Deciphering 'Near Me' Search Ranking Discrepancies: Insights Needed

[HoosierBuff]

Does anyone have any insight into the traditional organic results for "near me" searches?

I can't seem to discern what is driving some success for some sites and another others.

For most sites, they will rank well in their home zip code for a near me search, but, you start to spread out in the area around them (getting further away, and less "near") and they disappear. . . . and that makes sense.

However, i often see competitors sustaining their rankings across the region, even far away from their home zip code.

I have tried a few different things - I added more local content, I went back and added the city state to h1's and title tags, but, to no avail.

I'm guessing it's just links?

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Since the traditional organic results are affected by proximity to a lesser degree than the local pack results, we have found that it's more about onsite optimization. For instance, explicitly adding in the word near me and similar variations seems to help in a significant way.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

You have me thinking that this study should be repeated with a near me keyword variation thrown in there How Proximity Impacts Localized Google Organic Results for Law Firms - Sterling Sky Inc

 

[bdlowery]

Writing "near me" is very awkward and unnatural when writing city page content. Is "near you" considered the same thing in googles eyes? "Car repair near you in Atlanta", etc.

 

[Blueviolet38]

It's been my experience that SABs rank worse for 'near me' searches. Any evidence of this?

 

[HoosierBuff]

Thanks Colan - I have added the awkward "Looking for a Roofer Near Me" text as an H2 to the home page, We will see what that does.

The more I have researched it, for the searches I'm doing "Roofer near me" in Springfield, MO, the 3 local roofers that appear on the first page all seem to have a Chamber of Commerce, or HBA link (while my client doesn't). I suspect that this may be the clue that Google is looking for to establish "near".

 

[Blueviolet38]

One of our client's rank for organic near-me terms is fluctuating at the moment. The actual results don't seem to make a lot of sense. Is anyone else seeing fluctuations?