Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
How to deal with wrong location in Google SERP
-
Hi,
If I understand correctly, Google provides search results based on the location of the user. That's fine, because most of my clients are local.
But if I look at my own search results, Google thinks I'm in a totally different town. Most likely based on my IP address.
Of course I can solve that for myself, but the same goes for my potential clients.
Is there a way to deal with this, from an seo perspective? For instance find out where most of the the IP providers are located and target that location?
-
Hi Hans,
Unfortunately IP addresses are not great on a desktop pc, not always but sometimes our Internet Service Provider seems to play havoc with our actual location.
However on mobile it is usually a lot more reliable, so make sure your site is mobile friendly!
As long as you have all your data set up and Google+ and the likes linked then your local listings will work correctly,
I wouldn't recommend targeting a popular IP location as it is not your true location. Keeping your town/city in your tagging will help for local searches for those who include there location in their searches.But if your client's ISPs have their IP address located wrongly, I am afraid this is something you cannot compensate for.
Kind Regards,
Jimmy
-
I don't think IP factor matters that much
Going to disagree with this here I'm afraid because I have seen some quite overwhelming results based on a user location. I am based in Chester, UK - If I search, based on my IP, I will be shown local results earlier - that kind of thing. I'm not saying this is always going to be the case, but based on locations, it can play a pretty major part.
@Hans - There are lots of things you can do to try and remedy this, but remember that Google has the final say. You could try building your brand strength more and perhaps talk create a few blog posts based around location and product, talk about surrounding towns that you cover and suggestions as Umar mentions above.
Also you could do a little testing and see how your competitors get around this issue. Crossing every 't' and dotting every 'i' is going to be a big key to success.
-Andy
-
Hey Hans,
I don't think IP factor matters that much.. If you have a proper citations of NAP, optimized local content, G+ local pages, links from local sources and other local listings; I don't think this IP factor gonna hurt you that much.
But if you're very much sure that all the things are perfect and you're still not climbing then you can think about the local IPs.
-
Hi Umar,
Thanks for your answer! I'm not sure we're talking about the same thing here.
Let me explain: my company is in town X. I want it to be found by people in town X.
My potential client also lives in town X. But Google says he lives in town Y. Because his IP address tells that to them.
It seems that I'm lower in the search results than I would have been if the client was located in X, as he should. Or am I wrong here?
Cheers,
Hans -
Hey Hans,
Yes, Search engines use the following signals to determine the location of your website:
- Hosting location (I think it's still matters)
- Domain tld (eg .co.uk for the UK and .com for the US)
It is important to check that the actual location of your servers is reflected in their IP address using a tool like this one. I remember once Matt Cutts discussed this topic "How should I serve different content based on user location?" here https://youtu.be/GFf1gwr6HJw
Hope this helps!
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
-
Adding Multiple Country Locations for Google Business Listings
Hi Moz community, I hope everyone is well. I would like to ask for your advice on how to show a Google Business listing in both the UK and US for our brand. I understand that you can add multiple locations to your Google listing under the 'Manage Locations' tab but I wasn't quite sure how it worked in practice. I have a couple of questions below: If we have 2 registered locations/offices (one in the UK and one in the US) are we able to create 2 separate locations that will show our business listing correctly in the right-hand margin when people search for our brand in the US and UK respectively? If so, when a user finds our business listing in the US, are we able to serve them our US website version when they click the 'Website' button, as opposed to showing them our UK website? Our US website has been created as a sub-directory from our main UK site and can be seen as: www.example.com/us/ I hope someone is able to help, and thank you in advance.
Local Listings | | Katarina-Borovska
Katarina0 -
How do I rank for a different business categories on google local?
Hello, How do I appear on the local listings for google in different categories or services that I offer? For instance, we're a physical therapy clinic by trade but we specialize in orthopedics, sports medicine, and lower back pain. Thus, how do I rank on google local for these types of services? Currently, we rank for physical therapy but we also miss out on a big part of our business by not ranking for these listings on local. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Cheers, Scott
Local Listings | | scottgray06200 -
Where does the small description on a business listing come from in google maps?
