I want to show you something that really demonstrates the challenge that you have with local search engine optimization. Google bases the Maps Pack, which are the maps that pop up when you do a Google search, on where the searcher is actually searching from. I want to show you a perfect example of how your ranking can vary, depending on where someone searches from.
I found this really cool tool called Local Falcon. What’s cool about it is you can put a business in, and it’ll tell you exactly where they rank depending on where you search. I found a random criminal defense lawyer, Mark A. Joseph, PA. He’s a criminal defense lawyer in Tampa. He’s, actually in Temple Terrace, but I want to use him as an example.
Using Local Falcon To Find Your Local Rankings
We’re going to enter his information in there. You can see he’s located right in this particular area. This tool is going to search from different locations, all within one kilometer apart from each other. But you can see how he ranks depending on where you search from.
You can see in the middle, he’s getting good, and now when we get a little farther away from where he’s located, he’s ranking #5, #4, #4, #6, #5, #6. You can see he’s located right here, and he’s all green. He’s #1, #1, #2. Basically, the farther away he is, his rankings drop, which is a very good indication of how things are going with Google.
Right around the center, he’s holding strong, but you can see on the outskirts, he starts dropping a little bit. You can see how searcher location and searcher proximity have a direct impact on your actual rankings.
I’d be very interested to know if there are more attorneys focused in these areas over here, just because of the fact that he’s #3 here, but he’s #9 further away. This is the type of fluctuation that you get when you’re dealing with Google.
Try This Tool Today!
If you want to try this tool, it’s called LocalFalcon.com. I think you can do a 3×3 map for free. It gives you a good indication of where you’re ranking and, where you’re showing up, and where you’re not showing up.
Increasing Your Location Relevance
One thing that we found works for increasing the relevancy of your location and showing up for more locations is if you get links from local organizations.
I put out a video a little while ago talking about how to get links from local sports organizations, like youth baseball, soccer, basketball, football, etc. You can get those organizations to link to you by contacting them and making a donation and then showing up in the sponsorship section of their website.
The other thing that I’ve heard works, that I’ve been testing, and we don’t have definitive data on this yet, but I’ve been hearing some information about putting a keyword in your actual business name for your Google My Business Listing.
I know technically you’re not supposed to do this, but we’ve been seeing it working well for a lot of different people. Google says not to do it, but they’re still rewarding the businesses that are doing it.
That’s something else that I have heard increases your radius and kind of removes a little bit of the proximity to the searcher effect on your listing.
