Google penalises businesses that are not based in the tow

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

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  John Pitcher: I have a client who is based some miles away from the town they wish to rank for. They are a service industry where customers go to their premises. Their site is part way down page 1 for many search terms.
  
  Would it help or hinder their website’s ranking if they put the address on the website, created a Google Local Business page and directory listings? (All of these highlight that they are not based in the local town itself.)
  
  From the end-customer’s viewpoint, they offer a service that customers are happy to travel for, but Google sometimes penalises businesses that are not based in the town, although maybe not quite as much since the recent Possum?
  
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  Tim Capper: I don't think a GMB page would hinder anything, rather it would appear for searches with near, close to etc.
  
  It would also provide business branding for direct searches in the Knowledge Panel.
  
  I would certainly add the address and business details to site footer, because then you can add site wide structured data to the site.
  
  And you can still rank pretty well in local pack for more specific product / service related queries even if you are not directly in the locality.
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  John Pitcher: Many thanks +Tim Capper ;My own feeling is that it SHOULD be done, but, as a web designer rather than a SEO, I wanted to check with the experts before advising.