How to compete with business names and urls that include location?

[marshalllj]

I have several instances of competitor businesses that rank high in the local pack while I'm struggling to get in there at all. Here's a specific example: Keyword is "name-of-town chiropractor" and the competitor business name is "name-of-town chiropractic".

Google doesn't seem to exclude "name-of-town" because these businesses don't rank the same if you search for only "chiropractor" However, search volume for "name-of-town chiropractor" is significantly high!

I'd really appreciate some input on this.

Thanks so much in advance,

Jarod

[MiriamEllis]

My great pleasure, and yes, report those listings!

[marshalllj]

Thanks, this is really helpful. I advised the client over a year ago that we should not stuff his website and profiles with "city name" because it won't benefit in the long–term.

I know that two of these competitors don't actually have the city name in their official business name, so maybe it's time to report them.

Thanks again, I sincerely appreciate your response.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Jarod!

What you're experiencing is quite real, and one of the things I personally view as a lack of sophistication in Google's algo. While one can argue that a business named Boston Chiropractor is certainly signalling that they do chiropractic work in Boston, thereby signalling relevance to a query like "chiropractor boston", a business name doesn't automatically equal superiority/authority. So, yes, it can be frustrating when it appears that Google is heavily weighting this signal in a given local pack. Barring changing your business name, here's what you can do:

1. Check any competitor to be sure that the name they are using on their GMB listing is, indeed, their legal business name. Does it match the logo on their website or have they added the city name to Google even though it doesn't exist in their real world business name? If you discover that they have falsely added a geo-term to the business name, report this to Google as a guideline violation. But, if their legal name or DBA genuinely does include that geo-term, then they are guideline-compliant and there isn't anything you can do to overcome this particular ranking factor. But...

2. Bearing in mind that this is only one of several hundred signals Google is believed to take into account in determining rankings, you need to focus on all of the other signals where you can compete on an even playing field. For example, how do you stack up to the folks outranking you in terms of:

• Age

• Website Authority (content quality and velocity + links)

• Website optimization (both traditional and local SEO)

• Number of Google-based reviews

• Completeness of your Google listing (particularly photos that generate high click-throughs)

• Consistency of your citations across the major players (do a quick check on moz.com/local/search)

• Authority and quantity of your unstructured citations (mentions on local/industry news sites, website, blogs, etc.)

This is a really simplified list. You'll find a more thorough one here: https://moz.com/blog/local-seo-checklist

You'll need to compete on all of these things, because you can't compete on a somewhat arbitrary factor like the name of your business. Audit your competitors and audit your own presence and see where you can make meaningful improvements that might move the needle up a notch or two.

Good luck! I know the scenario is a tough one - and it's the very one that is causing untold numbers of businesses to spam their GMB business titles with false geo-terms, because it's clear that Google continues to place emphasis on this signal. It could change at some point, but in the meantime, we have to pick the battles we can win, and for a business in your scenario, that would include the hundreds of other factors Google takes into consideration.

[BlueprintMarketing]

Google can tell how far away you are via your ISP IP address examples Comcast something like that and if you're on a mobile device they can measure distance from the person to the chiropractor's office. What's  important is that you Optimize or chiropractic work and make sure that you use a tool like moz local  this will get you into the universal services. I would also recommend a site audit to make sure everything is running smooth & googlebot not being blocked.

You can also use schema as well as  on page signals to let Google know where you are located. Also fill out my business on Google.

I really don't think that the URL is going to make that much of a difference it may have a small part to play but if your site is better off my list you're going to win if you have more authority or if you're closer they could just be closer

hope it helps,

tom