I am slightly shocked and simply amused that the recent Google Venice Update has largely flown under the radar. The Inside Search Blog published a list of 40 some-odd changes to the algorithm for February, and it seems that Panda 3.3 and the mysterious one liner about link valuation captivated most of the SEO and Inbound world, but what caught my local attention was this…
“ Improvements to ranking for local search results. [launch codename “Venice”] This improvement improves the triggering of Local Universal results by relying more on the ranking of our main search results as a signal.
"Improved local results. We launched a new system to find results from a user’s city more reliably. Now we’re better able to detect when both queries and documents are local to the user."
The Update
Simply put, the Venice update localized organic results on broad search queries. Got that? If not, here are some examples…
The Results
Search “Divorce Attorney” with location set to United States.
Search “Divorce Attorney” with location set to Las Vegas.
Search “Divorce Lawyer” with location set to Chicago.
I know what you're thinking…. “Of course they did that on the term divorce lawyer. It’s a super localized search phrase. Unless a person has spouses in multiple states that is.”
But look at this SEO search query…
It is clear that finally 2012 can be declared the year of local. With Google Places localized results + Google Organic Localized results every company needs a localized plan weather you have a single location, multiple location…or no locations at all because the national SERPS just got a lot more crowded.
The Plan
Step 1: Analyze the localized results on your queries.
A wise man once said, “If you can’t beat em, join em.” This is my favorite applicable SEO quote as generally the people who are outranking you are doing something that you SHOULD be doing. This is definitely the case with the Venice update. Here are the common elements that I see these localized sites have…
- Local Landing Pages: Findlaw.com doesn’t have a physical address in Las Vegas. But they sure do have a landing page for it located at URL below. You might need an address to play in Google Places, but not in the organic league.
https://lawyers.findlaw.com/lawyer/firm/Divorce/Las-Vegas/Nevada
- Title tag and description: Location + Keyword. This is pretty basic information but crucial in ALL cases that I have seen of localized organic results.
- Localized Page Content: Usedcars.com makes good use of Header Tags and site content focusing on the Las Vegas market and different types of cars. While cookie cutter content, for now this is doing the trick for them.
- Local Link Profile: Look at one of the high ranking localized results on the term “divorce attorney” with the location set to Las Vegas using opensiteexplorer.org.
Not exactly the most “natural” looking link profile but extremely effective in beating the localized filter in this case. A large percentage of the links have the term “Las Vegas” listed and for small sites that don’t have the overall authority of large sites, this seems to be the common trend.
Step 2: Do way more than the competition.
There is a common trend with companies that do well in the SERP rankings...they do more than the competition. These tactics will help you go above and beyond....
- Site Architecture: Getting 1000’s of pages indexed has just become a reality that all national players need to re-examine or they won't be able to compete with localized results. How can you structure your navigation to get that juice to your local pages? Your home page might not have a chance to rank any more. Unless you are the top 1-3 National organic results. Most websites I have seen haven’t put value on localized pages compared to product pages. Get busy rethinking.
- Unique Localized Page Content: This is the true issue with localization. Most sites have cookie cutter content that might rank for locations, but it also might lead to a nice Panda slap for duplicate content. I would not build content and just replace the location information. If you are still doing this you are playing on dangerous grounds. Scaling localized page content is not easy, not very fun, and definitely not sexy. So, the companies that can make it easy, fun, and sexy are going to be the clear Venice winners.
Here are some ideas:
1. Location based reviews – Instead of one testimonial site wide add a testimonial in every market you can. It helps to sell the “locationalism” to the searcher and it’s content that doesn’t have to be written by you… just gathered.
2. Gather “Why I love my city” user generated content – Ask customers to write up information about their local city and why they like it. It’s unique and fun to read.
3. Write out directions to each location – Have you ever heard people tell directions the same way? No chance of duplicate content with directions…ever.
- Markup Addresses in Schema and hCard: This has become a favorite practice of mine and I am shocked that there are so few doing it. Use schema-creator.org and microformats.org to markup your address and business information. This helps send a very clear signal to search engines of your location and could be a factor in getting a +box.
- Add a KML File and GeoSitemap to your website: By far the most under-utilized tactic that will go the farthest with this update. A KML file is used to determine the exact address and latitude/longitude of a company. It’s like a location dog tag for your website. You can create one with this tool Geo Sitemap Generator. Here’s a diagram of how they work…
- Authoritative Local Link Building: It is easy to blast local links with article marketing, commenting, forum link building, and other basic methods to your local pages. But achieving authoritative local links take some serious work. Here are a couple tactics that will go a long way.
1. Microsites: Build microsites for the submarkets of a large city. Put detail into making these sites unique and useful though small. Focus your link building efforts at these sites and then use brand + location + keyword targeted anchor text pointing back at your main site. This approach gets you authoritative links from sites that are in the same business and market that you are...and you own the site.
