Is There Software That Can Do This?

[chadisa]

Hey guys/gals,

I'm new here so no shock that my first post is a question and I am hoping I have posted this question in the correct section of the forum.

Does anyone know of a tool/software that can tell you if a certain search term/keyword will produce a maps listing in the search results? I know Chad Kimball had one a long time ago but I am not sure if it still works.

The root of my question is I don't know what keywords to specifically target for my clients' GMB profiles. I don't believe a keyword phrase that currently doesn't show any GMB's in the search results will all of sudden start showing one because I have "optimized" for that keyword for my client, right?

I hope that all made sense and I thank you guys for taking the time out to point me in the right direction.

 

[gooner]

Semrush or hRefs will give you that information.

 

[Linda Buquet]

I believe Chadisa is talking about Local Pack listings and I don't think those 2 do it.

 

[chadisa]

I believe Chadisa is talking about Local Pack listings and I don't think those 2 do it.

Yeah exactly. I just want to run a list of keywords through something and it will tell me if it produces a maps listing. I don't want to focus on keywords for local that don't produce a maps listing.

For example: a few months ago the term "apartments Malvern" produced a maps listing, but no longer does. But if you just search "apartments" it produces a maps listing of apartments that are close to my location.

The real question I guess I have is how do you decide which keywords to focus on for local SEO/maps, etc?

 

[Myles Anderson]

We recently added this feature to our Google Local Wizard reports.

You ate limited to just 5 keywords per report and you also get a lot of other SEO benchmark info in this report.

In January/Feb we will be adding this feature into our Rank Checker reports as well as localised keyword volumes.

I'm happy to answer any questions about this. And sorry for the self promotion but i thought it was relevant

 

[James Watt]

Moz keyword explorer has that feature, or at least it did last Summer when I was using the tool for a while. You could dump in a bunch of keywords, and pull out the ones that have the 3-pack as I recall, it'd be worth trying it out at least.

 

[chadisa]

We recently added this feature to our Google Local Wizard reports.

You ate limited to just 5 keywords per report and you also get a lot of other SEO benchmark info in this report.

In January/Feb we will be adding this feature into our Rank Checker reports as well as localised keyword volumes.

I'm happy to answer any questions about this. And sorry for the self promotion but i thought it was relevant

Myles I have been a happy customer of BrightLocal for a long time and I never noticed that feature until just now (I had to log into my account to see if I could find where you were talking about).

Thank you SO much!

 

[JoshuaMackens]

The root of my question is I don't know what keywords to specifically target for my clients' GMB profiles. I don't believe a keyword phrase that currently doesn't show any GMB's in the search results will all of sudden start showing one because I have "optimized" for that keyword for my client, right?

Sounds like you found the tool you need.

As for which keywords are likely to show the 3 pack, they will be high volume keywords, obvious keywords with local intent, or a combination of the two.

For example, "chiropractor" will always show a 3 pack listing but "back pain" may not. Chiropractor has high volume with an obvious local intent. Back pain has high volume but may not be inherently local, even if you add the city into the search.

Also, maybe a new industry has opened up, like maybe Crossfit back in the day before it became what it is now. The search "Crossfit gym" didn't have a high volume even though it is obviously local (or is to us humans anyway). Google didn't have enough GMB data to return for it so it wouldn't show the 3 pack.

So, if the keyword is obviously local, has a high enough volume, or both, it's probably going to show for the 3 pack.

Also, there's the case where if Google learns that when people type in a certain query, they're looking for local results, they may switch up their results based on re-searchers or bounce rate. For example, a mass subset of users searches for "widget a" and gets a set of search results but then immediately re-searches "widget a tullahoma" and finds what they are looking for (doesn't bounce). Eventually, with enough data, the re-search signals to Google that they aren't showing relevant queries. They need to start showing local queries as the data shows that's what people are looking for. So they roll over the SERP to match searcher intent.

That's a fairly intense answer. But probably the simplest answer is just because you optimize for a keyword, no, that doesn't mean a map pack will appear with you in it. But your website could appear #1 for that keyword if you optimize the website for that keyword, which is what you want anyway, correct? To be at the top? Either way, whether a map pack shows up or not, you win.

 

[James Watt]

Joshua's got the answer for the question behind the question there. All the keywords you're finding matter, you shouldn't discount one just because it doesn't have a 3-pack. Just means that you'll need to target those organically instead.

I've also found it's unlikely that you'll rank well for a wide range of 3-pack keywords. Wedding Photographers that also do product photography will need to pick one to focus on for their GMB. The main things you can do to influence it are just the categories and the page on the site you link to anyway. Your main GMB keyword is usually going to be fairly obvious, unless, as Joshua said, it's a new or strange industry.

 

[chadisa]

Guys thank you so much for these well thought out responses. This was my first experience with Local Search Forum and it was top notch. Thanks again.

 

[freerunr]

We recently added this feature to our Google Local Wizard reports.

Also, maybe a new industry has opened up, like maybe Crossfit back in the day before it became what it is now. The search "Crossfit gym" didn't have a high volume even though it is obviously local (or is to us humans anyway). Google didn't have enough GMB data to return for it so it wouldn't show the 3 pack.

@Myles, I haven't used any of your tools in over a year, so just out of pure curiosity, in light of Mr. Mackens' comment about new industries, does your feature account for this? For example, something I search for today may not give a 3-pack, but that same search 6 months from now, and from then on, does. I'm assuming you keep a good beat on such things

 

[50Bubbles]

I was going to suggest Bright Local but of course Myles beat me to the punch. However, I'd suggest a Bright Local standard ranking report instead of the GMB report. It will show Google MAPS listings as they show up in organic search. You can use 100 keywords per report and listings that produce a 3pack show up in Organic as "Loc" vs. Org.

For keyword research, choose a website (not necessarily your clients) that is prominent already on Google MAPs and Organic and you'll see listings for "loc" when they show up in the threepac.

 

[chadkimball]

Hey its Chad Kimball, noticed this post re: our google maps software, Yes we actually had to remove that feature from our software because we offer the software for free and it was really expensive to keep up with constantly changing the tool to scrape google's results to identify map packs...