Local search vs. Organic Listings
-
Hi ~ I was interested to see if anyone feels there might be an advantage to keeping a business out of Google's Local Search listing area or at least trying to keep it out of the 7-pack display? It seems to me that sites who are not listed in the 7-pack can often be ranked above the maps/7-pack area in the regular organic listings.
Also, is there anyway for a homepage to be listed on the 1st page in both the local search and organic listings? Thanks!
-
With respect to local search, Google is providing the most relevant search results relative to location. SO, when considering optimizing for local vs organic, wouldn’t the correct answer be that it depends on the type of business? For example, in a moderately sized metro area like Concord, California, a sandwich shop should weigh heavily in favor of doing everything they can to rank locally because Google will serve up the most local results when people are looking for a sandwich shop (in the immediate area). A law firm, however, certainly wants clients who are close to their office, BUT they can also take clients throughout the city. So if they are optimized for local search, at the expense of organic, wouldn’t they be losing out all of the other prospective clients who search outside of the “local” (immediate) area that Google deems close to the law office? Very few will drive across Concord to get a sandwich (unless it’s Togo’s….I LOVE Togo’s! ;-), but many will make the drive for an attorney if they feel that attorney is the best fit for their complex legal matter.
I have been holding off doing local search optimization for this reason for my law firm clients. They rank very strong for vanity searches, while the “7 pack” are underneath, competing with each other all bundled together. Plus, as I suspect and hopefully someone can confirm, as with the example above, my clients show strong wherever the searcher’s location is throughout Concord, and the others (7 pack) show in the immediate proximity of where the inquiry was made. Is that a fair /correct statement?
-
Hi Billy,
I agree with the comments members have left to the tune of the many variables in display. Your search, for example, may show you 2 organic listings followed by 7 local listings followed by several more organic listings, but your client's same search could be showing him a different display. If your business meets guidelines for local inclusion, then I would always recommend participation to the fullest.
Regarding a double local/organic listing, this is a topic that comes and goes. In the past, it was common for dominant businesses to have multiple page one rankings, but around the time of the Venice Update, this became very rare. This was followed by some Local SEOs experimenting with techniques that did sometimes enable them to obtain double page 1 rankings:
http://www.nightlitemedia.com/2012/05/organic-and-google-places-ranking-on-page-1/
These days, I most commonly see double rankings for searches that relate to geographic areas and/or industries where there is low competition. For example, a bakery in a rural area with few or no other local choices may get multiple rankings on page 1, including both local and organic spots. Check out the 2 posts I've linked to for theories on being able to do this is more competitive verticals, though.
End of the day, though, yes, you are correct that one of Google's common displays at this time puts 1-2 organic listings above the local pack of listings, but I would not see this as a reason not to participate in Local if your business model is eligible.
-
It really varies as searches are tailored for the user more and more, consequentially ranking has become less of a horn tooter because when someone tells me they rank for such and such I ask "where do rank and for whom?" Cause you may not rank for me the same way. I wouldn't shy away from Local as Semantic Search is fast becoming Hyper-Local unless there was an immense amount of data supporting otherwise.
-
That really depends on that area, and how many people outwith the local area search for this keyword.
if your google location is set in your area, ( mine is glasgow ) then i get the snippet of 7 sites, however if i set my location to edinburgh and search for my keyword in glasgow, then no google places comes up and your site is likely to be in a different position.
I actually have a client who ranks middle of google places within glasgow, and top of page 1, for their keyword if you search from outwith glasgow.
This has been the case for a few months now, it is slightly odd.
I can see your point, however depending on the area, and the visitors, who potentially could search for you and not be in your area then you would be holding back your website, which means you would possible hamper your rankings for someone who searches for your products or services outwith your local area.
Just thought that would be worth mentioning.