2. Local Guest Posting: Find hyperlocal blogs in your city. They are usually desperate for good content from locals. You don’t necessarily have to write about your industry though it would be nice to have the information semi-related. The main thing is using the author box to let people know you are a “location + keyword”.
Step 3: Follow some Locals…
Both of these lists contain top experts in the local search field. I know most of these people personally and vouch for them and their expertise in dealing with geo search tactics. The Local Search ecosystem is a different way of thinking so please take time to check out these lists and get on the radar of these localholics.
The Google Venice update should ultimately change the way SEOs think about reaching searchers and a localized national approach to organic traffic will need to merge. Is this approach new? No, it's common sense longtail SEO that has been separating the "diggers" from "pickers" for many years. The difference now is that the surface is getting bare and the gold that is left is all underground. Happy digging.
If we go back to the Google Inside Search blog post on the 40 changes in February, there are at least three changes that influence the appearance of local results. One of them involved YouTube, another was the Venice upgrade, and the third involves showing results more reliably from a user's City.
The statement about the Venice upgrade appears to mean that Google will show more Google Maps/Google Places results in Web results:
This improvement improves the triggering of Local Universal results by relying more on the ranking of our main search results as a signal.
But, if you scroll down to the last bullet point, you see this:
Improved local results. We launched a new system to find results from a user’s city more reliably. Now we’re better able to detect when both queries and documents are local to the user.
That appears to be what you're posting screenshots about - Google showing more pages in web search results that are local to a user.
I've been seeing this kind of phenomenon appearing and disappearing since at least 2009. It looks like it's back stronger than every now. Search for a fairly generic term, and Google used to show a web page from the area local to you in the 4th slot. Google's showing even more of those nearby Web page results now.
The term "localized organic" fits. But the "Venice" upgrade doesn't appear to involve "localized organic" results, but instead Google Maps results triggered through Universal Search.
Google was granted a patent last week that describes how their data centers may have separate indexes for world wide, or global, results and for regional results. It's possible that Google is providing some slots for global and for regional results within Web search results, when it is appropriate for some queries.
Good observation Bill.
Just few of notes extracted by the David Whitehouse post in the Dave Naylor blog cited also before by ScreamingFrog (https://www.davidnaylor.co.uk/seo-2012.html) and a question for both of you:
Do you think these observation by David Whitehouse could be reconducted to the Venice Update too?
I might have to separate my answers to your questions to give them some clarity.
Regarding incognito mode, personalization is not context, and Google treats them separately. See Eric Enge's interview with Google's Jack Menzel
https://www.stonetemple.com/how-google-does-personalization-with-jack-menzel/
Context involves language, location, time of year, etc. Personalization involves Google potentially knowing that when you search for [java], you would rather see results about the island than the drink or the programming language.
Incognito mode does things like keeping data about your searches from being saved to your search and web history, but it doesn't turn off things like your preferred language, your location, what season it is, and other things related to the context of your search.
Unfortunately, lots of people mistake context for personalization, and it looks like David did as well.
Thanks!
I'm not sure if your second question is referring to the Venice update or to the Localized Organic update, but neither seem to involve a "centroid" which would involve locating a center point for a distance that might be used as a ranking signal.
From the brief description provided by Google, Venice possibly appears to be a way of mining search results at Google for a particular query to possibly expand queries at the Google Maps repository, and determine a possibly wider range of results.
For example, if I search for [ft worth doctors] and and Google's search results include [fort worth doctors], the collection of results from Google Maps might then include results for both [ft worth doctors] and [fort worth doctors].
Under the localized organic result, it's possible that Google has created a geographical statisitical map that relates searchers (from certain locations), with queries, and websites.
This statistical model might or might not be part of a prediction algorithm that determines which data center to route a query to, and may be blending more regional results into global results at those data centers when appropriate.
Here's a Microsoft paper from 2009 that describes the use of extracting information from Web Search results (what they call a look-up extraction) to learn about entities.
https://www.wwwconference.org/www2009/proceedings/pdf/p501.pdf
Since a place or location or landmark is an entity, that kind of silo'ed set of search results (just the results - the titles and the snippets) could be used to learn about abbreviations, about multiple locations, about alternative names, about included neighborhoods, about larger regions that might contain a place, and more.
Bill: I keep looking at the results from different perspectives. I'll use a different keyword phrase, I'll run the query again and again from neighboring towns and communities.
On the one hand there are powerful signs that distinct localization occurs wherein the top of organic results show a list of doctors, dentists, divorce attorneys, etc at the top of organic results for that particular town. It could be a statistical model attached to millions of queries in the past// it could be very connected localization//what do I know// it could be both. I do know that google has deep data sets and attempts to vary its UI (presentation of information) in a way that seems to best satisfy that logic.
