Over the years, we have written that service areas are not used as a local ranking factor by Google Search. Well, the API leak document also implies this to be true.
Claudia Tomina spotted this and posted about it on LinkedIn - she wrote, "And because I love digging through the Google API leak for the buried gems, here is what Google has to say about service areas: This proto represents the geographic area served by an establishment. WARNING: This proto is not meant to be used directly."
Here is a screenshot she posted from the API:
Claudia posted her "translation," saying, "This is backend storage for display and internal geo-consistency, not an input to the ranking model."
"If service areas were part of ranking logic, they wouldn't warn engineers not to use them directly," she explained.
Of course, things can change, so there will always be a debate. :)
Forum discussion at LinkedIn.
