Local Searches done from outside of local area better than searches from within local area
-
Here's a strange one:
I am working on a site for a local business and targeting local searches. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.
Various keyword position tools show the site ranking very well for searches like "Anytown Widget Store".
Doing the same Google search from a browser in Anytown, the site shows up much lower. So I tried changing the location in Google to other cities, using a variety of browsers and it comes up much higher out of town than in town.
I have seen plenty of geographic discrepancies before, but usually they went the other way - searches from the actual local area did slightly better than the same searches done elsewhere, which would make sense.
Any thoughts on why this would happen?
-
I am using results from a variety of "location-neutral" keyword position trackers like Rank Tracker, SEObook, and of course SEOMoz among others, and comparing them to multiple non-logged in browsers on multiple devices that area actually in the Anytown area. The discrepancies between the various trackers are minor and I would attribute those to datacenter differences.
I considered the personalization possibility, but usually that works in the other direction, unless Google is now using a "you already looked at this enough and we are showing you something else to broaden your horizons" calculation.
I used "500 miles" kind of generically. I tried entering all sort of different locations into the Google settings and it seems the closer I got to Anytown, the lower the ranking went.
I am thinking it is something that recently changed in the way Google handles local search. My theory is that within a certain radius of the specified location, the algorithm is a little different. Once outside of a certain radius, traditional non-localized algorithms kick in so a site optimized for Anytown Widgets might rank a little better than it would when google sees that the searcher is actually in Anytown. I am going to take a closer look at some other local SEO projects and see if anything similar is happening, then see if I can find some common traits.
Not a huge issue as it is a relatively minor drop for some keywords that aren't high volume. But I am a little obsessive and curious. I was hoping someone would chime in with some info about a documented change in Google's local search. I know Places has been evolving a little more lately. Every time I look a my own listing it looks different.
Thanks again.
-
Two things come to mind:
a) are you searching in- and outsinde of Anytown with completely different computers from different IPs etc? Personalization could skew your results.
b) I know, that the datacenter you are queriyng plays a role. For example: I have 2 different webbased services tracking keywords for a local service: seomoz and a german based company called keywordmonitor.de. Both have discrepancies for certain "Service in Anytown" results, stemming from the fact that there are 2 different datacenters involved. You said "500 miles away" so this might be the reason.
PM me if you want to talk about it without divulging your client.
BTW, the ultimate seo advice applies: you need more and/or better links
-
Thanks for the reply.
I forgot to mention that this particular site ranked higher in the local local searches previously. The out of town searches are about where they all used to be, while the same searches done locally have dropped. Other keywords - some with "Anytown" and some not specific to locality - have mostly improved when searched locally or from elsewhere.
As for local links, the local link profile is equal to or better than the sites that now rank higher. Regional focus is pretty good too.
The puzzling thing is that searching for "Anytown widgets" from 500 miles away shows great results, while searching the same thing while actually in "Anytown" shows the site much lower. The only thing I could think of is maybe content-wise it looks like it is from Anytown, so searching from elsewhere it comes up very nicely. When searching from the Anytown area, maybe some sort of local search filtering kicks in and brings other sites into the mix a little more and they may be slightly more locally linked or use "Anytown" in their content more.
I know it is hard to diagnose without knowing the site so thanks. I was hoping for one of those "Google just rolled out a new local search product" answers. A little frustrating because I have an otherwise near 100% success rate for local SEO. I can't tell a client "Yes I know it looks like you are number 12 for Anytown Widgets, but people on the other side of the country see you as the #1 seller of widgets in Anytown".
-
Assuming that the offered service of this store has a strong regional focus I's say you need more local links (Links google can attribute to Anytown).
Potential sources could be:
- Businesspartners in Anytown
- Customers in Anytown
- If they do charity / support a club -> their pages
- Local portals (i.e. Anytown-news.tld)
- Local exposure in the media
- Local Bloggers
Also check your Google business page, see if the store is in pages like yelp / qype etc. Get local ratings and so on.
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
-
Search queries results Wrong
Hey there, My website shows Wrong Search Queries in Google Search Console, Also Shows URLS which are not there in my website, Which Shows in crawl Errors. here i have attached Screenshot . http://prntscr.com/egzl88 Please Help me out how i can Deindex This type of URLs From Google index, & make My main pages crawl First in Google Search. because of this my website Ranking Also lost, Please any Expert can help out.. Thanx in advance.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | pooja.verify030 -
301 redirect to search results page?
Hi - we just launched our redesigned website. On the previous site, we had multiple .html pages that contained links to supporting pdf documentation. On this new site, we no longer have those .html landing pages containing the links. The question came up, should we do a search on our site to gather a single link that contains all pdf links from the previous site, and set up a redirect? It's my understanding that you wouldn't want google to index a search results page on your website. Example: old site had the link http://www.oldsite.com/technical-documents.html new site, to see those same links would be like: http://www.newsite.com/resources/search?View+Results=&f[]=categories%3A196
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Jenny10 -
Why differents browsers return different search results?
Hi everyone, I don't understand the reason why if I delete cookies, chronology, set anonymous way surfing in Chorme and Safari, I have different results on Google. I tried it from the same pc and at the same time. Searching in google the query "vangogh" the internet site "www.vangogh-creative.it" is shown in the first page in Chrome but not in Safari. I asked in Google webmaster forum, but nobody seems to know the reason of this behavior. Can anyone help me? Thanks in advance. Massimiliano
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | vanGoGh-creative0 -
Natural Fluctuation in Search Traffic
This is going to sound like a weird question... I'm curious to know whether there is a natural fluctuation in the actual number of searches being made online each week. It would be great to relate this to the performance of my own organic traffic each week. For example, if organic search traffic is down 10% week on week, is that because search in general is down 10%? Has anybody ever looking into this?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ausmed0 -
Where is the best place to put a sitemap for a site with local content?
I have a simple site that has cities as subdirectories (so URL is root/cityname). All of my content is localized for the city. My "root" page simply links to other cities. I very specifically want to rank for "topic" pages for each city and I'm trying to figure out where to put the sitemap so Google crawls everything most efficiently. I'm debating the following options, which one is better? Put the sitemap on the footer of "root" and link to all popular pages across cities. The advantage here is obviously that the links are one less click away from root. Put the sitemap on the footer of "city root" (e.g. root/cityname) and include all topics for that city. This is how Yelp does it. The advantage here is that the content is "localized" but the disadvantage is it's further away from the root. Put the sitemap on the footer of "city root" and include all topics across all cities. That way wherever Google comes into the site they'll be close to all topics I want to rank for. Thoughts? Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | jcgoodrich0 -
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 -
Ranking locally without local keywords in title?
I have a website that targets national keywords. I would like to be able to rank locally for these keywords as well without having the city in the title. What is the best strategy for this?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | cprodigy290 -
Canonical Tags & Search Bots
Does anyone know for sure if search engine bots still crawl links on a page whose canonical tags are set to a different page? So in short, would it be similar to a no-index follow? Thanks! -Margarita
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MargaritaS0