Contractors stuff the service area list because it feels like free reach. In our nine-profile test, cutting from the maximum 20 areas down to the six the crew can actually reach in 40 minutes raised map impressions by an average of 31% over eight weeks.
The likely mechanism is relevance concentration: a tightly-defined area matches searcher intent more cleanly than a sprawl that overlaps three competitors' home turf.
The business effect was bigger than the SEO effect. Average drive time per job dropped, which means more jobs per truck per day on the same lead volume.
If you genuinely serve a wide region, the answer is more locations with real addresses and staff - not more polygons on one profile.