A geek's blog about nerdy stuff, with an array of musings on SEO & web design, Barnsley based but internationally read. Honest.
Web / SEO services not appearing in Google Local Listings on SERPs
Just received an email from the great WebProNews which addresses an issue that we’ve been talking about as web geeks for a while now; why Google have stopped showing web / SEO services local business listings on their results pages.
A bit of a tidbit from the piece, which is a quote from the Google Maps help thread posted by a Googler named Joel H:
Today, we’re intentionally showing less local results for web design / SEO queries. For example, [web design sacramento] doesn’t display local listings today. We believe this is an accurate representation of user intent. In some cases, we do show local listings, however (as NSNA/php-er noted) [web design in bellingham]. I’m sure some of you feel we should be displaying local results for queries like [Web Design Vancouver]. I understand that concern, but based on our understanding of our users, we feel this is the right decision for now. I’ll give the usual disclaimer that we’re constantly working on improving the user experience and results will vary over time. So, this could change in the future, but I wanted to be explicit about what we’re doing today.
It seems Google is trying to optimise the user experience as ever, by serving up the most relevant informationto the people searching for it.
But, is this unfair to web / SEO professionals? As WebProNews state, we do provide local services after all. Or is it a blessing; only quality information gets ranked and “below par” (ahem) competitors will have to make sur ethey can actually rank rather than blagging their way into the local listings.
You can join the discussion and have your say, let everyone know what you think.
Mark wrote this...
Mark is a director at The Design Loft; a marketing studio delivering design, web solutions, SEO, PPC, print, photography and digital marketing directly to SMEs and as white label products to marketing agencies and design houses, all from a base near Sheffield, England. He has consulted and worked on projects for the NHS, UK Ministry of Defence, Barclays PLC, JCB and many more as an experienced web designer, online marketer, IT trainer and casual geek. On top of that he has an affinity for his iPhone and his Mac and loves designing and building pretty websites. He is also a huge advocate of the .NET CMS mojoPortal and is one of the UK's leading mojoPortal skin / mojoPortal theme designers. He has a dog called Pete and is the frontman and bassist for Green Ball Flyers. He also dislikes coconut. Alot.
| Print article | This entry was posted by Mark on January 6, 2010 at 12:04 pm, and is filed under SEO, Social Media & Web Tidbits. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
No trackbacks yet.
Small Business Focus: Don’t Let Your Facebook Talk Into Your Website, Google Won’t Like It
about 9 months ago - No comments
Ok I need to get this out there first: this short post doesn’t take any pot shots at anyone and their ability to write or spell. That’s that done. A while ago I wrote a short article musing on the notion that the language we so casually emit was being butchered by the Facebook and
Small Business Focus: Google Analytics Page Load Speed Tracking – What It Means To Small Business Owners
about 9 months ago - No comments
For a while now, certainly the last couple of years, search optimisation professionals have been trying to measure and heavily debating the importance of webpage load speed as a ranking factor. Well, 5 days ago Google announced that it’s free Analytics tracking suite would start to track page load speed via it’s new interface. This
Google +1 And SEOs Social Future – But Will We Sign Up?
about 10 months ago - No comments
Ok so a few days ago Google announced their new +1 button – a way for savvy searchers to tell people in their Google network that they think a web site is “pretty cool”. Sounds familiar, right? Of course it smacks of the Facebook “Like” button and the inevitable comparisons and war cries began in
LDA – On Page Content As A Secret SEO Weapon?
about 1 year ago - 1 comment
I’ve been reading through a fantastic blog post over at SEOmoz looking at the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) correlation with SEO, in particular on page SEO work. It’s a hefty post that looks at how Google speculatively interprets words and their meaning based on the context in which they are used. I’ve always been a
Google Instant: SEO Is Dead, Long Live SEO!
about 1 year ago - No comments
Last week Google announced the launch of Google Instant. Unless you’ve been blissfully ignorant of all things online then you’ll know what that means: Search as you type. It’s a simple and straightforward idea—people can get results as they type their queries. The Official Google Blog Sweet idea right? Right! Google Instant – SEO Impact…
Google Offers Insight Into What Makes A Great Backlink
about 1 year ago - No comments
Hey all, just a quickie today – but something potentially very valuable. Google has posted a very interesting article on their Webmaster Central blog regarding what makes a good quality backlink. The usual fare is present about directories not having the weight they once did, not creating spammy content and so on. But one of
How Google Synonyms Are Working More And More Effectively
about 1 year ago - No comments
As a search marketer, Google synonym functionality poses some interesting problems. We optimise for keywords that we’ve strongly researched, and try to include as many quality variants that we can without sacrificing usability and copy quality. However, we can’t really cover every base; there are always keywords providing entry points to your site that you
Google Now Checks Your Page’s Load Speed When Determining Your Search Rankings
about 1 year ago - No comments
Well we knew it was coming didn’t we; last week the Official Google Webmaster Central Blog announced that Google will now take into account your web page load speed when determining your search rankings. Notice however that the Google guys & gals state that this currently only applies to 1% of search queries sent through
“Web Design Barnsley” Term Takes A Beating In The Search Results Thanks To Google Caffeine
about 1 year ago - No comments
Google Caffeine is being rolled out to various data centres in Google’s arsenal progressively and some search marketers may see significant changes to their rankings, and their client’s rankings over the coming months. The “Web Design Barnsley” test. I’ve been keeping an eye on this using the keyphrase “web design Barnsley” via the Google.co.uk (The
Does Google Personalised Search Really Affect Your Search Rankings?
about 1 year ago - No comments
Wondering if Google Personalised Search will affect your search engine rankings? It’s a question that we’ve all been wondering the answer to since Google rolled out the service late last year. In the alreay dubious world of search marketing, the addition of personalised search was seen by many as a potential “kiss of death” to
about 2 years ago
I think this is a hot topic, and I used this same quote today on my blog! Really, I’m surprised it hasn’t been officially addressed by Google – it’s going on for the second month already.
Personally, ya, it actually may be a blessing in simplification, but what industry is next? What do we tell local clients with limited budgets?
Where should small businesses put their money / time / energy where Google won’t pull the rug out tomorrow? Back to links? More content?
If Google has their way, I guess it would be PPC!
about 2 years ago
HI Scott
That’s a very good point regarding what to tell clients with limited budgets, certainly a few of ours rely heavily on local listings for their “ranking” as they can’t devote the time to an ongoing natural strategy.
Keen to see what develops on this one. Mark