It seems Google is serious about redefining the local search space. New initiatives have come out of the Google stable in the last few days aimed at making local search more relevant. The measures include showing local results for non-local search queries, expansion of Google Suggest and Local News. These are not just cosmetic changes but ones that make you wonder if every search is going to be a local one.
Local Results On Non-Local Queries
Google is now showing local search results including maps, business listings, and more even when searchers use generic terms that don’t include a local word. Try typing ’plumbers’ in the search box and you should see a result like this:
Note that I didn’t give the city Toronto in my search phrase and yet I got the “10-pack” (A-J) of local results in the map. Google is rightly recognizing the unstated local intent in the search query. The results appear to be IP-based with your browsing location deciding what you get to see.
The Rise Of Local Search
This is great news for small and local businesses. They will now be getting more exposure for hundreds of generic prime keywords. Thus, as the above search result shows a ‘Toronto plumber’ can make his surprise entry to the search results when a local person does a ‘plumber’ broad level search. The change can also influence overall search behaviour. Users will be encouraged to cut short their long tail queries and use shorter generic ones instead and can still be assured an accurate search. Since the results are based on IP addresses, it will also matter who your Internet Service provider is.
Google Suggest Goes Local Too!
A related refinement is the localization of Google Suggest. The tool will now display search phrase suggestions taking into account various cultural and local factors while searching for results. Thus, as Google explains, a search for “liver” in the U.S. will fetch search suggestions about the body part, while in the UK, the suggestions will focus on Liverpool city.
Google has also expanded local news providing more regional content to searchers in UK, India and Canada. The service had been available in the US for a year now.
Grooming Local Search
Local search, enabling a person to pinpoint possible destinations within a specific area, is a key aspect of what a search engine can bring to users. Google realizes this more than anyone else. When people search they want to find information that is relevant to their query. Precise and unambiguous locations and these new steps by Google will greatly help in that improving the overall search experience..
Keep it going Google.
Small business enterprises concentrated mainly in a specific area may suddenly see their business rank highly in search engines without much effort. I feel SEO specialists need to take note of and concentrate more and more on optimizing for Geo locations if they are to be successful.
This would be more relevant considering the fact that Google is the single most visited website or search engine globally. Yes, according to statistics everyday more than 200 million searches are made on Google, and the majority of them are for getting localized information.
Google dominates the internet. No start-up on the horizon is likely to overcome Google’s breadth of services and Internet mind share.