Links for Local Search: Relevance or Proximity?
-
Hi Mozzers,
In the best situation links for a local business should be relevant and come from a local organization, but this is not always possible. In cases where you have to choose between relevance and proximity which is more important?
-
Hi Wayne,
I vote for a good mix of:
-
Locally relevant sites, like local newspapers, local business organizations and possibly local blogs
-
Industry relevant sites, like industry publications, industry organizations and industry blogs
I wouldn't focus on one over the other. I'd go for both!
-
-
No problem, Wayne. Hope that helps.
Nope, but thanks! That was a hypothetical I created. I'm part of an in-house SEO team for an San Diego online printing service. If you have a spare "online printing" link, that's a different story...
-
Thanks for the response Andrew. Will a "dry cleaning" link from Oregon help your customer?
-
Check this guy out, he's one of the leading experts
http://www.localvisibilitysystem.com/
http://www.localvisibilitysystem.com/definitive-local-search-citations/
-
Thanks for the help. I Can
t use Moz Local because I
m in Canada. -
Proximity will get your business more targeted in a local sense, and that's still a hard case to make because the site you're getting the link from has to be set up in a way where they've geo tagrgeted as well. Don't forget to get the business listed on the well known places https://moz.com/local/search.
Hope that helps
-
Hey Wayne,
I prefer relevance over proximity much more.
When I think about keywords I want to rank for (e.g. a local dry cleaner), I think "dry cleaning" first (keyword relevance), "Los Angeles" next (local). I would rather Google know that I am a "dry cleaner" than "Los Angeles"; it pins your website higher up for the business type.
-- Andrew
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Why does Intelligent Personal Assistant (IPA) gives different results than a Google search for a very similar or identical query?
My client Dr. Harris ranks #1 in SERPs and Local results for many terms, including "hair transplant surgeon Denver" However, when I did a voice search w Siri ""find me a hair transplant surgeon in Denver" Siri said she could find no results. A similar search for a clinic returned 2 competitors, but not my client. How do I ensure we are served up in voice queries? This surgeon deserves it, he invented most of the technology in use in the world today.
Local SEO | | CalamityJane770 -
How to promote a local SEO/Web design company via a blog (mainly blogging) and social media?
Hello, What is possible as far as promoting a local SEO and Web Design Company with a blog? I'm offering simple web design, both informational and product based, as well as SEO for existing informational and product-based companies here in Boise, Idaho. At first it won't be face to face so there's no local SEO. I honestly don't like to sell. I've done it for years and I'd like to spend my time blogging (mainly blogging), doing social media, and volunteering. How can I use this approach to get a beginning agency off the ground? Please don't tell me to go push my services. I'd like to get my company off the ground through avenues that have integrity to me. How do I do this? Feel free to include articles and videos in your response if appropriate. Thank you.
Local SEO | | BobGW0 -
National and Local rankings differences
Hi Guys,
Local SEO | | nikaus
I am in Australia and have a client I am working with that ranks quite well for their main keywords.
The business is based in Sydney but delivers Australia wide. The issue is - their main keyword ranks no.1 nationally.
If I set google to any of the main cities and type
Outdoor Mirrors Perth
Outdoor Mirrors Melbourne
Outdoor Mirrors Sydney
My client comes up no.1 But if I leave the city off the end of the keyword and I'm anywhere but Sydney I do not rank well for Outdoor Mirrors. The address of the business is in Sydney hence the no.1 there, but we said in Places that we deliver australia wide. Does anybody know why we don't rank well without the city added to the keyword and a way to remedy this? Thanks Nik0 -
Local SEO Best Practices for 2,000+ 'location' service area business
Hi Moz Community! We operate a business where we have a network of 2,000+ technicians around the country who help people repair their mobile phones. These techs do the fixing at the customer's location, making them service area businesses. Even after scouring all of the go-to places on local SEO, I'm struggling to find best practices for this type of situation - the fact that our techs are operating in service areas presents a number of challenges. The biggest one, it seems, is that inevitably service areas are going to overlap. When I talked to a Google rep on this he said this "might" cause our locations to get de-listed and we'd just have to test and find out. Other challenges include the fact that we cannot bulk upload the service areas of our techs, and we cannot bulk verify - meaning there is a ton of work to do at our scale. Any suggestions on where to go to find resources on this specific topic, or an example of someone doing this well we can model? Thanks everyone!
Local SEO | | JohnGroves1 -
Showing a preferred Google location in branded search for a multi-location business?
Background: A business has 5 brick and mortar locations, in 5 different states, with 5 separate Google+ profiles. The corporate headquarters are in Michigan. The Michigan Google+ Local profile is the one that should be most closely associated with the brand. Problem: We want the Michigan Google + Local page to show up for branded searches nationwide: right now, it only shows up on geolocated searches in Michigan. Of course, it totally makes sense that the other 4 Google+ local pages will appear for users searching with IP locations (or logged in locations) near those states. But for other states - is there a way to help Google understand or give preference to the main corporate location? What we're trying to prevent is someone in New York City searching for "company name", and then seeing a lesser location appear in SERPs associated with the brand, instead of our favored Michican location. Ideas so far: Continue to enhance out the Michigan location's Google+ page (check categories, photos, description, share content frequently, expand circles, get reviews, yada yada yada - we've already done much of this). _Maybe give this page more attention and content than other locations if we have to? _ Build links into Michigan Google+ page? Ensure general citations are up to date - use localeze/moz local etc. Website - We have a page for each location. While Michigan is featured, we also do promote our other offices as well - all kinda promoted equally on site in terms of metadata, content, etc. Any other brainstorming advice or out-of-the-box (oh no, did I just say "out-of-the-box"?) ideas to help Google associate the Michigan location as our "primary" one we want shown on more generic branded searches, even though of course the other 4 are impt too? Tricky...
Local SEO | | mirabile0 -
How Can I Outlink Web Designer Link Building from Their Clients' Footer
_I used open site explorer to view the backlinks for a competitor of an agency I work with. They have ten times as many links, if not more, than we do, and I noticed there were only a few more domains linking back to them. As I dug deeper I noticed these links were coming from the footer tag they put on their clients' sites like "Site Designed by __." If a site had 20 pages, they had 20 links back...weird and annoying that it counts. They have more clients for web design than we do, so their bulk linking could continue to outrank us. Any suggestions on how we can outrank them locally? We are in the midst of redesigning our entire site to build out more pages and have much better internal linking. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks everyone!
Local SEO | | Michael4g0 -
Google+ for Business Links Section - Not Available
I haven't found any documentation on this - curious if anyone's noticed that Google+ Local Listings (i.e. brick-n-mortar shops) don't have access to a Links section like a "brand" page might? Seems strange not to let them link out to their social media assets while Coke and Ford have that privilege. I wonder why? Thanks!
Local SEO | | PerfectPitchConcepts0 -
Local SEO?
Hello everyone, I've just been through the Moz Local learning area, which is pretty informative. However, a lot of it seems like good practice for general online marketing (mobile friendly websites, goals per page...). I'm new to all this - am I missing the point? William
Local SEO | | Seabrook0