Local SEO Myths That Won't Die

[JoyHawkins]

I wrote an article on Search Engine Land that just published that highlights the top myths I don't stop hearing in this industry. I'd love to hear what you guys hear most and if there are other common myths that I didn't list?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Think you covered it Joy.

Amazing how often most of them still come up!

 

[UndergroundSEO]

Great article

 

[PaulSteinbrueck]

Excellent article, Joy! I'm a bit surprised and disappointed by Myth 3: Your service area impacts where you rank. If service areas don't affect search rankings and Google determines location rankings based on the address, then I don't understand why Google even has the service area "feature." What's the point?

A former client of mine acquired the rights to a specific geographic region of a carpet cleaning franchise. He ran the business from his home which was not in that territory. This is a perfect example of where Google could provide better results by using proximity to the service area rather than proximity to the client's office. Wouldn't you agree?

Just to be clear, I'm not saying you're wrong about the myth. I don't really know. Just saying I think the service area should impact where a business ranks.

 

[JoyHawkins]

I agree that it would make more sense and I'm not sure why Google has it that way. I think it's likely that they do because they don't really like it to be easy for a business owner to manipulate ranking. If they had the service area dictate where it ranked, I could see a million more spam listings taking advantage of this. They ruin it for all of us