I have been playing around with the “service area” option in the Google Local Business Center today and found something interesting. I decided I would test with my own listing because…
- -I live in Burley, Idaho and it’s a small enough town that I’m not too concerned about ranking.
- -Google Local hates internet marketers and web designers anyways and we don’t get a search box unless you type insanely long tail phrase.
This makes my listing the perfect guinea pig for potential dangerous tests. Anyways, I had heard through @davidkyle that rankings were dropping when he enabled the “service area” option and I decided I would start to test things out this afternoon. Here is what I have seen…
I was able to target a 200 mile radius area, and while keeping my address displayed I didn’t see any changes in rankings in my local market. I also didn’t notice a change in nearby towns though my service area had been widened.
This above shot was taken after my listing was showing a 200 mile radius. As you can see, I am ranking exactly where I should be… 😉
But, upon changing the option to not show my address…
All of a sudden a map no longer appeared on the search term (luckily I shop organic products) …
And I dropped 7 places in Google map rankings…
I tested this with multiple keywords and found the same results. Upon allowing my address to be seen again, I quickly moved back into my top spot. For now, I wouldn’t be hiding your address just yet. Unless you are above me in a phrase I am trying to rank for, then definitely hide your address.

Mike Ramsey is the founder of Nifty. He is the author of Winning At Local Search and a former partner at LocalU, which provides beginner to advanced conferences in the realm of local search marketing. Mike founded Nifty in 2009 which has been recognized by Inc. as one of the fastest-growing companies in America.