On the other hand, looking at some variations of the "divorce attorney" search Mike did in Las Vegas, I see other examples where both local websites (firms, smbs) and/or a national site such as findlaw have powerful strict SEO signals (links/links/ and more links/ on top of anchor text) :D that will push a page from a site (be it national such as findlaw or local such as hugginslawfirm either above the PAC results and/or above the PAC or a separate #1 with PAC signals.
The entire presentation is vastly different. Severe localization appears to be very important and severe and focused SEO (links/more links/linky links/ and anchor text'ed links) :D can have dramatic effects.
Having said that....and I've been closely observing local stuff for a long time.....this is only Google's latest presentation. They have changed the way they present local infoamtion many times in the past few years. Its actually consistently subject to timely consistent change.
Now back to something you referenced about statistical data sets. Suppose that is significant and it impacts the Google UI and presentation from time to time. Suppose this form of presentation radically changes user behavior.
UH UH UH OH. They'll probably change the darn thing again!!! LOL.
Mike wrote a terrific article with lots of interesting examples. So much to look at now!!
Google showing the same results when location is set at London and location is set as the UK leads me to believe more strongly in my data center routing hypothesis.
I suspect, but would definitely test whether searches from "london" and searches from the "UK" are both routed to the same data center.
But a statistical geographic model that might have been built (like a statistical language model), might be very similar or the same for searchers who have their locations set as "UK," or as "London."
@Bill I don't know if this helps your study, but I have seen conflicting rankings when searching with my location as "United States" within the US and those that do the same from Canada.
Thanks. You made me think of an older post of mine on a Google patent that describes how they might reorder or show different results based upon a preferred country:
https://www.seobythesea.com/2008/11/changing-google-rankings-in-different-countries-for-different-searchers/
If that approach worked as a filtering approach, it would allow for one data center to show different results based upon geography.
As Google builds more data centers around the world, they don't have to do as much filtering of a single index, but could do some actual splitting of regional data.
It's possible at this point that some filtering is going on, and some routing of results based upon a predictive model that determines which data center response to a query.
Interesting comments Bill.
From my observations, London and UK SERPs are the same. These are the 'non localised' results I saw before the update.
Smaller locations in and around London just show London/UK results as well.
While I agree that map results being triggered on broad queries was called the "Venice" update. I don't think both updates need a seperate name. Esspeically as Google chose not to name the last snippet. I did ask that the other local snippet be added in the post above and should have had it there from the beginning.
Overall both updates trigger localized organic and Map results on a broader set of keywords. Where Google didn't name the last snippet I think many (including myself) started calling it the Venice Update especially as the SERPS show more an effect on the overall display of localized organic and map listings on broader keywords than normal. Both phenomina are not new occorances, but it seems this time around it has spread to a much larger keyword base with much more impact.
I stopped looking at maps/organic listings competely seperate as soon as they created the blended pack as there is really no true seperation but just a mix of map/organic singals which induce rankings. I will continue to call ALL the local changes from the message "venice" as I am ok with grouping them. But if you are not, I completely respect that. I also just really like when local updates get a name as they usually dont. :-)
Thanks for the comment. I now understand first hand your love for the details of wording. :-)
Different updates, different algorithms, different reasoning, different approaches.
I'm not attacking you, and I think your post was great. I especially like the name "localized organic" results.
If you bundle them together though, you run the risk of confusing one for the other. As I stated on Twitter, I've never been a lemming, and if I treat them differently, I have no problem with that. :)
And thats why I totally respect you, and your work, and analysis. Your attention to the details is something I am working on but I still have a long ways to go. I am 1/4th lemming. :-)
Thanks. We all have some lemming in us. We all need to let out the rational skeptic in ourselves as well. :)
I'll be defiitely referring to this update in the future as the "Localized Organic" update, after your name for the local organic results being inserted into web results based upon location settings
Hey Mike, great post!!!
I think I was one of the 1st to figure out and blog about the Venice update on 3//5. But at that point I had not had time to do all the deep analysis you did. Didn't know much at that time about what triggered it and how exactly to leverage it. Just wanted to alert people to what it was and point out the marketing advantages.
So thanks for all the extra details. Your posts are always so rich and tip-filled.
Adding it to my Google Places Optimization and Local SEO News Scoop.it channel right now to be sure lots of people see it.
Linda Buquet
Linda, Loved your coverage. Everybody who reads this needs to be following you for up-to-date local info for sure. There were a few who were seeing things at SMX West and I kept waiting for the overall industry to pick up on it but it seems like its just been a few pockets of people who have seen the change.
Thanks Mike. Yes I think it flew under the radar largely because local pros tend to search for City + KW and we are so focused on "the pack" that most didn't notice. But I thought the same thing as you. If they name an update it's gotta be pretty major and worth figuring out.
I can testify to that Linda. Your blog was (surprisingly) the only place I could find any information on the update at first. Your posts combined with Mike's research here will really help me get past this update.
Thanks Jared, good luck taking advantage of this update. For the most part the rest of the world still doesn't know about it, so if you can figure out how to leverage it in your market or for your clients, you are golden!
