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.
No Location option in Incognito Search Settings
-
I was checking on a client ranking and went to Incognito in Chrome for the search. I went to search settings to set the location and thought I had done something wrong. I closed and went back to search settings and still no location setting. See attached.
Interestingly, when I went to my signed in Chrome and set the location and then went to incognito and went to search settings, then location showed up for me. This also begs a question about why Google has this where you must be signed in to set a location in Incognito mode.
Thanks for any input you have,
Robert
-
If you read above you will see that it has been removed.
This is what many are using instead: http://isearchfrom.com/
-
Hi Robert,
Where we can find location search in google.
Thanks,
Akhilesh
-
Yes, you were right. Good job.
-
Barry is reporting official word from Google this feature is dead due to low usage - Check it out here.
I think our speculation in the Local Search Forum thread actually turned out to be right.
-
Hey Robert, and Happy Thanksgiving!
Yes, your Local guy is right ... no one is sure what the deal is with this. It's appearing with some settings and not with others, so it seems kind of like a test, but it could equally well be some kind of glitch. Kind of a pain, huh! Linda's post is the best I know of, too, covering this issue. I really hope location search remains accessible in some form, as obviously, we use it just about every day!
-
It looks a lot like what Google's done in the past with other features, which is a strong indication they're going to remove that feature. I think it's fair to say that casual searchers wouldn't know that feature exists because it's hidden behind a couple other buttons, and why would they care? (Many of us mention that within that forum thread) The more likely scenario is that a typical searcher will use a geo-modified search query to indicate a change in location; not adjust a search setting. Like I mentioned in my last post, we're making a strong assumption based on past behavior - not definitely saying it's being removed, since that hasn't been officially announced.
I find it interesting this has been going on for almost a month and has primarily affected US-based searchers. This came around the same time as Google's slow killing of GMB pages by refocusing them from G+ into Maps (still in the process of changing). Not sure if there's a connection, but it was interesting to observe this happening at the same time.
-
I'm not sure from Linda's post that you can draw the conclusion Google is most likely removing it. Here is the quote from Linda:
"Google is testing or tweaking or moving or deleting the option to set search location.
Obviously this feature/ability is critical to those of us in the industry. "Our Local guy is on Linda's forum regularly and said no one is sure if it is a change, a bug, or a tweak. Yes, it is easy to believe they are removing it based on past behavior, but not sure that is necessarily true. Thanks for the input and the link to Linda's post though.
-
Google's most likely removing this feature. See this great thread in the local search forum to learn more. To summarize our assumptions, it's because the only people that really used this feature were SEO's to check ranking. Normal searchers either modified the query or did nothing, since most people probably never knew that feature existed.
-
Thanks, I think it just adds more info. Seems to be a bug at the Google. OR if you are more into the conspiracy realm, it is some surreptitious way of tracking where we think we may want to be if we lose our memory on a day we are logged in....
Best
-
Hi,
this is an interesting question. I tried it myself and it was working for me (I can change the location). However, I noticed that i was using the french version of Google (google.fr). See the attached snip.
When switching to Google.com in english, the "search tools" button disappears... This is weird.
If this is helping in any way
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 add multiple locations to an existing GBP
Hi, I'm having trouble finding the option to add multiple locations to an existing GBP account. Can somebody help me?
Local Listings | | Trendi
I believe it can be done throught Google &/or MOZ.
Thank you,0 -
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 -
Is Local Search Data Included in Google Search Console?
Is local search data Included in Google Search Console? Or is it only in Google My Business? I'm having a hard time distinguishing what exactly is included in Google Search Console's reporting.
Local Listings | | DigitalMarketingSEO1 -
Google My Business - two locations but same name and phone
Hello, I manage SEO for an orthopaedic practice and I'm wondering what to do about their GMB listings. They have two locations, but I'm starting to think we shouldn't have separate GMB pages for the two locations because of the advice about other GMB questions I've been reading on this forum. I read a helpful response that said you must ensure the following if you want to create separate GMB listings: Unique name Unique address (even if only a suite / office number) Unique phone number Clearly different categories on Google My Business I can only ensure one of those - unique address. The business has the same name, phone number, and categories at both addresses. What should I do about this? I would think it's important to list both addresses so that patients can be guided to the appropriate location, but is there a way to do that with just one GMB listing? Thank you, Susannah
Local Listings | | SusannahK.Noel0 -
Do you need contact details (NAP) on every page of your website for local search ranking ?
We’ve got a clients site which doesn't have the contact details on every page, all the contact details are on the /contact page which is using the schema.org local business markup Some sites that our outranking us locally have their contact details on all pages, where as others only have it on the contact page also. Is having your contact details on every page a ranking factor for local search ?
Local Listings | | mike8780 -
Google My Business - bulk location upload vs. single upload
Hi there, I have a question regarding Google My Business listings: We currently have a business with few offices (less than 10). Each office has it's Google listing under the same Google account.
Local Listings | | OrendaLtd
We plan on opening new offices at a certain pace, let's say two a month, which means we'll have more than 10 listings in the near future.
As far as I recall, Google allows up to 10 listings per account, which means it won't suffice. On the other hand, We do not have 10 offices at the time being, which means we're not eligible for a bulk upload. Any ideas how to handle this situation?0 -
How to change your location for local search results?
Hi Everybody Back in december 2015 I came across this article https://gofishdigital.com/google-results-change-location/ explaining how to change location for local search results using the google emulation tool by setting up new coordinates. This was also picked up by mikeblumenthals' blog as being one of the best way of doing this. I tried it at the time and it worked very well. I tried using it last week and again this week but my location no longer seems to update. I have tried it on fifferent computers located in different locations and still it doesn't work. Does anyone know if this feature is no longer available and if not what else they'd recommend to verify local search results. Thanks
Local Listings | | coolhandluc0 -
Concerned about cannibalization for local SEO results. Should we move some of our location pages to a subdomain?
Currently we are providing local SEO recommendations for a well known pharmacy chain. Like most major brands they enjoy multiple organic (not just 3 pack results) listings when people search for local phrases such as "Dallas pharmacy clinics'". The issue is that all these listings are coming from the same domain page. We are seeing multiple listings both branded and non-branded search queries. Our concern is that Google will someday decide to choose one listing as the most authoritative and nix the rest of the local listings which will reduce their first page search engine saturation. To maintain first page saturation we are considering recommending to the client that they move some of their location listings
Local Listings | | RosemaryB
to a subdomain (different IP address) to avoid a Google "clean up". Please note that our client is certainly not using any "doorway" pages but some of these are very scarce on content. They do not have an issue with duplicate content either. By using subdomains could we help maintain our client's first page saturation? Any links to articles would be much appreciated.0