No Location option in Incognito Search Settings
-
I was checking on a client ranking and went to Incognito in Chrome for the search. I went to search settings to set the location and thought I had done something wrong. I closed and went back to search settings and still no location setting. See attached.
Interestingly, when I went to my signed in Chrome and set the location and then went to incognito and went to search settings, then location showed up for me. This also begs a question about why Google has this where you must be signed in to set a location in Incognito mode.
Thanks for any input you have,
Robert
-
If you read above you will see that it has been removed.
This is what many are using instead: http://isearchfrom.com/
-
Hi Robert,
Where we can find location search in google.
Thanks,
Akhilesh
-
Yes, you were right. Good job.
-
Barry is reporting official word from Google this feature is dead due to low usage - Check it out here.
I think our speculation in the Local Search Forum thread actually turned out to be right.
-
Hey Robert, and Happy Thanksgiving!
Yes, your Local guy is right ... no one is sure what the deal is with this. It's appearing with some settings and not with others, so it seems kind of like a test, but it could equally well be some kind of glitch. Kind of a pain, huh! Linda's post is the best I know of, too, covering this issue. I really hope location search remains accessible in some form, as obviously, we use it just about every day!
-
It looks a lot like what Google's done in the past with other features, which is a strong indication they're going to remove that feature. I think it's fair to say that casual searchers wouldn't know that feature exists because it's hidden behind a couple other buttons, and why would they care? (Many of us mention that within that forum thread) The more likely scenario is that a typical searcher will use a geo-modified search query to indicate a change in location; not adjust a search setting. Like I mentioned in my last post, we're making a strong assumption based on past behavior - not definitely saying it's being removed, since that hasn't been officially announced.
I find it interesting this has been going on for almost a month and has primarily affected US-based searchers. This came around the same time as Google's slow killing of GMB pages by refocusing them from G+ into Maps (still in the process of changing). Not sure if there's a connection, but it was interesting to observe this happening at the same time.
-
I'm not sure from Linda's post that you can draw the conclusion Google is most likely removing it. Here is the quote from Linda:
"Google is testing or tweaking or moving or deleting the option to set search location.
Obviously this feature/ability is critical to those of us in the industry. "Our Local guy is on Linda's forum regularly and said no one is sure if it is a change, a bug, or a tweak. Yes, it is easy to believe they are removing it based on past behavior, but not sure that is necessarily true. Thanks for the input and the link to Linda's post though.
-
Google's most likely removing this feature. See this great thread in the local search forum to learn more. To summarize our assumptions, it's because the only people that really used this feature were SEO's to check ranking. Normal searchers either modified the query or did nothing, since most people probably never knew that feature existed.
-
Thanks, I think it just adds more info. Seems to be a bug at the Google. OR if you are more into the conspiracy realm, it is some surreptitious way of tracking where we think we may want to be if we lose our memory on a day we are logged in....
Best
-
Hi,
this is an interesting question. I tried it myself and it was working for me (I can change the location). However, I noticed that i was using the french version of Google (google.fr). See the attached snip.
When switching to Google.com in english, the "search tools" button disappears... This is weird.
If this is helping in any way
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
-
Is having two websites with the same NAP equal to the local search visibility issues?
My company works in two directions: printing and website design / development. I have one website for both printing and website development but it doesn’t have “printing” in domain name (velvdesign.com) I would like to rank higher for printing related keywords. Do you think I should have two separate websites, one for printing (velvprinting.com), another for website design /development (velvdesign.com)? If yes, am I going to get into NAP’s issue because my company has only one location? I can get the second phone number to improve local search visibility. Thank you very much in advance for your time!
Local Listings | | VELV0 -
Google Maps Remove from maps option - Does that mark as permanently closed?
We have a client that has an old G maps listing that keeps popping up. The newer listing (less than 2 years) has over 150 legit 5-star reviews, but the older, crappy listing (about 4-5 years old) with 5 reviews keeps coming up in maps. I noticed that Google has new options available, and you can now request that the listing be removed from maps. In the past, this type of option did not "remove" the listing, but rather marked it as "permanently closed." We want to completely remove it from maps altogether but cannot allow the time to reverify and activate if it marks it as permanently closed. Both have the exact same address and different business names. Both are located in our Google manager account. What is the fastest and most efficient way of getting this removed without risking the "permanently closed" showing up and having to re-verify/reclaim? Calling GMB directly?
Local Listings | | David-Kley0 -
Google Plus showing on maps but now showing up google.com search organic.