Good post Mike.
We spotted this change in the UK in February and it has a pretty big impact here, so interesting to see you are seeing the same in the US. Some UK posts on the update -
https://www.ppcblog.co.uk/seo/google-venice-update-big-changes-based-on-locality/
https://www.blogstorm.co.uk/google-venice-update-showing-locally-targeted-organic-results/
https://www.seoptimise.com/blog/2012/02/big-google-uk-algorithm-change-for-local.html
Best discussion so far is on Dave Naylors blog. Lots of great comments, worth a read -
https://www.davidnaylor.co.uk/seo-2012.html
Cheers.
Whats your opinion on localized within UK? I lived in Birmingham for a couple years and found that ecommerse was a lot faster/more reliable as you could get anything overnight for a good price. Doesn't seem to be as relavant there are here. Unless I was searching for pizza. :-) But SEO????
I think the update makes sense and is a good thing in the UK, particulary for smaller local businesses. It seems to of helped there a little.
I'd even argue it makes sense to localise 'SEO' as a query to a degree. I do believe that this is a consideration (not for all) when looking for an SEO agency/consultant, as it will impact the relationship (meetings etc).
But I am also seeing differences in queries like 'business card', which I don't believe should be localised. Perhaps you might be after a 'local printer', but IMO this is a step a little to far.
My biggest concern about the update is that Google gets your location wrong a lot in the UK. If I had to take a guess, I would say it would be as high as 50% of the time which is potentially huge. I am shown irrelevant local results due to that (You can obviously set your location though).
Another concern is that, as well as helping local businesses, it's helped a load of directories which list local businesses and target long tail regional queries. Big sites which offer no real value other than listing other websites; the kind Google in theory, don't like :-).
Mike,
Absolutely terrific post! Very exciting to see this post get moved onto the main blog. Meaty coverage, nice examples. Well done!
Miriam
Mike, nice post as usual. I have also been surprised at the lack of coverage of the "change"; however, as I was discussing w Dr. Pete on a private email this morning, Google's been doing this kind of targeting for years, and I think the latest update is really just a change in throttle for the importance of localized rather than generic web signals. I do not think it represents a significant algorithmic change or major improvement in their technology...what do others think?
I have seen this type of result as well in limited results in the past and David Kyle brought up this same point on twitter today. But the keyword reach is what shocks me. Also, the amount of localized organic reuslts seemed to increase per SERP. So where you might see 1 or 2 organics on a few select queries, I have seen pages that have litterally 7 or 8 localized. Only the #1 ranking national site stayed in place. But the results really do seem to match "Location + Keyword" queries to a t. So not a new algo, just a mash up of the local setting and keyword term.
Mike: Nice articulation. I'm also seeing a big increase in localized results for those phrases w/out geo modifiers. That is a significant change.
Thanks for the post. It is hard to believe in a day and age when there is such information overload that so many people missed this, including me. Thanks again and make sure you keep us posted on the next one :-)
Thanks for the heads up on the KML file and Geo sitemap. This is something I never knew and I'm sure will be incredibly beneficial to be using from this point onwards.
Great material Mike and a fantastic debate. Lots of questions - both answered and to be answered - with some room for controversy.
It's always tempting to infer a causation from a correlation and I think it's quite early to assume that some of the observed factors present are causal factors. I guess, as always, in the world of SEO, lots more empirical testing and observation will throw up most of the answers in time.
https://www.seomoz.org/blog/correlation-vs-causation-mathographic
I think Bill Slawski makes a good point in that Google's list of 40 items are quite distinct and whilst there may be more than one that impacts on local search or localised organic results (good expression for capturing the concept Mike), the Venice update is described by Google as "an improvement" and the last one on the list as "a new system". I fell into the trap of assuming that the changes I wrote about were due to the Venice update when they may be due to the new system for "Improved local results" or a combination of both. There might be an important distinction. I haven't the faintest idea yet.
I first noticed changes a week or so back when I found a page on my site ranking at 5 on a search for "SEO".
https://www.adjuice.co.uk/blog/googles-venice-update-rocks-gondola/
I plan to do a little more experimenting if I can find the time over the weekend.
PS. Re. your comment about divorce lawyers. I think even if I had a spouse in every state, I would still want localised search results. The closest one in geographical terms might present the greatest immediate threat! :-)
Great insight. The true mention of Venice in the post directly does relate to map data. But as map data is blended in most cases and the update seems to have opened the floodgate on having localized organic results AND map results on a wider range of keywords I think it can be looked at together....BUT...also there should be seperate study in both cases as a mix of algo's is being mashed together in some (not all cases).
The true best advice for examining the rankings is to look at both phrases...the broad, and the term with the local keyword listed as generally those companies ranking in the top 3-5 organically on the term "las vegas divorce attorney" are those that benifit from the localized organic broad search. That's where correlation causation can really start to seperate.
