If you understand web marketing and SEO then you’ll know there are some skills and strategies to rank web sites in local searches as well as global. Generally, if you’re searching for local products or services Google will be happy to return relevant results and may even throw in some quick helps like contact details and maps to aid your search. But there is a fundamental issue with Google’s attempt to better search for the user–it potentially harms overall sales for top ranked web sites.

How Top Rank for Local Search Can Harm Sales

Think about this, if you’ve ranked high enough for a particular local term you should be able to reap the benefit of more traffic right? Well if you’re ranked high there’s another thing Google adds as a bonus. As I’ve mentioned, sometimes a map and contact details pops up.

Here’s the issue. If you’re the local drycleaner then no issue having Google display a map of your location in the search results, people don’t drive 40 miles to dry clean their clothes. However, what if location is not an issue for your firm?

Case in point, a landscaping firm offers city-wide services. However, the local Google search displays 2-4 competitors in the search listings. On the map potential clients may be more likely to click on the firm that is nearest to them geographically purely based on the map. You’ve lost business because you’re not closer to the potential client although you are COMPLETELY capable of servicing the entire city. Check out this example of landscapers in my home town Calgary, Alberta (searching ‘calgary landscapers’).

As you can see the map will display a map in general search that is centered around the middle of the city–right in downtown. Not only is there no grass downtown, but the majority of the million people live in the suburbs. Not much help for the searcher but equally frustrating for the landscaper located out int he burbs.

Solutions? There are a few that a competent SEO from Calgary could apply. What would you do? I believe testing to see whether geographic location will affect search behaviour is in order for every specific industry. In one hand you may benefit from having the additional exposure of the location map. On the other hand you may loose business from half of the city’s quadrant.

One solution is to remove your firm’s contact details from the index. You’ll be removed from the map solution Google displays. However, if your competitors don’t do the same then you also loose the exposure of being displayed in the map.

Another solution would be to include clear and concise details in your contact page content and meta tag descriptions that your firm offers services CITY WIDE. Displaying details that beat our the competition may increase your CTR through the map display.

All in all, I don’t see Google removing the feature since it benefits search. Really it is up to the consumer to do due diligence when picking a firm and if they want to pick the person closest to them without comparison then so be it. Otherwise, one must look at ways to exploit the additional exposure despite it’s drawbacks. When Google throws your local search lemons make Google lemonade.

[tags]local search, google local search, local rankings, local seo, geographic search[/tags]