Software Development Companies - Google Doesn't Treat Related Searches as Local

[JasonKhoo]

Hey guys,

I'm currently talking with a potential client who is a custom software development company. They have goals of ranking locally for searches related to their services like mobile app dev, software development, etc.

I've been combing through the different keyword possibilities and I'm finding that Google really doesn't treat most searches locally. There are a handful of keywords that will return the Local pack but the organic results are usually global companies that aren't local.

Right now I'm still researching, but it's really looking like all the related keywords and searches are not a local seo game and it doesn't look beneficial for this company to even try to go local. Searches that have geo modifiers of the city or county return zero to low (10 searches a month) volume.

Anyone have any experience with this industry and have any tips or feedback?

Jason Khoo

 

[Digitaldar]

@JasonKhoo I would agree that these searches are rarely local in nature - as a matter of fact I would not be surprised to see many companies from other countries come up.

What type of software do they specialize in? What sort of problem does their software solve for their clients? I wonder if they might get visible (locally) for a different set of queries?

Why not re-set your prospect's situations - you could get them visible for "app creation local city" but nobody searches for that and therefore they will not get any leads - which is theoretically why they want to be visible.

What if they were to allow you to determine the best way to generate leads from Google for their business?

 

[djbaxter]

I have had clients who specifically want a web guy from Canada. That would suggest there might be benefits from specifying locale, although I doubt that city is that important - country and province/state might be.,

 

[JasonKhoo]

@Digitaldar You bring up a great point. When I combed through Google Keyword Planner while filtering locally for the county the business is located in. I don't have enough information besides the fact that they do mobile app dev, web app dev and software dev, which when looking mostly does not return local results.

After spending the weekend reviewing, I've come to a similar conclusion:

1. We can go for these keywords with a geo modifier (city or county) understanding that the search volume isn't as pronounced, however we may still be able to get leads, just at a lower clip.

2. If the firm has the resources and bandwidth, we can compete for the non-local results. They surprisingly have different domains that are comparable in back link profile to those that are ranking already.

My game is to just go up there and be transparent with what we are seeing and they can decide if local SEO is still their game.

In terms of letting me decide what might be best, that's a good exercise that I haven't put much thought into.... worth thinking about

@djbaxter of all the ad groups that I reviewed, web design did return local. I'm going to go talk with the company to see if web is something they deem relevant enough to spend time trying to rank for.

Didn't think too much about state, but I'll look into that.

Thanks for the responses guys!

 

[JoshuaMackens]

I think you can go up there and just simply say, "Here's the search volume locally. Here's the search volume nationally. Which one do you want to target?" I bet that settles the issue.

If they're still insistent on the local piece, I would really try to talk them out of it. If you can't, I would try Adwords instead because you're more likely to get way more traction with Adwords than Local SEO landing pages for hundreds of cities in my opinion.

I think it would be silly for them to go local on this. Especially considering the big companies with a lot of money to pay, you know, the clients they want, won't be looking for a company that's the closest. They'll be looking for a company that is the best. So they'll search nationally.

The search volume and client quality just isn't there locally. Bad double down on that strategy.