One thing is certain. If you rank on the local term, you have a good change of ranking on the broad search with the location setting.
I can't say that I like how this update is going on. Now it seems that we are back to the "Yellow Pages" All kind of web portals which have a category named after a city - now appear on the first page of Google.
Web portals have a full benefit from this update. It's ok to show local results based on Google Maps, but organic results based on location it does not seem so relevant for me.
If I'm from Los Angeles and I'm searching "web design", first page doesn't show only Google maps results, but also local organic results. It is a little bit strange to suppose that the user want so many local results. If he wanted organic results targeted by location, his search will certainly be something like "Los Angeles web design". This update looks a little wired for me.
With Venice update we have only two options of getting the most of the top10. First option is to make from your 10 page presentation website, one with as many pages as cities you want to rank on. The second option, which I follow right now, is top 3 ranking for the main keyword.
Great and make lot of sense! Actually I was waiting for it to come because this make a real sense... we all know that Google is taking local search seriously and if we say that big G is going to do more with the local results so that would be this only.
I think this will be helpful from the user end as well, especially the one with are potential customer to any website. It is great if without clicking on the website you get to know about the websites location and areas where they work.
Think you for the great and clear update review.
I'm pretty sure this has been happening in the UK for at least 6 months and has just been switched up a little.
I have been regularly changing my locations when searching for at least 12 months now as I find the results tend to be better.
For instance if I am looking for a product or service in a different part of the country to me, the first thing I do is make Google think I'm in the same city as where I am searching, not only does this make the maps far better, it has also tended to make organics better too.
I was involved in a discussion about this with a well known SEO about 6 months ago and virtually got laughed at by the way I searched for things.
How did this change go unniticed? Even if Google didn't broadcast it all over, all it would take would be a handfull of people in the SEO community to hear about it and the news would spread like wildfire. Or am I somehow the only one who missed this?
There has been a few posts but I really think that most people were focusing on other aspects of changes. Local usually flys under the radar and the way the Inside Search Blog mentioned the update made it seem pretty small. But they named the update. That usually means it's a freakin monster.
Yeah, you missed this. Just consider this recent post by David Naylor:
The Biggest Change In SEO To Date?
https://www.davidnaylor.co.uk/seo-2012.html
Figured out I must have been living under a rock somewhere. Or maybe, my sinking italian city filter kicked in. But either way I totally missed this like gang busters. Know gonnna put this into full on action for my local clients for an extra boost!
I'm a bit suspicious about the actual benefit of a couple of the recommendations, on the Schema and hCard markups, and the KML file. After all, what are they designed for - simply to advertise your location. One of the standard pieces of advice for local SEO is simply to include your address conspicuously on your web page. Now, I certainly don't know the Google algorithm any better than anyone else who does this for a living, but I doubt that if the engines can determine your address from your page, these extras become totally redundant. You don't become "more local" just because you have some additional indicators about your location. While I have no objection to including them, I don't expect them to assist local SEO.
As a second point, even if right now these "behind the scenes" indicators actually provide a benefit, I don't know if it will last. Anytime something from the non-visible portion of a web page becomes an indicator, it isn't long before someone starts to abuse it, and then the search engines de-value it. Since these items can be set without affecting the on-screen portion of a website, I'm afraid they will quickly go the route of Meta Keywords.
These factors are hard to game. The basic concept is ensure google knows that this number...
123-555-0987 is a phone number and same with an adress etc. The great benifit to coding these things in the form of hcard and schema is largely rich snippet information being attached to your organic listing in the form of +box addresses, star count testimonials/reviews, etc.
But, it is a trust factor and as such will probably continue to play a part of the algo whether big or small.
KML files as well. I just look at it as a sitemap of locations. We all know that an xml sitemap isn't visible but it helps google understand the information presented with more accuracy and confidence so more pages are indexed. So, a kml file does the same for location information. It also helps to achieve "point of interest" status in google maps/earth and signifies that this website is tied to certain locations.
Mike: Great article. So why didn't people publish? One thing I've been doing is scrutinizing the impacts and opportunities like a hawk. I think you've done a tremendous job of articulating some of them. There may be others.
On a slightly different tangent, I actually think Google has been subtlely testing this for over 1 year. I saw 2ndary terms being localized about 1 year ago, brought it to Bill Slawski's attention and we were trying to figure it out--> he with logic attached to various SE patents....me w/ wild a$$ed guesswork...but it was definitely occurring. We saw it on a variety of sites with what I'd describe as secondary terms wherein the rankings were being localized. Neither of us published at the time...and it was subtle rather than obvious as it is now. Bill, though thinks the two things are somewhat different...
Now its very obvious.
I liked your suggestions. I've been seeing differences based on what appears to me to be highly weighted toward the strict SEO side and links.
