Answers to 40 ADVANCED Local Search Questions

[Linda Buquet]

Sharing below MAJOR, advanced info you guys need to read and bookmark. Things like how to rank in surrounding cities and pretty intense on-site optimization tips.

I would def consider this weekend reading. It's something you are going to want to dig into and really try to absorb. TONS OF GOLD NUGGETS!

Below I share just one of the advanced answer Mike Ramsey gives over at SEOmoz. I share it because it's a question I've had a hard time answering and he does it so well.

40 Important Local Search Questions Answered | SEOmoz

6. Why in your opinion do you find different Google + Local search rankings for keyword phrases with words ordered differently for example "Atlanta handyman" vs. "handyman Atlanta" and then without geographical modifiers? I've got clients where these ranking very greatly.

This is just my opinion, but I think each word in a query carries a certain weight based off positioning, regional vs global data, or a bazillion other factors that Google could take into account. A website would have a different relevance score for all three of the examples you showed above. Maybe one site is well optimized for Seattle and partly optimized for Pizza. They rank better on "Seattle pizza" than "pizza Seattle" because the weight is on the first word searched. If just "pizza" is typed, Seattle wasn't in the search query, and Google determines there is local intent, then they might use a precise location of the search compared to the exact center of Seattle. This would change the results yet again.

I only had time to skim and I'm going to dig in and re-read this weekend.

Thanks Mike, this post ROCKS!

What were your fav take-aways???

 

[Linda Buquet]

Bumping this back up because it's INTENSELY good info.

If you missed it you really need to read the whole thing. Very advanced!

I also just made it a sticky. It's THAT good!

 

[MiriamEllis]

Agree, this is a truly super post. I was so excited to see it come through SEOmoz. Guys, if you haven't read this, bookmark it and check it out over the weekend, as Linda says.

 

[David Deering]

Wow, I don't know how I missed that, but thanks for bumping it back up, Linda. Looks like very powerful stuff.

 

[Former Member]

This is great stuff! Just lit a fire under me to start building out city landing pages with services per city landing pages. whew.. lots of work ahead