Hello All, How are you doing? Please try to help me again. I have big trouble with my google plus business and never back ranking for 2 years. Before 2 years my google plus business #1 page google with any keywords: nail salon pigeon forge tn nail salon sevierville tn pedicure pigeon forge nail salon, nail shop pigeon forge,.... My google plus business: http://plus.google.com/+Sassy-nails/ website:http://sassy-nails.com http://sassy-nails.com after i claimed another page to the same account. I lost all review, stars and scores 2 days ago It was been back again but All ranking losting all. and not Whe I seach google.com organic" My listing " http://plus.google.com/+Sassy-nails/about It is not showing up on google.com oganic ranking but I will showing on my. Please big help for me please. the link i attach here" Sassy nails salon " Under " Hair Expo" and top " Spazzi nails" i am looking farward to here you soon. @35.8475624,-83.5896836,12z
Local Listings | | sassynailsalon0 -
NPA. Adding two new locations. What phone numbers to use?
Hi everyone, Our client wants to add two new locations. Not sure what phone number to use.
Local Listings | | Ryan_V
We have main phone 800 number, with no adders associated, and local phone numbers for locations which we do SEO for. New two locations are not for SEO purposes. Client just want them to be listed on website and on major directories for now. Understanding NPA importance:
Should we use main 800 for both locations?
Should we get new phone numbers for each one? Thanks0 -
Citation building for multiple locations
Hey everyone, I think i've got a good handle on citations, but had a question regarding multiple locations. I'm going to be doing citation building for a local lawyer, and he's got 4 locations. I'd like to build citations for each of his locations, but I was wondering if the business name needs to change? Ie. If I am building citations for Town 2 and Town 3, should the business name be listed as "Company Name Town 1" for the first location, and "Company Name Town 2" for the second? Or is it fine to use the company name throughout all citations, and just change the location/phone number to the location based info? I'm just worried about Google seeing differing info, but the same company name, and possibly penalizing me for it. Thanks in advance!
Local Listings | | RCDesign740 -
Questions about On-site Location Content for Service Area Businesses
Hello all, I've got a couple tough questions about how to go about creating locations pages for my business, and I'm wondering if you can give me some much needed direction. I'm about to launch a professional house cleaning business which will serve Philadelphia and a couple surrounding counties. I plan on aggressively expanding to other large cities, and while I plan on building a Philly locations page, I'm unsure of how to rank organically for all the individual towns/municipalities in the surrounding counties in the middle without having a physical business location there. Should I even hope to rank for these smaller towns? Would a page where the county is in the h1 tag, and say the top 10 largest towns in that county listed underneath in h2 tags help me reach searchers in those top 10 largest towns? How about paying ~$100 for a physical street address in each county and submitting that NAP to local directories of the larger towns, as well as getting a Google My Business page and using the service radius option? Is there some other strategy that I'm missing? I'm just at a loss for how to compete without AdWords for the people searching in the smaller towns when my competition is businesses with NAP/citations and their main page dedicated solely to that smaller town. Google seems to have made it even harder with Pigeon coming out recently. I serve those areas just as readily as my competition, yet the customer will predominantly see them SOLELY due to the fact that most of my competition are incapable of serving or choose not to serve wide areas. I understand that these businesses are dedicating a lot of resources to those small towns, but it does seem a sad fact that it doesn't mean they're any higher quality of a company than mine, yet they get a leg up. ANY advice or direction would be greatly appreciated, and would come with a huge internet bear hug.
Local Listings | | PTHerrington0 -
How is a competitor franchise ranking all for all 3 Local results with unclaimed G+ pages in a search for the national corporation?
My company is an individual franchise of a national corporation - every franchise is operates as [National Corporate Brand Name] + a chosen descriptor such as "Premiere" or the names of the owners such as "Smith Jones". A logged-out Google search for just the national brand name returns the corporate website first, followed by the website of a competing local franchise and 3 Local listings for their offices. These listings are all unclaimed and unverified on Google+ and have no reviews or posts. The corporate Twitter is next, followed by my franchise's website. The corporate Facebook is the last result on the page. How can this competing franchise rank for all 3 Local listings with unclaimed pages? My company operates several more offices than the competitor in the same area and I regularly post to their G+ pages which I verified several months ago. Is it because the competitor's website just holds significantly more weight in Google than our own? A search for the brand name + the town where our offices are in does usually return our Local listing pages, but that limits our reach to those specific towns. Anyone have any insight on this?
Local Listings | | WGW0