One other thing I've noticed is what I'll call the "relative strength" of a site for phrases/page. Findlaw and the law firm above it in Las Vegas may point to some clues. Findlaw doesn't have a las vegas address but its a big strong site...and I did a short cut analysis. findlaw's first page TBPR is a 7 and its Las Vegas Page is a TBPR of 4. Huggins, the law firm ranked above it in your example in Vegas has a first page TBPR of 3 and an address.
Anyways...findlaw probably needed all that anchor text to get seen for las vegas. But I'd look at anchor text for Huggins versus other law firms in vegas to ascertain seo strength and potential links. Is Huggins significantly or measurably stronger for anchor text focused on "divorce attorney" and even w/out the geo modifier of las vegas.
I believe we've seen examples from the earliest days with G Places/formerly G Maps....wherein link strength always impacted Places/Maps rankings. Every time I saw a huge exception to what should be the norm it appeared that strict seo concerns could explain the exceptions....at least IMHO.
I think if I were a local seo I'd make sure I was subscribing to one of the serious link tools such as Moz's and others. Can't ignore them, IMHO otherwise the competition will pass you by.
Don't ignore Places and your suggestions are strong. GEt strong Places signals. I follow a lot of leads into the businesses and its clear to me that Reviews help closing sales. If you only have an organic listing sitting above Merged rankings you may get leads...but you aren't getting the power of those reviews.
Great article. I think you are the FIRST WRITER WITH SUBSTANCE and examples to show the impacts. Bravo!!!!
Excellent, Mike! Thanks for taking the time to flesh all that out. This needs to hit the main blog. No one said anything about Venice until last week and it was a HUGE modification to the SERPs!
I don't disagree with that at all. :-)
Can someone give me a quick rundown of what Markup Addresses and hCards are?
The Venice update has not gone unoticed on my sites. However I didn't realize the update had a name until I read this post. It'll be much easier to research now. Thanks!
Leslie
Leslie Markup Addresses and hCards are basically microformat (web markup) which includes your business details. This markup provides a more direct and additional source of information to search engines, similarly like schema.
If you need further clarificaition, feel free to DM or respond here.
- V
Clearly will be useful for users - but shouldnt go to far in the integration. For example if I am searching for the word "Cordless Drill" I may not want to see just local results so it should be a mix. Schema and KML suggestions are good ones. Great Post
Seems like more work to do to add a whole national network and get out of the "local" mud. What should I do if I wanted to go national, but all addresses and news are from one "local" location? The manufacturer is local, the market is national. Any advice?
Interesting posts. I've been doing some of suggested tips above (links from local sites + on page optimization) but the other suggestions I need to look into. Thanks
Hi Mike,
Thanks for the great post which has attracted some very interesting comments.
Just a couple of questions:
1. Do you think that local results are based on the user's IP, on the user's location as that is specified on Google's sidebar, or both?
2. Do you think a user who is located in New York will get the same results for a given keyword that triggers localised results as one who is located in San Francisco but has set his location to New York in Google's sidebar?
If the answer to the second one is negative, it makes me wonder what is the validity of commercial rank checker services in terms of what they are actually reporting.
Last month we had the same problem for a website we were optimizing. A big toko with over 100 local shops, but no unique content for the shop detail pages. Optimizing such pages needs cooperation of
1) the brand: they don't want to write content for the shops, because it's time consuming and hard to write about stuff you don't know2) the shop owners: they just want to be found, and they think that it's the brands responsability to optimize the website
A simple solution in order to get unique content and get both brand & the shop owners involved in the proces:
Google Docs Spreadsheet with some generic questions:
- Where in the city is the shop located- How do I get there using public transportation- If I come by car, where can I park it- Are there any other interesting things nearby- ... (any other local shizzle)An easy way so shop owners just have to answer some questions, and convenient for the brand to see which shop owners are cooperating. The results were remarkable:
- 75% of the shops answered the questions within 3 days, and you can tell which shop owners are into it! Some wrote a whole book about their city, while others anwered pretty lame: How do I get there using public transport? By Train...
Using this way you get unique local content pretty easy, without having to write it yourself.
Awesome article, Mike!
I see same things you mention in the "Results" part all over the place, i.e. it's not just the .com that got affected, which pretty much tells us that's going to be the new normal.
One thing I am sorry about is the fact that, as you mentioned, location kws in title tag now seem to weigh even more (I don't think this is a result of a direct tweak in the power of title tags, though, it's rather a result of the way Google treats "local" now). However, this means that in the "pure" Google Places now the business names containing keywords get even more edge, which opens more space for spam in this particular black hat "niche".
@underrugswept - I think almost every local-search-addicted blogger out there commented on the updates, so I'm not really sure why it didn't get so big of an exposure. Maybe Google making big changes in local is already considered a rather every-day activity? :)
What I find interesting is how the search phrase "location + keyword" is almost a mirror of "keyword" with location set on the sidebar. There might be 1 to 2 results that beat out the local info, but everyone else is ranking in similar positions on both search queries. I think that over time it will make it harder for SMB's because of the resources that national's can put into localizing their sites. The difference will be in the details. National businesses will work the title tag right for sure. But I think the onsite and links is where the SMB gets the advantage in this update.
