Local Searches done from outside of local area better than searches from within local area
-
Here's a strange one:
I am working on a site for a local business and targeting local searches. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.
Various keyword position tools show the site ranking very well for searches like "Anytown Widget Store".
Doing the same Google search from a browser in Anytown, the site shows up much lower. So I tried changing the location in Google to other cities, using a variety of browsers and it comes up much higher out of town than in town.
I have seen plenty of geographic discrepancies before, but usually they went the other way - searches from the actual local area did slightly better than the same searches done elsewhere, which would make sense.
Any thoughts on why this would happen?
-
I am using results from a variety of "location-neutral" keyword position trackers like Rank Tracker, SEObook, and of course SEOMoz among others, and comparing them to multiple non-logged in browsers on multiple devices that area actually in the Anytown area. The discrepancies between the various trackers are minor and I would attribute those to datacenter differences.
I considered the personalization possibility, but usually that works in the other direction, unless Google is now using a "you already looked at this enough and we are showing you something else to broaden your horizons" calculation.
I used "500 miles" kind of generically. I tried entering all sort of different locations into the Google settings and it seems the closer I got to Anytown, the lower the ranking went.
I am thinking it is something that recently changed in the way Google handles local search. My theory is that within a certain radius of the specified location, the algorithm is a little different. Once outside of a certain radius, traditional non-localized algorithms kick in so a site optimized for Anytown Widgets might rank a little better than it would when google sees that the searcher is actually in Anytown. I am going to take a closer look at some other local SEO projects and see if anything similar is happening, then see if I can find some common traits.
Not a huge issue as it is a relatively minor drop for some keywords that aren't high volume. But I am a little obsessive and curious. I was hoping someone would chime in with some info about a documented change in Google's local search. I know Places has been evolving a little more lately. Every time I look a my own listing it looks different.
Thanks again.
-
Two things come to mind:
a) are you searching in- and outsinde of Anytown with completely different computers from different IPs etc? Personalization could skew your results.
b) I know, that the datacenter you are queriyng plays a role. For example: I have 2 different webbased services tracking keywords for a local service: seomoz and a german based company called keywordmonitor.de. Both have discrepancies for certain "Service in Anytown" results, stemming from the fact that there are 2 different datacenters involved. You said "500 miles away" so this might be the reason.
PM me if you want to talk about it without divulging your client.
BTW, the ultimate seo advice applies: you need more and/or better links
-
Thanks for the reply.
I forgot to mention that this particular site ranked higher in the local local searches previously. The out of town searches are about where they all used to be, while the same searches done locally have dropped. Other keywords - some with "Anytown" and some not specific to locality - have mostly improved when searched locally or from elsewhere.
As for local links, the local link profile is equal to or better than the sites that now rank higher. Regional focus is pretty good too.
The puzzling thing is that searching for "Anytown widgets" from 500 miles away shows great results, while searching the same thing while actually in "Anytown" shows the site much lower. The only thing I could think of is maybe content-wise it looks like it is from Anytown, so searching from elsewhere it comes up very nicely. When searching from the Anytown area, maybe some sort of local search filtering kicks in and brings other sites into the mix a little more and they may be slightly more locally linked or use "Anytown" in their content more.
I know it is hard to diagnose without knowing the site so thanks. I was hoping for one of those "Google just rolled out a new local search product" answers. A little frustrating because I have an otherwise near 100% success rate for local SEO. I can't tell a client "Yes I know it looks like you are number 12 for Anytown Widgets, but people on the other side of the country see you as the #1 seller of widgets in Anytown".
-
Assuming that the offered service of this store has a strong regional focus I's say you need more local links (Links google can attribute to Anytown).
Potential sources could be:
- Businesspartners in Anytown
- Customers in Anytown
- If they do charity / support a club -> their pages
- Local portals (i.e. Anytown-news.tld)
- Local exposure in the media
- Local Bloggers
Also check your Google business page, see if the store is in pages like yelp / qype etc. Get local ratings and so on.
