Google Location - Taking Away Our National Reach?

[JerDoggMckoy]

Hey, I was just noticing that we achieve #2 ranking on Google for one of our customers for one of their primary keyword phrases. But then I noticed the traffic analytics were not matching what we should expect from that keyword phrase.

Then I noticed, in using "Chrome's Incognito Window", that our location was automatically selected for our main geographical city area.

I then went and changed that location from Denver, to San Diego & Also Chicago, just to see what would happen, and I noticed we instantly dropped from #2 to #7 when changing our location.

I don't know what my question is, but I guess I feel like that is preventing us from achieving the results we need to sell ecommerce products. Is there any info on this or suggestions anyone has on how to tackle this issue?

It feels like Google is pulling the rug out from underneath our feet and trying to spread rankings more to localized areas, rather than offering someone the opportunity to capitalize on good rankings for a national audience. I understand why they would do it, and I don't say I disagree. But it just seems to affect our work as SEO's doesn't it? Since we can't be as effective for customers that have a global audience instead of strictly a localized one.

I'm curious to see what people have to say about this issue. Thanks!

[tomleger]

We have the same issue-- our customers are located around the country and when we had AdWords campaigns we targeted certain cites, but always coast-to-coast.

Our solution has been to attack certain cities with special pages, so we can try to rank for "keyword seattle" and "keyword miami"

This is sort of working, so far. I know that isn't possible for every business, just wanted to share that you're not alone.

[JerDoggMckoy]

Hey John, no, you answered correctly, and I agree with you. However, I only agree with that scenario when, like you said, it involves geographically based service industries such as a hair dresser, plummer, etc.

In our case, it involves a product that is not geographically restricted. Our page is the only page of the Google top 10 that has unique content describing that product. And we are the only page that has more than one or two root domains linking directly to that product page.

And in the case of the results when I changed to Chicago, the website that did come up #1 was based in California.

Basically, I'm just not understanding how it works, or what the best strategy to employ would be for an eCommerce web site.

[johnshearer]

IMHO...it is not a penalty that you are ranked lower #7 for Chicago (or any other non locale)..it is that you are more competitive in your own market to be ranked #2...essentially a boost locally.

If you had a hairdresser site ranked #3 for Austin for "hairdresser", b/c of google local, chamber of commerce link etc that same site might not be top 10 in New York city...it could be with more nyc specific relevance indicators (links, mentions).

I may have answered the wrong question....good luck.