What’s this about Google Near Me?
Have you seen the picture of the Denver business with “near me” in its name?
The lengths people will go to in order to rank for “near me” searches.
Well, they will be very annoyed by this piece, from TWIS SEO News & Updates w/e 01 September 2017.
It’s all about how Google stats show usage of “near me” and other location modifiers is dropping proportionally vs bare searches.
Now, back to optimising Aaaaardvaaaark Plumbers for the new world of search.
#SEO #SEONews #LocalSEO #GoogleLocal #KeywordResearch #MobileSearch
Google Says “Near Me” Near Dead
Summary:
- According to a recent Think With Google piece, users have started to drop “location modifiers” when doing local searches on mobile.
- The implication may be that webmasters no longer need to use location terms, or location identifiers in their links, text, HTML and mentions.
- Clearly, that is silly. Overall searches have grown, but “near me” searches have not increased at the same rate.
- Google is clearly getting better at delivering localised results tailored to locations, hence some users no longer feel the need to include a location modifier in their search.
- It could also be that users don’t see the need to state locations when using voice search, or search generated from maps.
Actions to take:
- Keep on using location modifiers in your HTML, text, mentions, links.
- Use them roughly how people search, eg suburb, or city, area, or street.
- Vary the modifiers.
- Avoid using “near me”. That is silly.
- Click here to contact me to discuss how to get found by users looking for services like yours.
Discussion:
There’s data, data and then some more data. These little think pieces from Google are always snippets of information backed up by cherry-picked information which tells half the tale, but doesn’t always tell all the tale. Just like all stats then.
It’s really interesting that these types of searches have now proportionally less usage of “near me” type modifiers, but also interesting that Google is more determined to serve a generic query with location based results (when on mobile).
I am a little surprised that Google is still using the 1/3 of mobile search has a location intent stat. That was first used in about 2011. I find it hard to believe it hasn’t changed in the intervening years. It is possible that as mobile usage has grown, the stats have stayed the same, but I can’t quite picture the growth stats needed to make it so.
More info:
Mobile First is NOT Mobile Friendly
TL;DR
- Oooh, stats, much excitement.
- Some searches are still being done, but not in as proportionally high numbers as before.
- A business in Denver may be unhappy soon.
- Read The State of SEO in mid-2017.
- Read about how Google’s Mobile First Index is not Mobile Friendly.
- Finally, get your content ranking well on Google by starting to understand Find Crawl Index.
Thanks for reading. If you would like to discuss what these changes mean for your web property, or would like to know how to implement them, please feel free to contact me.
