Testing local pack rankings as if searched from another neighborhood of the city

[leves]

Ive got a company's site ranking in the top 3 local pack for its "industry term + city" (eg. locksmith in london) (not the actual term)

I happen to be located near to the company so my guess is when i search for "industry term + city" im getting a skewed search.

This is ok, as it shows local people searching for the business will be able to find it, but the business works city wide, so we also want it to rank there.

Ive done some testing using a VPN service and when searching My Location whilst connected to the VPN i can try and get a feeling for where google will think i am.

It seems when i place myself outside of the city and do the same search the company shows up in the top 3 local pack, but my guess is if i was in another neighborhood of the city the local skew would change again, and place someone who is geographicly closer to the searcher above us, thus knocking us out of the 3 pack.

Is there a better way to tell if this is happening than using a VPN and checking my VPN's location using My Location ?

 

[JacobMaslow]

Re: Testing local packing rankings as if searched from another neighborhood of the ci

I would recommend this new tool from Bright local

https://www.brightlocal.com/local-search-results-checker/

Searching KW + city doesnt make sense for large cities. With the above tool, you can use the zip code of the office.

Also if you use KW + city, you are artificially boosting anything with the city/keyword in the URL.

 

[willieaames]

Re: Testing local packing rankings as if searched from another neighborhood of the ci

Same happened to me, when i was connected to malaysian vpn, my business listing shown in KL (as number 6) but when i changed my IP to the UK, it was at number 9 :/

 

[JacobMaslow]

Re: Testing local packing rankings as if searched from another neighborhood of the ci

Another issue is that most searchers are more likely to enter without a Geo modifier.

You can use tools such as Google Adwords tool for your area.

Using a Geo modifier can artificially inflate a EMD or even partial EMD.

If there is a site kalamazoolocksmith and you search "locksmith kalamazoo" they are more likely to show up higher in that search than a search without modifiers.

People specifically looking for their website are likely to enter kalamazoolocksmith or with a space into their browsers. So if that site isnt thin and has some links, it is likely to do much better for that narrow set of keywords.

 

[Eric Rohrback]

Re: Testing local packing rankings as if searched from another neighborhood of the ci

I would recommend sticking to Bright Local's tool. The alternative is modifying the URL to remove personalization and setting the location code parameter (http://yoast-mercury.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2007/07/google-url-parameters.pdf). It's easier to use Bright Local's tool since they already coded the output for you

 

[JacobMaslow]

Re: Testing local packing rankings as if searched from another neighborhood of the ci

I second Eric. Bright Local's tool is quick, free and convenient. Additionally they added a lot more proxies recently.

I would recommend sticking to Bright Local's tool. The alternative is modifying the URL to remove personalization and setting the location code parameter (http://yoast-mercury.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2007/07/google-url-parameters.pdf). It's easier to use Bright Local's tool since they already coded the output for you

 

[JoshuaMackens]

Re: Testing local packing rankings as if searched from another neighborhood of the ci

Hey Jacob, you mentioned using zip codes should improve ranking accuracy. Did you mean in the search bar along with the keyword or setting the Google search location by zip code?