Page 43 - SEO Mad Scientist 2020 Report

Now when we searched the brand name while in Hanover, PA, our listing was populated. This
makes us believe that setting a service area in GMB has no impact on the proximity signals.

It's clear, there is a strong proximity signal based on where the address was verified and not
related to the service area provided. We believe that verification location is most likely the
strongest proximity signal as it would also make sense for Google to combat GMB spam and
people moving locations to get better proximity signals.

When we ran the same tests using our geo modifier directly in the brand name (Mr. Lender Title
Loans Miami) we saw the same thing. The listing would show near the location it was verified with
the geo modifier, but not in the corresponding service area. Which means that having the geo
terms in the business name may be a relevance signal for the geo term itself, but is in no way
connected to proximity signals, just like service areas. So far the "geo" city or state used within
the listing itself seems to have little impact on proximity aside from searching for the term itself.

Update: October 9, 2020

Our GMB Exact Match Brand Site, with relevant content and no address listing, didn't seem to be
completely filtered in the organic search anymore for the keyword terms. We were tracking
organic terms for the Title Loans Miami GMB site. The rank was fluctuating - going in and out of
rankings here and there, which could be the "Exact Match Brand" algo holding it back but not
completely stopping it from showing.

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