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
-
404 vs 410 Across Search Engines
We are removing a large number of URLs permanently. We care about rankings for search engines other than Google such as Yahoo-Bing, who don't even list https status 410 code option: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/bingmaps/spatial-data-services/status-codes-and-error-handling Does anyone know how search engines other than Google handle 410 vs 404 status? For pages permanently being removed John Mueller at Google has stated "From our point of view, in the mid term/long term, a 404 is the same as a 410 for us. So in both of these cases, we drop those URLs from our index. We generally reduce crawling a little bit of those URLs so that we don’t spend too much time crawling things that we know don’t exist. The subtle difference here is that a 410 will sometimes fall out a little bit faster than a 404. But usually, we’re talking on the order of a couple days or so. So if you’re just removing content naturally, then that’s perfectly fine to use either one." Any information or thoughts? Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | sb10300 -
Only The Google Plus URL Appearing In Organic Search (No Images or Info)
Just a quick one, when I search for my brand in Google I see my normal listing but the Google Plus URL is appearing on the right hand side as a link on it's own. I see that other brands have there company info pulled in here. Is there anything I can do to make it appear like other brands have it, (with the images, text, etc.)? Thanks,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | the-gate-films0 -
Stock lists - follow of nofollow?
a bit of a catch 22 position here that i could use some advice on please! We look after a few Car dealership sites that have daily (some 3 times a day) stock feeds that add and remove cars form the site, which in turn removes/creates pages for each vehicle. We all know how much search engines like sites that have content that is updated regularly but the frequency it happens on our sites means we are left with lots of indexed pages that are no longer there. now my question is should i nofollow/disallow robots on all the pages that are for the details of the vehicles meaning the list pages will still be updated daily for "new content" or allow google to index everything and manage the errors to redirect to relevant pages? is there a "best practice" way to do this or is it really personal preference?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ben_dpp0 -
Content Marketing for Local Businesses
Hey guys! As someone who works with a number of local businesses (with localized target markets) I find that developing ideas for content marketing can be VERY difficult. I like the idea of creating local guides, local event info etc, but what other ways can we create content for a localized target market? For example: I have an OBGYN client that we'd love to create content for that is related to their niche (women's health), but don't want to promote or create content for national audience. That would seem incredibly wasteful. Would love to hear ideas on how to create targeted content for a local audience! Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | RickyShockley0 -
Alternative links in the search results.
Hello, This is a short question Please look at this SERP screenshot: http://imgur.com/1EMen Who do they get the other links under their results. Cornel
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Cornel_Ilea0 -
Local SEO Best Practices
Hello Everyone, I'm new to SEOmoz, I'm looking to use this as a tool to really help me, and evenually I can help others. I am an Web Developer with some online marketing experience. I did Local SEO a Few Years ago, and things have really changed since then. I know this Panda and Penguin update really is putting a hurting on the directory submission. Google no longer has 'Citations" on their places page, and many other changes. With that being said, what are some best practices for Local SEO? I am a propeller head by nature, but am also very creative when I need to be. I have potental sites to market, anywhere from Holistic Medical Doctors, Plastic Surgeons Community Blogs, and Auto Repair Shops, Law firms (to give you some perspectic) I also read Danny Dover's Book, to learn some more about SEO, the one thing that is unclear is how to acquire quality links I would really appreciate any perspective on this, every little thing helps Zach Russell
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ZacharyRussell0 -
Flat vs. subdomain web structure
I am building a site which sells a product in 50 states and in each state we will have independt partners. From an SEO perspective, what are the tradeoffs in using a single domain vs. having each state a subdomain? Each state also has varying regulatory issues that are specific to that state.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | uwaim20120 -
.co vs .com
hello Mozzers. question - does it make a big difference between having a .co vs a .com . I am tryign to get a URL, with the actual keywords in the URL . for example blackboots.com/ I see that the .com is taken but the .co is available, is it a good idea to buy it? also what about hyphens in urls - do they hurt or help if you actually have the keywords in the url. thanks much - you rock, V
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | vijayvasu0