Local search (Internet)

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Local search is the use of specialized Internet search engines that allow users to submit geographically constrained searches against a structured database of local business listings. Typical local search queries include not only information about "what" the site visitor is searching for (such as keywords, a business category, or the name of a consumer product) but also "where" information, such as a street address, city name, postal code, or geographic coordinates like latitude and longitude. Examples of local searches include "Hong Kong hotels", "Manhattan restaurants", and "Dublin car rental". Local searches exhibit explicit or implicit local intent. [1] A search that includes a location modifier, such as "Bellevue, WA" or "14th arrondissement", is an explicit local search. A search that references a product or service that is typically consumed locally, such as "restaurant" or "nail salon", is an implicit local search.

Contents

Local searches on Google Search typically return organic results prefaced with a 'local 3-pack', a list of three local results. More local results can be obtained by clicking on “more places” under the 3-pack. The list of results one obtains is also called the Local Finder. [2]

Search engines and directories are primarily supported by advertising from businesses that wish to be prominently featured when users search for specific products and services in specific locations. Google for instance, has developed local inventory ads and features ads in the local pack. [3] Local search advertising can be highly effective because it allows ads to be targeted very precisely to the search terms and location provided by the user.

Evolution

Local search is the natural evolution of traditional offline advertising, typically distributed by newspaper publishers and TV and radio broadcasters, to the Web. Historically, consumers relied on local newspapers and local TV and radio stations to find local products and services. With the advent of the Web, consumers are increasingly using search engines to find these local products and services online. In recent years, the number of local searches online has grown rapidly while off-line information searches, such as print Yellow Page lookups, have declined. [4] As a natural consequence of this shift in consumer behavior, local product, and service providers are slowly shifting their advertising investments from traditional off-line media to local search engines.

Of directories, search engines and maps

One can search for local information via search engines. These often return local search results from directories [5] and maps. Google for instance, will present results from its directory (called Google Business Profile) in Google Maps and also in the search engine results pages [6] in the form of a local pack. One can also look for local information by searching Apple Maps [7] Search engines offer local businesses the possibility to upload their business data to their respective local search databases. [8]

Other local search engines adjunct to major web search portals include general Windows Live Local, Yahoo! Local, and ask.com's AskCity. Yahoo!, for example, separates its local search engine features into Yahoo! Local and Yahoo! Maps, the former being focused on business data and correlating it with web data, the latter focused primarily on the map features (e.g. directions, larger map, navigation).

Local search, like ordinary search, can be applied in two ways. As John Battelle coined it in his book "The Search," search can be either recovery search or discovery search.

This perfect search also has perfect recall – it knows what you’ve seen, and can discern between a journey of discovery – where you want to find something new – and recovery – where you want to find something you’ve seen before.

This applies especially to local searches. Recovery search implies, for example, that a consumer knows who she is looking for (i.e., Main Street Pizza Parlor) but she does not know where they are, or needs their phone number. Discovery search implies that the searcher knows, for example, what she wants but not who she needs it from (i.e., pizza on Main Street in Springfield).

In February 2012, Google announced that they made 40 changes to their search algorithm, including one codenamed "Venice" which Google states will improve local search results by "relying more on the ranking of (Google's) main search results as a signal", [9] meaning local search will now rely more on organic SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages).

Local search results

Google can show a business's information in mobile or desktop google search results, or/and in mobile and desktop google maps results. [10] Local search results displayed by google often include a local pack, that currently displays three listings. [11]

Ranking factors

Major search engines have algorithms that determine which local businesses rank in local search. Primary factors that impact a local business's chance of appearing in local search are proper categorization in business directories, a business's name, address, and phone number (NAP) being crawlable on the website, and citations (mentions of the small business on other relevant websites like a chamber of commerce website). [12]

In 2016, a study [13] using statistical analysis assessed how and why businesses ranked in the local packs and identified positive correlations between local rankings and 100+ ranking factors. Although the study can’t replicate Google’s algorithm, it did deliver several interesting findings:

On December 2021's Vicinity Update[ citation needed ], Google announced on Twitter announced that it had updated its local search algorithm which "involved a rebalancing of various factors we consider in generating local search results." [14] It placed more importance on proximity as a ranking factor and decreased the significance of adding keywords in a business name on Google Business Profile.[ citation needed ]

Traditional local media companies, including newspaper publishers and television and radio broadcasters, are starting to add local search to their local websites to attract their share of local search traffic and advertising revenues in the markets they serve. These local media companies either develop their own technology or license "private label" or "white label" local search solutions from third-party local search solution providers. In either case, local media companies base their solution on business listing databases developed in-house or licensed from a third-party data publisher.

Local search that incorporates internal or external social signals could be considered social local search-driven. The first site to incorporate this type of search was Explore To Yellow Pages. Explore To uses Facebook Likes as one of the signals to increase the ranking of listings where other factors may be equal or almost equal. Typical ranking signals in local searches, such as keyword relevancy and distance from centroid can, therefore, be layered with these social signals to give a better crowdsourced experience for users. More recently, social media sites Facebook, Foursquare, LocalMate and Zappenin have become more directly involved in local search by updating their mobile apps with features to help people discover new businesses to visit.

