however, they are postal addresses rather than places of doing business.

The reasons I did this is it helps with Google trust and can help with rankings.

The downside of this is people turn up to the location to discover there is no storefront - not the best user experience.

I want to change this.

I've noticed a competitor in one of my niches is currently ranking in the top 3 of the map pack, however, they don't have a physical address shown. Just a service area.

This type of listing is ideal for me, however, from my understanding, it is more difficult to achieve.

Question For Local SEO Experts
How can I get my business location to show up in the MAP pack even if I'm listed as a service area?

Any tips, tricks, or not well-known methods that can help?

Cheers

 

[Broland]

These are called Service Area Businesses (SAB's). You just go in to edit your listing and change the setting for: serves customers at this location. The. You can enter cities or zip codes served to display your service area. You'll actually be more in line with Googles guidelines as SAB's are not supposed to have the address visible. This should not affect your ability to rank at all. However, any changes like this can sometimes draw more attention, more so in higher competition niches, so be aware of any other violations, spammy tactics etc. For example, certain things may prompt a "random" call from a Google rep to verify a location. Even if it's just a place where you park your service area trucks at night you would be able to answer questions about what businesses are across the street etc. if legit.

Feel free to reach out if more help is needed about details of your specific situation.