National and Local rankings differences
-
Hi Guys,
I am in Australia and have a client I am working with that ranks quite well for their main keywords.
The business is based in Sydney but delivers Australia wide.The issue is - their main keyword ranks no.1 nationally.
If I set google to any of the main cities and type
Outdoor Mirrors Perth
Outdoor Mirrors Melbourne
Outdoor Mirrors Sydney
My client comes up no.1But if I leave the city off the end of the keyword and I'm anywhere but Sydney I do not rank well for Outdoor Mirrors. The address of the business is in Sydney hence the no.1 there, but we said in Places that we deliver australia wide. Does anybody know why we don't rank well without the city added to the keyword and a way to remedy this?
Thanks
Nik
-
Hi Nik!
Google's local results depend entirely on having a physical location in a specific city. Right now, you have a physical location in Sydney, so you're doing well for these Sydney-based-or-related searches. But, you don't have an office in Perth or Melbourne, so there is no reason for Google to rank you locally for these cities. Simply stating in your Google My Business description or service radius that you deliver nationwide is not going to override Google's bias toward physical location.
So, what this leaves you with is working to earn organic rankings for terms that relate to these other cities, and the main struggle here will be determine if it's logical for you to do so and then discovering content topics that make sense for the effort. Creating a bunch of pages that say 'we deliver to Perth', 'we deliver to Melbourne' will not be enough. It's not interesting and not a good reason to create a page. So, rather, you might need to think in terms of customer testimonials, stories about customers' use of your product, if you install your product then maybe video/text coverage of your installation projects, showcases of gardens in the different cities featuring your mirrors, contests in the cities, etc.
You'll need to find reason for writing about these cities beyond simply delivering to them. Then, you'll likely need to earn some good links to these pages. And, hopefully, that will lead to some organic visibility for these other cities where you lack a physical location. Hope this helps!
-
Hi Nik,
I do wish you the best of luck. I think the reason you get #1 results for "adding city name" is your website likely uses the city name in the description, making it a new keyword "outdoor mirrors Perth" for example. That keyword itself generates different results then the broad keyword "outdoor mirrors" and again since Google treats intent differently based on location, you get different results. Furthermore since your business is located in Sydney, Google can easily draw a high correlation between outdoor mirrors and Sydney for anybody in that area.
Good luck once again,
Don
-
Thanks Don, that is helpful.
I have suggested a content strategy that incorporates the location information that can help with the local rankings. It is a strange one to deal with, when we rank no.1 nationally for a keyword (Outdoor Mirrors) but only show up no.1 in any city (except Sydney which is the businesses location) if you add the city name to the keyword.It would make sense if it was the other way around, i.e. rank no.1 for the term Outdoor Mirrors on its own in any city but drop in ranking if the user adds location information to the keyword like the city.
We are looking to implement some location specific content, I will update this thread once things start to settle.
-
Hi Nik,
The answer to the question is very simple, the fix maybe not so much.
Q: Does anybody know why we don't rank well without the city added to the keyword?
A: Google returns what they fill is the most relevant results for any search. In such case using the keyword in the city of Perth for example, the site is not the most relevant.Okay maybe that is a bit crass, but what is actually going on may help take the sting out of it. Understand Google's goal is to give searchers the very best result for any search term. To do this they have to understand not only what each search term means but also try and interpret the searchers intent. So in your example when a person in Perth searches for Outdoor Mirrors Google may choose to show local results, national results, images, or combinations thereof.
It's quite clear there are differences in what type of results you'll see, for example in the US (Dayton, Ohio) Google thinks I want to view images of mirrors (2nd result images), followed by Pinrest results rank 3, and 4. The number 1 result is shows me outdoor wall art, but offers no outdoor mirrors whatsoever. Further research shows that term "outdoor mirror" has a bit of a negative connotation here as I'm seeing results about dead birds and other wildlife.
Culturally Australia maybe a bit different which Google may interpret the intent of the term "Outdoor Mirrors" as being somebody wanting to buy them locally. In which case they would show localized results.
I hope that helps you understand what is going on there...
So onto the fix.. how do you get your site to rank in these cities? First, you need to understand what Google thinks people want to see when they type in the keyword in those areas. Analyze the results, are they showing local retailers, local showrooms, just images? Once you understand what Google thinks people are looking for with that term, you can then develop content to become more relevant then the competition.
For example, if they are showing local retailers. You could write content that highlights delivery cost, time in transit, and local area installations for each city.
I hope this helps,
Don
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
-
Local SEO & Google Maps Question - 1 Company with Multiple Google Pages
Hey Mozzers! I'm working with a client who has 2 websites (different URLs completely), which one is for all parts and the other is for accessories only. They have multiple brick and mortar locations throughout the US and have done a nice job creating Google My Business pages for each and all verified. Their question is will it benefit them to create and verify another GMB page with same address, but place in "Suite B", a new phone number and apply the other URLs for the accessories site. The business name would also be different, but similar meaning Business 1 = ABC where as Business 2 = ABC Accessories. Their goal would be to try to have both rank or display to improve their local SEO. In theory it sounds like it will work given NAP would be satisfied within the GMB, but wanted to get the Moz community thoughts on this first before moving forward. Look forward to the replies. Patrick
Local SEO | | WhiteboardCreations0 -
Free Local Search Marketing Tools You're Using These Days?
Hello to our wonderful community here! I'm updating an old list of free tools to use in a local search marketing campaign. The original list was created before there were quite so many paid tools in our industry, and it definitely needs an update! I'd like to ask, are there free tools you find yourself using these days in marketing local businesses? These could be related to any aspect of your campaigns. I'd love it if you'd share your favorites with me, especially if they are things you feel others might not be aware of but which are working really well for you! Thanks for any suggestions you can provide.