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
-
How to rank an ecommerce site for search terms starting with how where why
Hi guys, I just got a new SEO job for an e commerce store, the client is asking to rank the site for keywords like where to buy used phone, where to sell my used phone for for best rates and so, the question is how can i achieve that, can anyone help me with some concrete suggestion? Thanks in Advance,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | mkhurramali0 -
Javascript search results & Pagination for SEO
Hi On this page http://www.key.co.uk/en/key/workbenches we have javascript on the paginated pages to sort the results, the URL displayed and the URL linked to are different. e.g. The paginated pages link to for example: page2 http://www.key.co.uk/en/key/workbenches#productBeginIndex:30&orderBy:5&pageView:list& The list is then sorted by javascript. Then the arrows either side of pagination link to e.g. http://www.key.co.uk/en/key/workbenches?page=3 - this is where the rel/prev details are - done for SEO But when clicking on this arrow, the URL loaded is different again - http://www.key.co.uk/en/key/workbenches#productBeginIndex:60&orderBy:5&pageView:list& I did not set this up, but I am concerned that the URL http://www.key.co.uk/en/key/workbenches?page=3 never actually loads, but it's linked to Google can crawl it. Is this a problem? I am looking to implement a view all option. Thank you
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BeckyKey0 -
Acquired a company, what should be done with their website?
Hi, I work for a furniture company that essentially purchased another furniture store some time back a few years ago. However, this furniture store that was acquired had a website. The website has no existing pages anymore, only the homepage. The homepage has a message on it describing how it's been taken over and then links to our website. The spam score for the website is 8. I was wondering if there was something else we should do instead of the link, whether that be a straight 301 redirect or if we should have the link at all considering its score. I can provide more information and links if needed. Thanks in advance, Adam
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AdamEgarr0 -
Finding Ranking for search term and increasing ranking
Hi. The company that I'm working with would like to rank highly in google for certain generic search terms (dentist, dentists, etc.). Certain websites the company has used to rank highly in google for generic keywords, but has not for years now since google has revised their algorithm so many times. Moz lists that the company websites are not found in the top 51+ results in google. My first question is: **Is there a way, apart from manually searching the results, to find the ranking position of the website in google? **Ideally, I would like to find a program that will do this. Second, I've been reading a lot of the great articles and comments on Moz, and I've been learning a lot more about SEO. My focus has shifted to spending more attention on User Experience and Social Media instead of placing the exact keywords in the pages / tags of the website. What area(s) should I be focusing on to best increase the ranking of the company website for certain generic terms? Ideally, I'd like to create good quality content, so that users will not instantly click away. I appreciate any thoughts or comments. Thank you in advance!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | americasmiles0 -
What can you do when Google can't decide which of two pages is the better search result
On one of our primary keywords Google is swapping out (about every other week) returning our home page, which is more transactional, with a deeper more information based page. So if you look at the Analysis in Moz you get an almost double helix like graph of those pages repeatedly swapping places. So there seems to be a bit of cannibalizing happening that I don't know how to correct. I think part of the problem is the deeper page would ideally be "longer" tail searches that contain the one word keyword that is having this bouncing problem as a part of the longer phrase. What can be done to try prevent this from happening? Can internal links help? I tried adding a link on that term to the deeper page to our homepage, and in a knee jerk reaction was asked to pull that link before I think there was really any evidence to suggest that that one new link made a positive or negative effect. There are some crazy theories floating around at the moment, but I am curious what others think both about if adding a link from a informational to a transactional page could in fact have a negative effect, and what else could be done/tried to help clarify the difference between the two pages for the search engines.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | plumvoice0 -
Separate Email for Separate G+Local Listing?
Client decided to keep restaurant and catering businesses completely separate, so he's gotten a suite number and a separate landline. He already set up and claimed the restaurant G+Local/Places page using his personal gmail address. I need to set up the catering G+Local page, but of course he's not crazy about giving me the login to his personal gmail account. But maybe, since they're completely separate businesses, I really should go set up hiscateringbusiness@gmail.com and start fresh with the catering page? I also have an email address, contact@hiscateringbusiness.com, but it seems like Google never likes these. How do you recommend that I set up the catering G+Local pages? (This would also presumably be for Analytics and Webmaster Tools for the domain too.) Should I just start fresh? Can I even do it with a non-gmail account? Or will Google slap him for two unmerged accounts, even though they're for separate businesses? (I've looked all over the place and it looks like that it's still true that he can't just change the email associated with the restaurant G+ page... no?) Thank you!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | rayvensoft0 -
Local Coverage Strategy
Hi Mozzers, I've had some successful national and international campaigns but this will be my first attempt at local. The client is a landscape designer, services several cities within a 50 mile radius and has a rural address which is not located in any of the cities serviced. What's my best strategy for ranking in the desired cities considering the client's address is not located in any of them?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | waynekolenchuk0 -
Is linking to search results bad for SEO?
If we have pages on our site that link to search results is that a bad thing? Should we set the links to "nofollow"?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | nicole.healthline0