Geographical Results in Universal SERPS

[TicksTire]

Hi Moz Pros!

I have been reading on the board for quite some time, despite all the insights you all share with us in the SEO world. I have a nut I can't crack and thought I would ask. Does any guru here know the factors google uses when they choose sites to add to GEO specific SERPS on a general query?

Here is an example.  "Car insurance companies" Also attached.

https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=ACYBGNRvHrdh6z6sNatu-Pgbh-tbgiiQLQ%3A1569462097607&ei=UReMXbPfJIfwtAX_77aYCQ&q=car+insurance+companies+&oq=car+insurance+companies+&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0i71l8.321.321..471...0.2..0.0.0.......0....1..gws-wiz.8MmdfVjHrt4&ved=0ahUKEwjzy8P2re3kAhUHOK0KHf-3DZMQ4dUDCAs&uact=5
I live in Austin obviously

Thanks for any input you'd be willing to share! 5Brenxf

[BlueprintMarketing]

One area search engines seem to be gravitating toward is granting strong product verticals with a history of online purchase behavior – a lean toward non-local results.

For many, you now need to be on a mobile device or type “near me” as part of the search query to trigger a map.

Understanding whether you have reached the “near me” need to even compete with national online sellers is important when strategizing and setting expectations.

Google uses the content on the page in conjunction with your search history and or location so all those insurance companies have pages that have content that is more relevant to your search query in Austin because they have the words Austin inside the content.

So if your Google and Amica insurance for liberty mutual are able to index a landing page with words Austin on it and you query it from an ISP within that area you will get the results shown to you. The only other way to get those results is through what Google has already learned about your search habits on the web they know where you are. So they're going to serve content that they think you like or content that you have been to more often.

I hope that makes sense,

Tom

[TicksTire]

I understand that - but what factors make that work?

[BlueprintMarketing]

Each one of those companies has a website that is targeted towards Austin. It’s a very big city and a large market google will customize the search for your location. Your ISP may be Comcast, Spectrum, Google Fiber, Verizon, AT&T whatever.

That ISP shares your rough location via your IP address this is picked up on by Google and they give a customized answer for your particular search history as well as your current location rather you’re on a mobile device or at home. Mobile devices are obviously more accurate most of the time because of GPS

See: https://support.google.com/optimize/answer/6283420?hl=en&ref_topic=6283433

SERP Snippets Are ‘

based on the user’s query‘

Keep in mind that there is no guarantee that Google will use the page meta description as the search snippet. The text featured in a Google search snippet is QUERY DEPENDANT and can change depending on the query.

“QUOTE: Keep in mind that we adjust the description based on the user’s query. So if you’re doing a site query and seeing this in your search results for your site that’s not necessarily what a normal user would see when they see a search as well.”   John Mueller 2017

SERP Snippets Are ‘based on the user’s query‘

Keep in mind that there is no guarantee that Google will use the page meta description as the search snippet. The text featured in a Google search snippet is QUERY DEPENDANT and can change depending on the query.

“QUOTE: Keep in mind that we adjust the description based on the user’s query. So if you’re doing a site query and seeing this in your search results for your site that’s not necessarily what a normal user would see when they see a search as well.”   John Mueller 2017

The meta description tag is still important from both from a human and search engine perspective, if used intelligently and properly.

QUOTE: “However** it can affect the way that users see your site in the search results and whether or not they actually click through to your site**. So that’s kind of one one aspect there to keep in mind.”  John Meuller 2017

Example Code

If your page is INFORMATIONAL in nature, you can make it relevant to a valuable query you are focused on, but write it for humans, not just search engines. If the keyword phrase you are optimizing the page for is found in the meta description, you can usually depend on the meta description showing in Google listings. If the keyword in the search query is NOT present on the page, chances are your meta description WON'T show up.

Although meta descriptions should be UNIQUE – be sensible when manually writing unique meta description text that DOES NOT APPEAR ON THE PAGE – or you are just giving scrapers free text you are not getting any actual rankings to benefit from.

Google looks at the description but there is a debate whether it actually uses the description tag to rank pages (see tests and observations below). I think they might at some level, or for specific tests, or specific types of pages. From my testing, it is a very weak signal (if any) in INFORMATIONAL SERPs – and this is very reliant on the query. Google certainly indexes meta description for snippet display, not so much for ranking pages, in my observations.

It’s

Tom

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