Are localised results affecting search query volumes?
-
As the questions says.
I've had some conversations with colleagues of mine and they definitely feel that search query volumes are being heavily affected by localised results - and even more so recently.
So, for instance, you may have a Google UK rank of 3 for a keyword yet be hardly visible in other parts of the UK because of the localised-based results.
Thoughts?
-
Thanks for your input guys.
In addition to this, say a keyword has a national search volume of 1,000 exact match searches per month, as my client has. The client ranks, nationally, at position number one. However, the traffic the website receives no-where near matches the available search volume, we are talking less than 50 visits from a keyword that Google says has a search volume of 1,000.
So, is this a direct result of localized results? IE a user types in the search query and contributes to the 1,000 monthly search volume Google says it has, but is then served a local result so the clients site doesn't appear. This would mean that any given website, would never achieve the expected volume of traffic from Google's estimated monthly search volumes?
-
Yup, absolutely playing a role. We are ranking on page 1 on various local keywords in one city, and completely invisible on the same keyword in another city. Basically, it seems that the more local you can custom your page - especially for a local business - the better off you are.
Say you are a golf course in washington dc and you optimize your pace for that keyword. Someone who types in "golf course" only and happens to be in the Washington DC area is more likely to see your page even though the user didn't specify the "washington dc" location in the search query.
The takeaway - localize when you can and make sure all the major directories know where you are!
-
It is not just search query volumes local results are affecting.
I have a strong feeling it is playing on CTR across search results as well. I have seen some research on local keywords where we see the position 10 for a GEO term get 20% CTR overall.
But yeah things are changing with the way local results display and this change has been rolled out over the last few months and if not years. But the thing is Google also tests and changes results as well.
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
-
Still no good search results after 2 months of indexation
Hi guys, One of our website (https://www.residentiebosrand.be/) has been online for about two months. It's indexed and Google shows search results. But the website is not ranking on the keywords it's supposed to be ranking: 'residentie bosrand'. How come we still don't find the website on the first pages in the search results, while these are the main keywords on the website's URL, page, ... ? Best regards,
Algorithm Updates | | conversal0 -
Question: About Google's personalization of search results and its impact on monitoring ranking results
Given Google's personalization of search results for anyone who's logged into a Google property, how realistic and how actually meaningful/worthwhile is it to monitor one's ranking results for any keyword term these days?
Algorithm Updates | | RandallScrubs0 -
Creating Content for Semantic search?
Need some good examples of semantic search friendly content. I have been doing a lot of reading on the subject, but have seen no real good examples of 'this is one way to structure it'. Lots of reading on the topic from an overall satellite perspective, but no clear cut examples I could find of "this is the way the pieces should be put together in a piece of content and this is the most affective ways to accomplish it". **What I know: ** -It needs to answer a question that precludes the 'keyword being used' -It needs to or should be connected to authorship for someone in that topic industry -It should incorporate various social media sources as reference to the topic -It should link out to authoritative resources on the topic -It should use some structured data markup Here is a great resource on the important semantic search pieces: http://www.seoskeptic.com/semantic-seo-making-shift-strings-things/ ,but I want to move past the research into creating the content that will make the connections needed to get the content to rank. I know Storify is an excellent medium to accomplish this off page, but only gives no follow attribution to the topic creator and links their in. I am not a coder, but a marketer and creating the backend markup will really take me out of my wheel house. I don't want to spend all of my time flailing with code when I should be creating compelling semantic content. Any helpful examples or resources welcome. Thanks in advance.
Algorithm Updates | | photoseo10 -
Time lag between algorithm changes and results?
Hi everyone, We had pretty good organic traffic growth for the past 3 years. Some people in our organization think that we were probably affected positively by the algorithm changes (Panda, Penguin,...). When I plot the dates on a chart I think Panda had no effect, but we had big gains starting five months after Penguin 1. Do you think the effect could have come that much later ? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | jfmonfette0 -
Content, for the sake of the search engines
So we all know the importance of quality content for SEO; providing content for the user as opposed to the search engines. It used to be that copyrighting for SEO was treading the line between readability and keyword density, which is obviously no longer the case. So, my question is this, for a website which doesn't require a great deal of content to be successful and to fullfil the needs of the user, should we still be creating relavent content for the sake of SEO? For example, should I be creating content which is crawlable but may not actually be needed / accessed by the user, to help improve rankings? Food for thought 🙂
Algorithm Updates | | underscorelive0 -
How do search engines calculate ranking?
On SEOMoz, I can see that when people type in X keyword, my website comes up at Y place. For example, if someone googles "Mobile Productivity", a page on my website comes up at #10. How is that #10 ranking calculated? I would've guessed it's based on some combination of linking root domain and page authority, but I see sites that rank below mine that have higher scores on both. For example, on the aforementioned 'Mobile Productivity' search, my site comes up #10 with a Linking Root Domain score of 2, and a Page Authority of 29. But Honeywell Products and Services comes up #13 on the same "Mobile Productivity" search (ie, BELOW my site), even though they have a Linking Root Domain score of 40 and a Page Authority of 72. Similarly, Mobileproductivity.com comes in at #1 for that search with scores of 7 and 31 respectively, but mpifix.com comes in at #2 with scores of 61 and 47 respectively. How are the search engine rankings calculated? Thanks in advance, Julian
Algorithm Updates | | MobileDay0 -
Taking advantage of "Search Plus Your World"
How can I, the owner of a 5 thousand page website, take advantage of Search Plus Your World to increase website traffic?
Algorithm Updates | | StreetwiseReports0 -
Does Google do domain level topic modeling? If so, are off-site factors such as search traffic volume taken into account?
80% of my site's organic traffic is coming through a resource that is only somewhat related. Does Google think the main topic of my site is terms this resource targets thus bumping the terms I care about to a sub-topic level of sorts? If this is the case, would putting the resource information into a sub-domain help to solve the problem?
Algorithm Updates | | tatermarketing0