Local search vs. Organic Listings

[hhdentist]

Hi ~ I was interested to see if anyone feels there might be an advantage to keeping a business out of Google's Local Search listing area or at least trying to keep it out of the 7-pack display? It seems to me that sites who are not listed in the 7-pack can often be ranked above the maps/7-pack area in the regular organic listings.

Also, is there anyway for a homepage to be listed on the 1st page in both the local search and organic listings? Thanks!

[BBuck]

With respect to local search, Google is providing the most relevant search results relative to location. SO, when considering optimizing for local vs organic, wouldn’t the correct answer be that it depends on the type of business? For example, in a moderately sized metro area like Concord, California, a sandwich shop should weigh heavily in favor of doing everything they can to rank locally because Google will serve up the most local results when people are looking for a sandwich shop (in the immediate area). A law firm, however, certainly wants clients who are close to their office, BUT they can also take clients throughout the city. So if they are optimized for local search, at the expense of organic, wouldn’t they be losing out all of the other prospective clients who search outside of the “local” (immediate) area that Google deems close to the law office? Very few will drive across Concord to get a sandwich (unless it’s Togo’s….I LOVE Togo’s! ;-), but many will make the drive for an attorney if they feel that attorney is the best fit for their complex legal matter.

I have been holding off doing local search optimization for this reason for my law firm clients. They rank very strong for vanity searches, while the “7 pack” are underneath, competing with each other all bundled together. Plus, as I suspect and hopefully someone can confirm, as with the example above, my clients show strong wherever the searcher’s location is throughout Concord, and the others (7 pack) show in the immediate proximity of where the inquiry was made. Is that a fair /correct statement?

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Billy,

I agree with the comments members have left to the tune of the many variables in display. Your search, for example, may show you 2 organic listings followed by 7 local listings followed by several more organic listings, but your client's same search could be showing him a different display. If your business meets guidelines for local inclusion, then I would always recommend participation to the fullest.

Regarding a double local/organic listing, this is a topic that comes and goes. In the past, it was common for dominant businesses to have multiple page one rankings, but around the time of the Venice Update, this became very rare. This was followed by some Local SEOs experimenting with techniques that did sometimes enable them to obtain double page 1 rankings:

http://www.nightlitemedia.com/2012/05/organic-and-google-places-ranking-on-page-1/

http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/local-seo-ranking/719-lqqk-incredible-shrinking-local-serps-traffic-drops.html

These days, I most commonly see double rankings for searches that relate to geographic areas and/or industries where there is low competition. For example, a bakery in a rural area with few or no other local choices may get multiple rankings on page 1, including both local and organic spots. Check out the 2 posts I've linked to for theories on being able to do this is more competitive verticals, though.

End of the day, though, yes, you are correct that one of Google's common displays at this time puts 1-2 organic listings above the local pack of listings, but I would not see this as a reason not to participate in Local if your business model is eligible.

[ColinWhite]

It really varies as searches are tailored for the user more and more, consequentially ranking has become less of a horn tooter because when someone tells me they rank for such and such I ask "where do rank and for whom?" Cause you may not rank for me the same way. I wouldn't shy away from Local as Semantic Search is fast becoming Hyper-Local unless there was an immense amount of data supporting otherwise.

[Craigseo]

That really depends on that area, and how many people outwith the local area search for this keyword.

if your google location is set in your area, ( mine is glasgow ) then i get the snippet of 7 sites, however if i set my location to edinburgh and search for my keyword in glasgow, then no google places comes up and your site is likely to be in a different position.

I actually have a client who ranks middle of google places within glasgow, and top of page 1, for their keyword if you search from outwith glasgow.

This has been the case for a few months now, it is slightly odd.

I can see your point, however depending on the area, and the visitors, who potentially could search for you and not be in your area then you would be holding back your website, which means you would possible hamper your rankings for someone who searches for your products or services outwith your local area.

Just thought that would be worth mentioning.