Google Local Search
-
I have a customer who is frustrated that Google local search seems to favor businesses that are closer to the center of the city. He wants to be on the local results area on the SERP with his (keyword + city, state).
His website is optimized, Google+ is using the keywords, more reviews than his competition and his MOZ local rating is 88.. It seems the only problem is his business is on the edge of town(same zip code). Google fills the local search area with businesses that are "downtown".
Is there a way to overcome this?
-
Citations are much better than most and maybe equal to a couple of others.
-
Yes...relation to the centroid of the search area is very important still (see the 2013 Local Search Ranking Factor Survey here at moz from David Mihm) as we well know...
And yes, we've had clients with the same issue too. One way that we handled that issue was to open up a "sub-office" for the client via a hot-desk at an Incubator site located across the street from city hall - ie AT the centroid! Took awhile for the updates to resolve...but the move up the Local search results happened...and they (and us too of course) were happy with the results.
Oh - they actually 'do' use the hot-desk - it's staffed by a marketing dept person every day and they 'award' the seat to a diff person each week as a sort of 'bonus'....ie the telecommuting opportunity as a reward. Works, it does!
-
How are his citations, relative to the competition?
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
-
Never Removed My Local Listings?
Hi Local SEO experts, A while back we created Google My Business listings for a few of our company locations. A couple of months ago we removed them, because we realized that G might not consider them company locations as they weren't constantly staffed. Only problem is that they started showing up again. Truthfully I don't mind, but I just want to make sure the business won't get penalized for it. They say "claim this business" on the local listing because it's not claimed by us anymore. Is this okay or can we get in trouble for it? If it's not okay, how do I go about removing them if I don't have access to it? Thanks for your time, Rachel
Local Listings | | Rachel_J0 -
Local Business Audit Help.....
Hello Every one, I recently got a big project for cleaning up some old listings (around 120 locations), witch means to claim and delete them, as you guys know most of the directory's don't give the option to delete the listing after you claim that. I am trying to figure out the approach for something like that.......considering time consuming and efficiency! any help will be appreciated!! Cheers
Local Listings | | steve2150 -
Local SEO
Hi I'm interested in renting a live work loft in a location where I would like to also do business out of. And I do understand that I would list the business as a service type business. But I wanted to know if I would be doing things correctly by doing that? And yes I'm in the kind of business that can be listed as a service type business.
Local Listings | | LittleDog0 -
How does the new local pack change rankings?
So I just saw this afternoon that google has changed how the local pack displays listings, only 3 listings now show. Also Google continues to distance itself from Google+. Now it seems getting in the top 3 of the local pack is going to be even more competitive. What should the strategy be now for competing in the local pack? Has it changed? Or just stick to tried and true local optimizations?
Local Listings | | websitemusclemarketing0 -
Local search results question
Hello, I wonder if anyone can help. I have a client who is based outside the main city that he is wanting to rank in. The address on his website is his own home which is about 20 miles from the city. However, he services the city and the surrounding area. His ranking for the very competitive keyword is on page 2 and won't budge. We have made his Google+ page show the servicing area to include the city. We add new content regularly. The onsite SEO is strong and the city name is in the Title and H1 tags. We have lots of local consistent citations for him. This usually results in movement in the SERPS in my experience. But after 3 months this keyword is stuck whilst his other less competitive keywords are moving up. He is ranking 1st for the local area to his home address for the competitive keyword. So my question is - is this purely a result of his local address. Does Google rate him less local than his competitors who have addresses in the city even after we do a lot of citation building etc for him? Will it be possible to rank him for the city? I know 3 months isn't long but still would expect to see some difference. Anyone got any thoughts?
Local Listings | | AL123al0 -
Google Map Disappeared
We had a client call and report that the information in the right-hand map of the SERp for their company name was presenting inaccurate information. I immediately reported the issue through Google and two days later it was fixed and the information was appearing correctly! The following week, we created a Google My Business page for the same client to help boost their presence. Now, when typing in the same general query as we did for the previous-mentioned work, the map is not showing up at all! The map does appear when I type the company name with city and state, but not only the company name as before. The listing has been verified with the Google postcard code, etc. Any insight or work arounds on this would be immensely appreciated!!
Local Listings | | BehrDesign0 -
Google Places category language issue
Hi there! I've recently added a new listing in our Google Places for Business account. When adding the basic info initially, the category suggestions where in English, so I just picked one. We are based in The Netherlands however, so I'd like to use the Dutch categories. When I edit our existing listing, the category suggestions are Dutch. When I edit our new listing, suggestions keep showing in English. Does anyone know how I can change this? I tried to switch language settings in my Google account, but it seems like the categories are just stuck on a certain language once the listing is set up? Thanks for your help!
Local Listings | | RBO0 -
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