Hi All, Simple question, but I'm struggling to find the answer, so I hope someone is able to help. The business I run is Oakdene Forest Park; Google Maps URL: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Oakdene™+Forest+Park/@50.8114372,-1.8598721,18z/data=!4m12!1m6!3m5!1s0x4873980ce90e4ef7:0x755579d631c25b33!2sOakdene™+Forest+Park!8m2!3d50.8114796!4d-1.8582842!3m4!1s0x4873980ce90e4ef7:0x755579d631c25b33!8m2!3d50.8114796!4d-1.8582842?hl=en Under the business name, it has a small description and for the life of me I don't know where Google is getting it from because a part of it is wrong. It looks like this: Oakdene™ Forest Park Rural Resort with Entertainment & a Spa I would like to remove the term 'Rural Resort' but where do I find it?? Thanks in advance for your help.
Local Listings | | Shorefield_Holidays0 -
How do I treat multiple buildings on the same college campus on Google for local SEO?
Should I delete them? Simply give them a different address like "City, State, Zip"? I see the benefit of having key buildings on campus in Google Maps, but I don't want those to affect my accuracy score and, thus, my local rankings for SEO.
Local Listings | | GabeGibitz1 -
SEO - Should individual doctors at facility claim a Google My Business profile?
My client is a physician facility with several doctors practicing at the facility. When doing a Google search for some of their practices such as "family practice" one of the doctor's profiles will display in the Google Local pack - however it is not linked to the facility website where their profile exists. As of right now, we are using YEXT and other tools to claim Google Business Profiles for each practice, not the individual doctors. If there are unclaimed accounts for individual doctors, they are alerting Google that it’s a duplicate and should be taken down. Is this the right process to follow for SEO best practices or should we be claiming both the business and individual doctor profiles? The reason they are not claiming individual doctor profiles is to cut down on duplicate reviews as part of the Reputation Management Program. Advice much appreciated!
Local Listings | | chrisvogel0 -
Removing Unverified Listing From Google
We have an old unverified listing that has our information on it, but we can't get it off google. I told them months ago it was closed, and it is marked as closed in Google...but it still shows up. Moz Local is telling me this is an inconsistency that hurts our local rankings. I went to delete the page from our Google Business/Place, but if I did that, the warning said that I would just not have access to the page, and that the listing would still show up on google. How do I permanently get rid of those thing, so it's not longer an inconsistent listing? Ruben
Local Listings | | KempRugeLawGroup0 -
Why I'm I ranking so low on Google Maps
About 3 months I started a website (www.guyetteroofing.com) for my roofing business in Montgomery, Alabama. The site is still a work in progress, however, because the competition doesn't really market via internet it was fairly easy to rank on Google Maps. Within 1 month the business was letter "A" in Google Maps. About 3 three weeks ago my ranking was dropped considerably, not showing up at all in letters A through G. The business is still indexed in Google Maps, but only represented by a small red dot. My website is still ranking pretty high for "roofers in Montgomery", but my position on Google Maps has all but disappeared. I have no idea what I've done to be rank so low on Google Maps but still have a solid position on regular Google Search. I've checked my citations and my NAPs, there are a few inconsistencies but nothing major. How can I rank so far below my competition if I have twice as many citations, an actual website, and a Google Plus page?
Local Listings | | billyguyette0 -
Google Maps redirect notice on track-able URL's (how do I track maps visits in analytics?)
We've been using trackable URL's to track Google My Business visits in analytics for years.
Local Listings | | RedNovaLabs91
Example: ?utm_source=GoogleLocal&utm_medium=example&utm_campaign=example In the past month I've noticed Google showing a redirect notice on any listing with a trackable URL. It happened for a day or so a few weeks ago - and then it's been a more permanent situation since this past week. Redirect Notice
The previous page is sending you to: www.example.com
If you do not want to visit that page, you can return to the previous page. I'm fine with removing the trackable URL's - however - I'm not sure how to track maps visits via analytics without using them. I can't find any updated information on options. The last post on moz was in 2011 (http://moz.com/blog/tracking-traffic-from-google-places-in-google-analytics). The alternate tactics in that post no longer work. So my question is:
- How do I track Google Maps (My Business) visits through analytics without using tracking URLs?1