Great post Mike. Especially appreciate the legal vertical examples.
Haha. yeah, lawyers :/ A local's best friend and worst nightmare all at the same time usually.
Going local is not the solution always...
Nope. Its not...only when localized information is appearing and would be important for your business.
Hi Mike,
Awesone post ! I think Google is always upto setting some trends and this time it is local seo.
I agree on the Microsites idea. I implemented a similar idea for my industry and have seen positive results for local search queries. However, I wish I had read this about post for methods on how to generate unique content - I have now written a novel of unique web content (plus some aching fingers and a headache) ;)
jetchecker.com and duplicatecontent.net are great free tools that provides percentages on the uniqueness of a website's content.
As far as linking back to the main site, is this considered link farming?
I don't know how anyone did not see this coming. 2012= personalization, localization, and Real Time Info. SERP's with localized content makes the searching experience easier for the end users (Google's Goal) and offers results more applicable to the end user (Google's Goal). Try a NP Search for "Ballet", "Movies", and "Parks".
Thanks for this Mike,Some of the points covered I have already been working on with some existing clients, but others I hadn't even considered - including the KML file.
Great stuff, keep it coming!
Thanks for this Mike, Some of the points covered we have already been working on with some existing clients, but others we hadn't even considered - including the KML file. This could provide a nice way of cementing our clients visibility in local search.
Great stuff, keep it coming!
Really good stuff here Mike.
Very good post Mike. The examples are specially helpful.
I wanted to point out a type at the end of the examples before the "Plan" heading. The text in the last paragraph reads " Localized results every company needs a localized plan weather you have a single location, multiple location" whereas it should have been " Localized results every company needs a localized plan whether you have a single location, multiple location". Thought I would point it out.
Look forward to more knowledge sharing from you!
I know this is an old post, but I wanted to give my thanks just the same! I have a new local business client that wants to rank in a city about 75 mile away. Well (insert embarrassed smiley face here), I forgot that I can do that for him with the blog section of his site, without needing am office in that city and without making Google mad.
Thanks!
-Gary.
Awesome article, Thanks for sharing informative article.
Hey Mike, i know you have posted this article on 2012, giving a tip to use the rich snippets- for local marking, I heard that Google have started penalizing for rich snippets spam and wonder if you think that this system might be riscky?
Good read, very informative. Local search is super important to both of my businesses. I am continually trying to focus efforts here. Thanks.
You probably don't want to go by our usedcars.com local example in the blog post. When I started in May 2012 I found that these pages were slowly disappearing int he local rankings. I launched a project in June 2012 to rectify this, which is still making a slow come back.
The best solution to grabbing local results if you are a domain that is specific to a locale (for example: a car dealer, a lawyer, or a Mom and Pop brick and mortar shop). If you are trying to get individual pages to rank for local searches, Google has done all they can to make sure that doesn't happen.
Focus your attentions elsewhere - you're best off spending less time chasing something Google doesn't want you to have and more on what Google likes.
Nice post, some really great insight! I thought I was pretty savvy with local SEO but your post has taught me a new tactic tonight I was completely unaware of. As you stated, creating a GeoSitemap is a massively under-utilised technique. It certainly was for me, however I plan to spend tomorrow morning ensuring all of our clients with a local presence have a Geo-sitemap created and submitted to WMTs!
The geositemap.xml needs a little tweaking . . .
Take out the three lines with the geo tags, or so sez:
https://blumenthals.com/blog/2012/03/28/google-still-supporting-kml-files-but-not-the-use-of-geo-sitemaps/comment-page-1/#comment-569196
Webmaster Tools threw an error when I took Mike's advice and created and uploaded the geo sitemap and KML files.
Thank you very much for this amazing Tips on Local SEO. I've a question. Do I need to create backlinks to my wbsites Google Place page url? If so, what anchor text I should use? The exact Anchor text I'm using for my main website? Thanks in advance.
Awesome post! Thx for the tips!
I own a coupon sharing site like retailmenot, what do you suggest is a good way to approach this
Check and see if coupons are getting localized. I almost doubt that search phrase would be.
Thank you for sharing this important article. As a local user and website builder for my own sites only, I am concerned that the larger Companies with huge SEO budgets will push out many of the smaller mom and pop businesses that really need all the help they can get right now. I do see that the places feature will still help small businesses, but I am not sure this is a good thing for local business.
Love this post, written in a very easy to understand way - thanks Mike.
Just submitted my geo sitemap to webmaster tools, only took a few mins.
I saw you mention blogs in your post (which is phenomenal). I have a newly launched blog where I create content about inbound marketing, but nothing that would be considered 'local', but it would be awesome if other marketers & SEOs in my area (San Antonio & Austin) found my blog so we could connect/network.What would you suggest doing, if anything, to help a non-local blog show up in local SERPs? Thank you.