Several providers experimented with providing local search for mobile devices, but on March 5, 2020, Google was the first to announce mobile-first indexing by default shifting the focus of optimization from desktop to mobile. [15] Some of these are location aware. In the United States, Google previously operated an experimental voice-based locative service (1-800-GOOG-411) but terminated the service in November, 2010. Many mobile web portals require the subscriber to download a small Java application, however, the recently added .mobi top-level domain has given impetus to the development of mobile-targeted search sites are based upon a standard mobile-specific XML protocol that all modern mobile browsers understand. The advantage of mobile responsive website development is that no software needs to be downloaded and installed, plus these sites may be designed to simultaneously provide conventional content to traditional PC users using automatic browser detection.

Electronic publishers (such as businesses or individuals) who would like information such as their name, address, phone number, website, business description and business hours to appear on local search engines have several options. The most reliable way to include accurate local business information is to start claiming business listings through Google's, Yahoo!'s, or Bings's respective local business centers.

Business listing information can also be distributed via the traditional Yellow Pages, electronic Yellow Page-style data aggregators, and search engine optimization services. Some search engines will pick up on web pages that contain regular street addresses displayed in machine-readable text (rather than a picture of text, which is more difficult to interpret). Web pages can also use geotagging techniques.

Google Business Profile

On May 30, 2012 Google launched Google+ Local, a simple way to discover and share local information featuring Zagat scores and recommendations from the people you trust on Google+. [16]

On June 11, 2014 Google launched Google Business Profile [17] [18] [19] which replaced Google+ Local. Google Business Profile has more features and connects with AdWords to make an all-in-one small business online management center.

Reviews on Google Business Profile can be written by anyone regardless of whether they have actually had experience with the business. It's not uncommon for less honorable "reputation management" companies to post fraudulent negative reviews and then call the business offering to remove the fake reviews for a fee. Google has a posted policy that states all reviews "should accurately represent the location in question. Where contributions distort the truth, we will remove content." In reality, the Google Business Profile support staff almost never removes fraudulent reviews and appears to be more interested in encouraging business owners to spend money on Adwords than in actually ensuring the accuracy of the Google Business Profile information.

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Google Scholar</span> Academic search service by Google

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User intent, otherwise known as query intent or search intent, is the identification and categorization of what a user online intended or wanted to find when they typed their search terms into an online web search engine for the purpose of search engine optimisation or conversion rate optimisation. Examples of user intent are fact-checking, comparison shopping or navigating to other websites.

Local search engine optimization is similar to (national) SEO in that it is also a process affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a web search engine's unpaid results often referred to as "natural", "organic", or "earned" results. In general, the higher ranked on the search results page and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine's users; these visitors can then be converted into customers. Local SEO, however, differs in that it is focused on optimizing a business's online presence so that its web pages will be displayed by search engines when users enter local searches for its products or services. Ranking for local search involves a similar process to general SEO but includes some specific elements to rank a business for local search.

References

  1. ↑ "How does Google's local algorithm work in 2016?". Search Engine Land. 2016-08-01. Retrieved 2017-04-07.
  2. ↑ "Study shows Google's Possum update changed 64% of local SERPs". Search Engine Land. 2016-11-03. Retrieved 2017-04-07.
  3. ↑ "Google Maps ad traffic steadily growing". Search Engine Land. 2017-03-30. Retrieved 2017-04-07.
  4. ↑ "Relying On Print Yellow Pages? Most Local Customers Turn To The Web!". Search Engine Land. 2008-10-22. Retrieved 2017-03-27.
  5. ↑ "Why "Barnacle SEO" Is Making A Big Comeback In Local". Search Engine Land. 2014-03-26. Retrieved 2017-04-13.
  6. ↑ "About Google My Business - Google My Business Help". support.google.com. Retrieved 2017-04-13.
  7. ↑ "5 Things Businesses Need To Know About Apple Maps Right Now". Search Engine Land. 2012-10-22. Retrieved 2017-04-13.
  8. ↑ "About Google My Business - Google My Business Help". support.google.com. Retrieved 2017-04-13.
  9. ↑ Search quality highlights: 40 changes for February, Google, February 27, 2012
  10. ↑ Google My Business Help. "How Google uses business information" . Retrieved February 25, 2017.{{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  11. ↑ Schwartz, Barry (August 7, 2015). "Google Updates The "Local Pack" Showing 3 Results Instead Of 7". Search Engine Land.
  12. ↑ "Citation Inconsistency Is No.1 Issue Affecting Local Ranking". searchengineland.com. 22 December 2014. Retrieved 2015-08-21.
  13. ↑ Shotland, Andrew (1 August 2016). "How does Google's local algorithm work in 2016?". Search Engine Land.
  14. ↑ @googlesearchc (2021-12-16). "Our November 2021 local search update has concluded. It began Nov 30 and ran through Dec 8. It involved a rebalancing of various factors we consider in generating local search results. General guidance for businesses remains the same as covered here: https://t.co/uyXFfmUEIR" (Tweet). Retrieved 2024-10-15– via Twitter.
  15. ↑ "Announcing mobile-first indexing for the whole web". Official Google Webmaster Central Blog. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  16. ↑ "Local—now with a dash of Zagat and a sprinkle of Google+". 30 May 2012.
  17. ↑ "New Google Small Business: help your business shine with Google My Business". Google Blog. 2014-06-11. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  18. ↑ "New "Google My Business" Simplifies Local Marketing For SMBs". Search Engine Land. 2014-06-11. Retrieved 2017-03-27.
  19. ↑ "Google My Business: A Visual Tour Of Google's New Tool For Local Businesses & Brands". Search Engine Land. 2014-06-11. Retrieved 2017-03-27.
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