Why it matters on an HVAC site
It is the reason a contractor ranks in the suburb around their address and disappears four miles away, and it is the single most common thing an owner is confused about. They search from the office, see themselves first, and conclude the work is done.
For a van-based business it is also the least fair of the three. The trucks cover forty miles; the pin covers one address. Nothing an agency does changes where the pin is, so an agency that promises ranking "across the metro" is promising something proximity will not allow.
How to check it yourself
- A grid of searches at known coordinates, run at a stated radius and spacing, so ranking is reported as a map rather than a single position.
- The same query from the business address and from the edge of the service area, which shows the fall-off directly.
- Never from your own logged-in browser at the office, which is the measurement that creates the misunderstanding.
Worked through in numbers
A contractor ranks 1st for "ac repair" when searched at their address and reports the campaign as working.
A 9 by 9 grid at 2-mile spacing across their stated service area returns: 1st in 6 cells, top 3 in 14, and outside the top 20 in 43 of the 81. The average across the grid is 18.4.
Nothing was wrong with the campaign. The reporting was wrong, because a single position from one point had been standing in for a service area forty miles across.
Where this sits in the rankings
Scored under Local SEO. How far the searcher is from you, and the one local factor nobody can change.