How far away does your Google Local Listing Show up - and how to improve.

[musillawfirm]

How does google decide if a listing from one city shows up in another?

When I do a search for a lawyer in my city my competition from another town shows up - but I don't show up when I search their town.  Only 3 listings show up for both searches - so it's not necessarily a rank thing.

Any ideas on improving the distance your listings show up for?

Thanks!

[BlastAM]

"How does google decide if a listing from one city shows up in another?"

-- It depends on the amount of competition that search term has and how well everyones Google Places pages are optimized for that term.  If there is a lot of competition for that term then it will stick with that city, if there are not a lot of quality matches it will expand it's results.

"Any ideas on improving the distance your listings show up for?"

-- Optimize you Google Places page for the keywords you want to show up for. Your Places page is going to be centered around your physical address first, then it is going to look at the content you added for title, description, and any other info you add.  If your business covers a wider area like a neighboring town then make sure you include the name of that town in your description or title if it is appropriate. Your success will depend on how competitive the market in that area is and how optimized your page and others pages are for those location you are looking in.