LSA Service Areas: The Problem
After making an investment in Local Service Ads (LSA) and carefully maintaining your profile, you anticipate receiving a steady stream of quality leads. Then you discover something annoying: companies you've never heard of are ranking directly next to, and even above your LSA listing. How can this be? The overuse of LSA's service area feature is frequently the cause.
LSA Service Areas
The service area feature enables enterprises to designate the geographic regions they cover. Sounds simple enough, right? Unfortunately, many businesses abuse this function by targeting extremely large areas that extend far beyond their true working range. They may be based in a single small town yet claim to serve a radius that includes many cities, and in some cases, entire regions.
Why are they doing this? Basically, to increase their chances of finding leads. They may not serve all of those locations directly, but they may refer the lead to another firm (typically for a referral fee) or attempt to upsell the consumer into a service they do provide in their immediate vicinity.
Problem with Broad Service Areas:
- Misleading Results for Customers: When looking for a local service, customers expect to locate businesses that operate in their region. Seeing results from businesses located hundreds of miles away is a waste of time and can be frustrating.
- Unfair Competition: Businesses that accurately portray their service area face a disadvantage. They compete with companies who fraudulently inflate their visibility by claiming to serve a far greater area than they actually do.
- Google continues to receive payment: LSA is still a paid ad through Google, and businesses pay them to use their platform. At the end of the day, Google will attempt to make it fair for businesses and provide a better experience for searchers, but they still want to make a profit from their platform.
What Can Be Done?
While Google is aware of the problem, no precise remedy has been adopted yet. You can accomplish the following things:
- Optimize Your LSA Profile: Make sure your service area appropriately represents the places you cover. Continue to gather more Google reviews to help your rank.
- Monitor your competitors: Keep an eye on the company's rating along with your LSA advertisements. If you believe they are misusing the service area feature, report them to Google.
- Provide Feedback to Google: Inform Google of your issues about the service area function. The more feedback they get, the more likely they are to make adjustments.
The issue of too broad service area targeting in LSA is difficult to address, but understanding why it occurs is the first step in finding a solution. The greatest thing you can do is focus on your own LSA account, and Google hopes to help level the playing field for businesses that are truly committed to supporting their local communities.