Accurate Rank Checking for Local SEO
-
Hi all,
I am wondering if anyone out there has cracked the enigma of figuring out how to accurately find local rankings for multi-location businesses.
I do understand that "accuracy" should be used loosely given the numerous factors that come into play for local such as distance from searcher and business location being located directly in the city of the search. So I definitely get that nothing will be entirely accurate but the programs I have used and the incognito browser approach just seems so far off. Moz tells me something different than the Google Adword Preview Tool which is different than SEMRush which is different than serps.com and so on.
I have done the appending to search strings with near=city as well. I unfortunately do not trust any of them at this point. I would LOVE if my company flew me out to every single city we are in so I could do local searches but that is probably not going to happen
Any thoughts or recommendations for how I can get the most accurate local rank, even if it is an incredibly manual process? Is there an easy way for me to change my location anymore since Google stripped that option away awhile back? That was the ONLY time I felt I was getting somewhat accurate results.
Thanks!
-Ben
-
Hi Ben - Chad here from Moz. Kudos to Joy and Nigel for the great tool suggestions. I checked those out myself!
You make a good call out that there is no perfect method for tracking rankings given proximity and geographic location - I'd also add personalization as the other big factor. I was recently in the same room with 4-5 members of my client's digital team in Texas. We all ran the same keyword search on laptops and mobiles, and nearly all saw variations in the local results. So, there's that. : )
Moz has put a ton of thought and testing into how to get the most directionally accurate results, but personalization in particular challenges any method. It may go without saying, but I tell my clients to pick one method or tracker (maybe two at the most) then look at the directional changes in rankings vs. the absolute rankings themselves. It takes the pressure off small changes in rankings and allows them to become a useful confirmation that all is well or an alerting system that something has gone/is going in the wrong direction. This is in contrast to metrics like traffic (online and off), GMB insights data, and conversions/sales that tend be better indicators of success in your digital efforts. Best of luck! -Chad
-
Thanks Nigel and Joy!
I am playing around with both tools now!
-Ben
-
Use this tool in an incognito tab:Â https://www.brightlocal.com/local-search-results-checker/
To get the most accurate results you need to search from a zip code, not a city name.
I've honestly always found it to be extremely accurate and is almost always the same thing the person I'm talking to is seeing.
-
Hi Davey
Whilst you can change your version of Google to any country you can't do it by city.
Check out this nifty tool which seems to do the job really well:
Regards
Nigel
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
-
Not Showing Up in Local Pack - Possible Possum Filter?
We have a medical practice client who isn't showing up at all on local category searches for their zip code. Wondering whether it's a Possum algorithm filter, and if so, how we can resolve this. The client is named Wall Street Dermatology, and is located in the same building as two other medical practices in the same dermatologist specialty. They share the same address (65 Broadway, New York, NY), but have different unit numbers. My client is Suite 904. To be clear, these are entirely separate businesses that are not affiliated with each other. They happen to be located in the same building. When running local searches (for example, in US zip code 10004) for the category term "dermatologist", my client is not appearing at all. The two other practices are appearing just fine. In fact, one of the competing practices has not only their practice listed, but one of their doctors individually and even one of the physician assistants. My client, Wall Street Dermatology, isn't showing up. IMO, the GMB profile is robust, with more reviews than competitors, and more content overall. While there's SEO work to be done, the citations and link profile exceeds some of the other practices who are showing up in "dermatologist" (use zip code 10004) searches. Google is showing profiles of dermatologists who haven't even claimed their profiles or have websites.One more thing: For a two-week span, the business was showing up in the 3-pack for "dermatologist" after making upgrades to the GMB profile. This was a first. So they've been there before. However, they made some changes to NAP. 1) added the providers name to the business name: "Business Name: Provider Name". 2) Updated "Suite" to "Ste" in order to match USPS. After that change, the business fell off entirely again.Note: We do appear on searches for the business name. And we do appear for some secondary keywords (for example, "Cosmetic Dermatology"), but not for the main keyword. Is this related to Possum (https://moz.com/learn/seo/google-possum)? Is Google confused that my client is related to the other practices in the same building? Any suggestions?
