Location now ranking factor in google.com.au

[CyberClick]

More changes this morning in the site and keyword I'm watching.

The 'new' places/web hybrid result has gone but there is still some shuffling in position with PDF's retaining a seemingly unwarranted rank boost.

1. Has PR has lost some importance?
2. Number of incoming links more important than PR?
2. Have bigger websites been boosted?
3. Are keywords being broadly grouped?

 

[mjonezy]

Hey guys, i thought i'd break my post virginity and weigh in on what we are seeing.

After a few checks this morning, it seems like for generic service based keywords (examples: carpet cleaning, seo, web design) ie without a location, Google is invisibly appending data based on your location and customising the organic results.

Do a search for "seo" in melbourne, sydney and brisbane and check the differences (you'll notice an abundance of location pages ranking or homepages that mention a city).

I guess this is good and bad for relevancy:
Good: Users who search for generic terms are normally looking for a service in their own local area
Good: Based on the above, the traffic coming to businesses should now be more relevant
Bad: Businesses who only have a single location but target all of Australia are going to suffer to rank for all locations (location doorway pages anyone?)

Anyone seeing similar things or perhaps want to throw in a few other keywords where this is happening? Doesn't appear to have touched insurance or accommodation yet

 

[johno69]

Bad: Businesses who only have a single location but target all of Australia are going to suffer to rank for all locations (location doorway pages anyone?)

If you are clever in your development you can work to beat this.

 

[mjonezy]

Unfortunately many clients aren't smart enough or very old school in their approaches

It does happen to tie in the recommendations we are putting forward about optimisating their location pages for locality terms, so hopefully this might expedite things

 

[johno69]

Unfortunately many clients aren't smart enough or very old school in their approaches

As a developer this is great!

 

[helloworld]

Well I've hit front page for a 1 word term for one of my clients. Of course only showing in victorian searches. But that is all it needs to appear for. woo hoo.

That said, I can't see any rank checkers that are working at the moment. Local seo is my core business so these changes are positive for me so far but has meant I'vew had to go back to seopanel and am now using a local proxy for crawl.

In other news Matt Cutts announced new Penguin in next few weeks so should be a pretty big one and whether these currrent rankings will stay as they are is a mystery.

 

[James]

Well I've hit front page for a 1 word term for one of my clients. Of course only showing in victorian searches. But that is all it needs to appear for. woo hoo.

That said, I can't see any rank checkers that are working at the moment. Local seo is my core business so these changes are positive for me so far but has meant I'vew had to go back to seopanel and am now using a local proxy for crawl.

In other news Matt Cutts announced new Penguin in next few weeks so should be a pretty big one and whether these currrent rankings will stay as they are is a mystery.

Yeah Rank trackers need to lift their game.

I find the best results from Using Google Ad Preview to track organize results on a State by State basis.

The thing is these localized updates hit head terms, If you are national I would be focusing on split landing pages per state and also long tail would be big.

 

[mjonezy]

Hey guys,

Just letting you know that AWR does in fact let you set your location for Google Australia.

It sure is going to be a pain in the ass for national clients and having to present 2 lots of ranking figures

 

[CyberClick]

bounce, bounce, bounce. The result I'm watching is now back to normal. Just me and wikipedia duking it out.