Is it easier to rank for local searches for town1 or county1?

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

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  John Pitcher: If you live 10-15 miles away from Town1 and within county1, is it easier to rank for local searches for town1 or county1?
  
  At one point, I'd have said that town1 is less competitive than county1 and so would have had title/h1 tags with "keyword town1 county1".
  
  Nowadays, however, your physical location seems to be increasingly important - both for Google+ A-G local search pins (the ones that are linked to a map on many local searches) and also for the website itself. Customers living a distance away from a town are therefore at a disadvantage when targeting that town; county MIGHT therefore be an easier option????
  
  I'd like to hear people's opinions mainly for professions who are willing to travel (eg carpenters, plumbers, driving instructors etc) ;but also for static ;businesses (eg hotels).
  
  We sometimes get customers who live some distance away from a town with any significant search volumes, and who are willing to travel, ;and I'd like to know how to advise them as to the easiest way to achieve rankings. (Most of our customers do ;NOT want to put significant effort into link-building.)
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  Blake Smith: +John Pitcher I believe county is the best idea. Strategically use town names where possible in meta description and content.
  
  Without link or citation building, local SEO is difficult in competitive markets. Citations on the major directories and social outlets with the same business name, address (if applicable) and phone number are vital in my opinion
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  Greg Kristan: +John Pitcher ;Go to the website https://getlisted.org/ where you can verify your companies location. This is a great way to start your website optimization for local search
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  W.E. Jonk: From the expert panel in this weeks SEO Questions hangout on air on 01:04:03 into the YouTube video: https://dumbseoquestions.com/q/is_it_easier_to_rank_for_local_searches_for_town1_or_county1