Local Listings | | sponnu01230 -
Local SEO - 2 Locations
Hi SEO pros, If I'm undertaking SEO for a company which has a single website (no location specific pages) and 2 office locations I'm curious on a couple of points: 1. Obviously setting up 2 locations in GMB is a must, but in terms of citation building is it just a case of needing to input 2 citations into every directory (one for each address) 2. Link building - assuming this doesn't change much from when you're ranking for one location? 3. Schema markup - Do i need to create 2 x local business schema and input both into the headers? 4. On-page SEO - trying to rank for 2 locations I'm assuming is much more difficult as you can't optimise both location keywords throughout the site - does anyone know a way around this?
Local Listings | | Jack11661 -
Evidence that high organic rankings impact positioning in the Google local pack?
I'm looking for articles/evidence that if you have a high ranking organic listing that it will improve your chances of being in the local pack. I came across this about a year ago, but I have had trouble finding articles to support this. Does anybody know of any recent articles and/or studies that show a correlation of high organic listings and local pack visibility? Thanks!
Local Listings | | BigChad20 -
Local SEO Tasks When Closing One Branch of Multilocation Business
I would appreciate the opinions of my fellow SEOs on this one. I haven’t seen any other threads on this exact subject and others that touch on it are somewhat older so I am hoping this also proves to be a good resource for others going forward. I have an existing client that I did local SEO for about a year ago. They are a propane service provider and they had multiple locations. So we did local SEO for the company primarily by updating NAPs and creating more individual content for each of the branches such as specific landing page for each branch on their website and individual listings in citations for each branch. Now they have sold one of the branches to a competitor and they need to remove all listings for it. I am trying to develop a comprehensive list of actions to take and I would appreciate any feedback on the best way to go about accomplishing this task. Here is what I have so far: Remove all mention of sold branch on client website, including specific landing page Delete any branch-specific social media accounts Some specific areas I have questions about are: What do I do with Google My Business listings for the sold branch? Do I try to delete/unregister/close them? Or should I just leave them be with an updated link to our website homepage? Should I even bother contacting the main NAP listing sites to remove the old listing or just leave it to fall off on its own? Thank you again for all your help!
Local Listings | | Ayres-SEO0 -
Awesome ranking (place 1/2) but my CTR is damn low! Some thoughts...
Hey all, with a few projects I'm ranking really great. Having a good amount of impressions with terms that have decent search volume. Webmasters shows: "tax consultant city" Ranking 1.4 => 1056 imp => 3% CTR "seo city" Ranking 1.2 => 329 imp => 1% CTR Whats up here? Competitors are seaching a lot but not clicking? Brand issues? Can't believe that. Title is boring? German titles a are longer... So I don't have enough room to play. Should I get rid of important keywords? Maybe I don't need them to rank? Gives me room for tests. Local Box is steeling all the clicks? We are in the local listings and above. Payed Ads are steeling all the clicks? At this point we don't use AdWords because of high costs and our great organic rankings It would be great to hear your thoughts. Cheers
Local Listings | | PascalKremp
Pascal0 -
How does dynamic call tracking affect local SEO?
I would like to begin tracking calls and offline conversions, but I am concerned that if I add a dynamic call tracking software that it will negatively affect SEO.
Local Listings | | FluidAdvertising1 -
Best Practices For Local SEO For A Nation Wide Property Company?
Hi There, I've recently acquired a client that sells property all over the country (South Africa). It's in their best interests to rank well for localised keywords relating to the areas they have listed properties in. eg. Property for sale in example suburb/town/province. The project has a number of challenges which I'd appreciate any suggestions for The site acts as an aggregator for numerous partner property agents and, as s such, has a lot of duplicate content on it The company only has offices in one city. It handles online bookings which it then passes to its partner agencies - this presents me with a problem of creating listings in the areas I need to rank for I cannot list the actual addresses of properties Your thoughts and advice would be seriously appreciated.
Local Listings | | KJDMedia1 -
Local Listings SEO: Which multi-location retailers are doing a super job with local listings? I'm also interested in finding retailers who are using schema.org microdata format to structure their store-level data.
Do you know of any enterprise level restaurant or retail chains that are doing a great job with their local listings content? Just looking for some links/examples of best practice executions. Â Also, I'm very interested in finding retailers or other multi-location businesses that are using schema.org microdata format to structure their local store location data.
Local Listings | | SeeMore2