Google announced it is removing the remaining distance-based service area businesses. It will be converting them to the closest named area. Google said “Service-area businesses currently based on a distance will be automatically converted to the closest named areas, like San Francisco, CA or Islington, London.”
Business will be able to review these named areas. “Business owners will be able to review these updates in their Google My Business account under Google updates, and can either accept or provide a new service area. They’ll also receive an email notification about the change,” Google said.
They started this process last November and is now moving to complete this process.
If you are a manager of any Google My Business listings that will be affected by this change, you will have the opportunity to review these updates after logging into their accounts. In this case, you will see an “Updates from Google” notifications at the top of the page next time you login in.
From there, you will be given the option to accept the changes made by Google or provide a new service area based on city, ZIP code, or other areas.
The reason for this change is to better accommodate businesses that provide services outside of a set distance from where they are located physically. This is an ideal change for businesses that don’t serve customers at their physical location.