Where you show up on Google depends on where your customer is standing when they search. A business that ranks first in Fremont can be invisible in Bellevue.
I work with businesses across Seattle, the Eastside and the South and North Sound, and I plan every campaign around the areas you actually serve, not just the city on your address.
Example: one search, checked across an area
Each circle is the map ranking from that spot
Why location matters
Google ranks local businesses on three things: relevance, how well you match the search; prominence, how well known and reviewed you are; and distance, how close you are to the person searching.
You can improve the first two. Distance you cannot change, but you can work with it. That is why a single "rank check" from one spot tells you very little, and why I check your rankings across the areas your customers search from.
Areas I serve
The Seattle metro area is not one market. Lake Washington, the bridges and the county lines split it into areas where customers search, compare and choose differently.
Dense and competitive. Customers often search by neighborhood rather than city, so "plumber Ballard" and "plumber Seattle" can show very different results.
What that means for you: neighborhood relevance matters, and the businesses closest to the searcher have a real head start in the map results.
Across the lake, customers usually search with their own city name. A Seattle business rarely shows up in Bellevue map results unless it is set up to serve the Eastside.
What that means for you: if you work on the Eastside, it needs its own pages and its own place in your profile's service areas.
Tacoma is a separate market with its own competitors, in Pierce County rather than King. Renton and Kent sit between, close to Sea-Tac and the I-5 and I-405 corridors.
What that means for you: Tacoma is worth targeting only if you serve it regularly. A page for a city you rarely drive to will not hold its ranking.
North of the city line, searches shift to Snohomish County towns. Everett and Lynnwood customers often search locally first and only look toward Seattle when nothing nearby fits.
What that means for you: if you serve the north end, being found under these town names beats competing for "Seattle".
Send me three searches. I check them from the areas your customers search from and tell you where you stand in each.
How I handle multiple areas
A city page is built when people in that city search for what you sell and you actually work there. Not for every town on the map.
Pages that swap the city name and keep the same text get ignored by Google. Each page says something true and specific about working in that area.
Your Google Business Profile service areas, your location pages and your directory listings all describe the same footprint, so Google is not left guessing.
Questions
In the regular search results, yes, with a strong page for that area. In the map results it is harder, because distance to the searcher counts. I will tell you honestly which of the two is realistic for each area you want.
No. Only for the areas where people search for your service and you want the work. A few strong area pages beat twenty thin ones.
Yes. Google treats that as a service area business, which changes how your profile should be set up and how you appear in the map results. Getting this right is often one of the first fixes.
The focus is the Seattle metro area. If you are a little further out and your customers search much the same way, send me your searches and I will tell you if I am the right fit.
Start here
Send your website and three searches. You get a written answer within two business days.
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