Google knows where you are. Google can find you. And Google is coming to get you!
OK, that last part is speculation on my part, and not very good speculation at that. But the first two parts are quite true, and have been for some time. Users have been adding location-specific terms to their queries for years to find local results. More savvy users have noticed that many results — in both paid and organic listings — show what appear to be results tailored to the city you live in. And you’d have to be blind to not notice the map results that show up on most queries. To repeat: Google knows where you are.
And it just got smarter. Last week, Google released a change to their “more options” sidebar that most of you never have clicked. Next time you do a search, look for the small plus sign above the results of your query. Click it and discover all sorts of ways you can refine you query. And as of last week, “Search nearby” was added to that list. Now users don’t have to put in their city, metro area or even zip code to get local results. Search for what you want, then filter nearby you. Or nearby somewhere you want to be. Easy.
The ramification for markers? Stop ignoring the rush to localization. KML, geo sitemaps, RDFa… all sorts of new — and not so new — formats are cropping up to help tag web content with location-specific information. If you or your agency isn’t on top of the changing nature of “local”, you’re missing out on showing to people making location specific searches.
How often does this happen? It’s a small percentage of searchers using this option, to be sure. Today. But as stated earlier, Google is serving up geo-specific content on just about every search. How will it know that your content is specific to any given location? If you don’t know the answer… find out!
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- Google Helps You Find Things Nearby (marketingpilgrim.com)
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- Google integrates location in search results (news.cnet.com)
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Travis Unwin is Sitewire’s Director of Media Services. He has over 10 years of experience in leading digital strategies and development for various online initiatives. Prior to joining Sitewire, he served as the Director of eBusiness for a nationwide automotive aftermarket retailer, Vice President and Managing Director for a Manhattan-based interactive agency, and Vice President of Marketing for an online startup in the financial services industry.
has written 14 posts.
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Local search is critical for a local establishment. It may not drive web traffic to your site but it drives foot traffic. Which is really important. I know of a local church that constantly gets new visitors every Sunday and every time (its seems like it anyway), they say they found the church as they were looking for a local service. Now the web traffic numbers are not so high, but the traffic where it counts, foot traffic is very high.
You’re correct, Shailesh. We get so tied up in “web measurement”, when what we really care about is traffic. The reason is easy: tracking online is easy. Tracking offline is hard. Trying to track the offline influence of online? Harder still.
But maybe it won’t be tomorrow.
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