What is personalisation when it comes to local search?
-
Hi Everyone.
This may be a silly question but I was reviewing the 2014 Local Search Ranking Factors article produce by MOZ:
https://moz.com/local-search-ranking-factors
I am unsure about the reference to "personalisation" which seems to account for 8.4% of the overall weight. Everything else is pretty clear as there is a quick description and examples for each topic but not for personalisation. Does anyone know what it includes? -
Hi Neil,
Yes, it a way, it can make explaining rank to clients harder because there are no set-in-stone rankings anymore, but in another sense, it frees us all from over-focusing on specific rank and focusing more on the most important metric - conversions.
-
Thanks miriam. Very useful indeed. This clearly makes things tricky when one wants to optimize for a local business
-
Hi Neil!
Not a silly question at all. In the past couple of years, what has become a dominant force in local results is typically referred to as the user-as-centroid. What this means is that results vary based on the physical location of the searcher at the moment he makes his search. The affects both desktop and mobile local results, and is especially sensitive on mobile, wherein a searcher at one end of town looking for a pizza is going to see different results than if he drives across town and searches again.
So, the user-as-centroid phenomenon is playing a major role in results being personalized to the searcher, and beyond this, things like past search behavior contribute as well to my results being different than the results my clients see when they do the same searches.
-
Thanks guys. Makes sense. Very useful indeed
-
Hi,
Personalisation, generally refers to the personalisation of the search results. So somebody searching for a restaurant in London will receive different results to someone searching in Birmingham.
On top of this, if you are logged into a browser or on your phone, results will continue to differ depending on what you have clicked on before or previously searched for. So for local listings, personalisation tends to be quite an important factor.
Thanks
-
Hi there
This includes factors like:
Country
Locality
Personal Search History
Social Connections
etc.There's also a great post called SEO in the Personalization Age by Gianluca Fiorelli of Moz that I highly recommend you look into, as well as Rand's Personalization and SEO & Elements of Personalization & How to Perform Better in Personalized Search Whiteboard Fridays. You'll find a ton of great tips and resources through these.
Hope this all helps! Good luck!
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
-
Does Google prioritise local domains?
I'm in Australia targeting Australian traffic. I often see US domains in the Google SERPS and wonder if that indicates an opportunity for local (Australian) domains to rank?
Local Listings | | Lazeh0 -
Local Business Registered at not a real Address
Hi, I am working on local SEO for a client of mine and was interested to hear what will be recommended in this case: My client registered his business in a NYC address, for his own business needs. Can I use this address as a second location for the business? There is a secretary taking care of ALL the businesses listed there, but is not a location that services customers. We don't service customers on site at any location because it's a pickup business to begin with, but we do have a fully functional office in NJ Please don't dismiss this right away, it was registered in NYC and not in NJ and all our information on the web cites this address over our NJ one (obviously i'm working on promoting our NJ one, but that's nowhere to be found on the web).
Local Listings | | Rachel_J0 -
UK aggregators of local business data
Hi Guys, I have signed up for Moz Local and I am looking for UK aggregators of local business data to help build my search. Can anyone recommend a source?
Local Listings | | SEM_at_Lees0 -
1800 number for google local
Hi A client with a local business has a 1800 number on their google plus page and most citations. How important is it to use the local number and not a 1800 one for google local? Should we change the phone number to the local number and update all listings? Or should we just continue with the 1800 number and stay consistent? I have added the local number as a second number on the google plus page.
Local Listings | | henya1 -
Help tracking phone number calls from Google Plus & Yahoo Local
Hi, I own a business in United States and serving multiple locations around US. I have listings for all my locations in Google Business as well as in Yahoo Local. To track the phone calls that are made through Google & Yahoo, I have provided a 2 different phone numbers in these listings in order to track it effectively. Recently, I read that even the tracking phone numbers will rise an inconsistent NAP in Google local ranking factors. If such is the case, how can can effectively track the phone calls separately from these business listing? Does anyone have any better idea for this? Thank you,
Local Listings | | Luckydtech1 -
Does anyone use Moz Local + Yext? How valuable is this for local businesses?
For brands that have a budget to pay $600 / year for valuable backlink directories, would you recommend Moz Local + Yext? I would like to hear some feedback on marketers that use Yext. Thanks,
Local Listings | | ColeLusby
Cole0 -
How to do Local SEO for few cities in US while client is in Canada
Hi, How i can do the local SEO for few cities of US however client is Canada based. Client want to promote his business in US ( specific cities). Kindly suggest how it will be posible as client do not have address in US. Cheers!!
Local Listings | | 1akal0 -
Help with Google Places, local listings & Google+ please!
Hi all, I work for enterprise app development & mobile consultancy, Mubaloo. I recently asked a question around getting better rankings for London-based search results. One answer was to set up a local listing for Mubaloo's London office. I thought I had done by setting up our London office up on Places for Business - is this the same as a local listing? In addition to this, I can't connect our existing Google+ page to our local Mubaloo Bristol & London listings as Google has created separate pages for each! Is anyone else having this issue? Can it be resolved?
Local Listings | | donaldsze0