Local SEO | | MiriamEllis1 -
Going from a national to local marketing strategy
I started my graphic design business (imageco.com) after the dot com industry collapsed in 2001 and there were virtually no jobs to be found, I focused mainly on logo design and ultimately figured out a way to drive quite a lot of traffic to my site by the means of creating directories for printers in every major city in the US. It worked exceedingly well for many years but eventually I had a lot of copycats use this technique and ultimately it pissed off quite a few designers around the country and I was reported one to many times to Google and was forced to make some changes. So I dropped the directories and redesigned my site and stuffed as many place names in the site as I could so I wouldn’t lose all my traffic, it worked for a while but ultimately my site has drifted further down in the serps and with the advent of Google Local my traffic pretty much disappeared. Furthermore with the surge in crowdsourcing businesses like 99designs the value people placed on my logo design services dropped to a point where there just wasn’t much reason to go after a national market anyway. I’m not proud of how I built my business but I don’t make any excuses for it, I had a mortgage and a family to feed so I did what I needed to do. I’m now at the point where I’ve decided my best option is to move away from logo design and redefine my business as more of a visual identity/graphic design company and go after the local market. I live in the Seattle area, Bellevue to be specific and the economy is such that I know there is a ton of local opportunity that I'm missing out on and I want to focus my marketing efforts here. My question is what is the best way for me to do this? I focused mainly on logo design for nearly 20 years and my keywords are built around logo design for which I still hit fairly well on but I need to expand my offerings and want to redirect my efforts at turning up on local searches for other terms like graphic design, web design, print design, etc. I don’t necessarily want to instantly drop all of the landing pages I created for logo design because that is still where the majority of my business comes from but I’m fairly certain that these landing pages have me Pigeonholed as just a logo designer. Do I need to delete everything and start completely from scratch or is there a less extreme approach to making this kind of transition? And once I do make these changes what might be the time frame for turning up better locally? I’m in the process of redesigning the site, updating my portfolio and writing all new content and could really use the advice of this community. Thank you!
Local SEO | | Imageco0 -
Community Discussion: Miriam's 2017 Local SEO Predictions ... And Yours?
I want to start this thread by thanking everyone in our community who has started and contributed to great threads this past year. You guys are an inspiration! I want to offer up a few predictions for the Local SEO industry in 2017 and ask you to contribute your own: Attribution will be big in 2017. Google will roll out a more thorough set of attributes in the GMB dashboard as we move forward through the new year. We'll see further rollout out of paid packs in service industries in which Google can play the middle man role. Free-packs won't be gone by the end of the year, but there will be fewer of them. Even SMB local businesses will have to start to tackle the ramifications of voice search. Local SEO will continue to merge with traditional, offline marketing. Local business websites will still matter, but Google will continue to do all it can to keep users within layers of its own local product, and some people will find this maze a bit bewildering. Reviews will finally be recognized as an integral facet of citations, rather than as something separate from them. Now, please, look into your own crystal ball and share your predictions with the community. What are your predictions for Local SEO in 2017? I'd love to know. And, while I'm at it, please let me wish each of you a busy and profitable new year in our exciting industry!
Local SEO | | MiriamEllis4 -
Google Maps - ranking our head office over smaller offices
Hi, We have Google Maps listings for all of our offices but a small office often shows up instead of our head office. Is there any way to get head office showing instead? Thanks
Local SEO | | Houses0 -
Do not understand why a page will not rank- AT ALL!
I have a business that provides on-site services out of a central location. For instance in Denver, we have a warehouse location where we can perform repairs but the majority of business is performed within a 50 mile radius of the city center- on-site, a homes, businesses, etc. Our Google local page is set up to reflect this (mobile service as well as physical location). In order to capture business organically within this 50 mile veil, we have set up city specific service pages on our site to reflect the more than 30 municipalities that fit within the 50 mile veil. This strategy seems to work pretty well in Colorado but in Minnesota we are not having the same outcome. The following city page is created specifically for the term "iPhone repair Minneapolis" and has been live for over a year. It is not even in the top 50. Is this a regional issue or a specific page issue? Our domain actually ranks 15th for this term. http://www.shatterbuggy.com/service-areas/minneapolis/iphone-repair/ Thoughts?
Local SEO | | BenjaminH0 -
Local Seo Start Up?
Hi I've recently started a Web design and Local SEO business in the UK and would love some advice on best practices and resources to do best by my clients. The last thing I want to do is get their site banned or penalised by Google. In the past I have used article marketing to get 100s of backlinks but I understand it isnt that simple anymore.I might add that I always did SEO for my own sites, never offered it as a service to others. So, I'm less reluctant to take chances. From looking at the competition in the local market I won't have to get too many backlinks to outrank most other companies. Just need to get the right good quality links. I am fairly experienced with onsite SEO. ANy advice or relevant resources would be greatly appreciated.
Local SEO | | malkeenan0 -
Question about Multi-Locale/Lang Sitemaps
If you have one site with multiple language and locale variations how best should one approach the sitemaps. Here is what I believe the options to be: sitemap_index.xml which includes all of the difference lang/locale sitemaps on the site create 1 main sitemap that includes the rel=alternate href lang for ever alternate page to the main US version. Do the sitemap_index.xml for all the other sitemaps and also include the rel=alternate href lang in those separate ones as well. I have these in this order because it goes from least to most work....Thoughts folks?
Local SEO | | DRSearchEngOpt0