Reach out to local publishers/seo's and let them know your site is avaiable. Also have a section of the site dedicated to the area for search results. Maybe an about page with location info in the title tag.
I've been using Google as a quick way to check time differences between me and clients in other countries for a while. It was only after this latest update that this started happening:
https://cache.gyazo.com/5a8ef77a89ab6a2ddc39ab2b40cc5209.png
Autocomplete for "Time difference between..." uses your local city
Very Informative Mike. Great post on how to use Anchor text in Keywords for good local rankings. "Brand + Location + keyword" liked this a lot. Will surely be a Long Tail Keyword but yet very effective.
Very interesting Post! What I find particularly interesting is whether efforts of a website to rank locally in one place, might impact them negatively in another. Could there be somekind of trade-of between the rankings in your homecity and your rankings nation wide?
Very informative. We've seen more local sites show for generic search term keyphrases which was confusing as we didn't see any announcements from Google, so thanks for the update!
Nifty,
great post.
I understand what to do with the geo and kml files, but what do I do with the schema?
Am I suppossed to paste that on to my pages?
I already have my local address on all my pages, so I'm guessing a better option would be to simply mark it up as the schema suggests.
https://makethemclick.com.au
Yup. Exactly.
IMO this is an important update, and you're right that most of us were so concerned with the link valuation change. We know they've been playing around with local results for a while, but it looks like it settling in. I'm not sure if this is an algo change or just the location setting that's triggering different results. Good work on the post.
Nice.
I don't really look at local as much, but I should probably incorporate it to some degree. I also guess I didn't notice because Google always just has my location in it so if I look for something like a restaurant it always pulls up LA area things. Though I wonder how the competative nature is with big cities vs. small. I would assume big cities would have more competition, but it's amazing how many local businesses don't take advantage of local search.
Local seems to fit directly into other search quality factors. It seems only natural that Google will continue to improve and increase localization. Its often better for the user. It's certainly better for Google's wallet.
Hi Mate,
I think this update did slip under the radar for many but I was very aware to some of the changes and the direct impace, I read a few articles on local sites about it and also published a bit on it too. I think time will show more results to this update, I also notice the direct anchor miss use impact too.
Thanks for putting this post together too mate.
Kind Regards,
James
Great post, Mike.
I was aware of the changes when I reported on a client's rankings and noticed a page 1 ranking for their industry head term. Astonishment and excitement came over me, until I realised that other local results were nestled amongst them.
I remember about a year or so ago when Google started showing maps for more unusual terms (e.g. it's expected for "pizza," but I was seeing it for "car insurance"), but I didn't anticipate that they'd show local results without a map for non-local searches.
I just hope that SEOs have been honest with their clients, explaining the rise in ranking, without just saying "hey, you're on page 1, woo!" with no further explanation...
I have a question you say " Add a KML File and GeoSitemap to your website" can you add this tag per page ie each local page has its own tag or is this a site wide tag? If its one per site, how does that help a national company rank for its local pages?
Thanks
They are actually files added not on page things. Use the tool I mentioned in my post and it will walk you through the process.
Great article Mike.
I'd be very curious if you or any of your readers think our local home service pros & contractors tool applies to the Venice update. We have iPhone and Android apps that the contractor uses while in the field where he/she checks in to job locations, with comments about the job and maybe a photo. Then on job completion, the contractor requests a local review from the customer. We provide a WordPress plugin that allows for the contractor to host the local reviews and check-in data (we call it their "service area") by city/town, and all of the data is micro-formatted per schema.org
I think this kind of content easily falls into your section "Do way more than the competition.", especially with respect to getting location based reviews.
Your right about Venice flying under the radar. As as local brick and mortar businessman I pricked up my ears at the announcement. So far,I have seen some subtle differences in SERPs for my own situation but nothing earthshaking. I will be watching closely for future effects.
Let me echo your thoghts about optimizing Venice. Thay are well taken.
This seems to penalize national companies with no local brick and mortar stores or local presence. So now a national company needs to make hundreds of garbage local pages for their products or services just to trick Google? Ugh. I guess I need to start on a Los Angeles page for my fancy widgets.
I wonder how SeoMoz handles this? Their business is certainly national and not local to Seattle, so do they have local pages for Chicago, NYC, Atlanta, etc?
Yeah, if a term is now showing localized results you have two options.
1. Rank on the top listing of national as these seem to stick on the page in the top 3 of localized results or build out pages (with hopefully useful information to a local market) to rank.
I think that for some keywords this is a solid approach from google. SEO? not so much. If somebody types SEO I dont think localized results are the best best.
Lucky for SEOMoz they rank high enough on the term it seems like they are beating out localized results. Those directly below them in rankings nationally....not so much.
"SEO" NP Search results= Wiki, Google Support, seo.com, Moz Beginners Guide to SEO, Local SEO, Local SEO, Local SEO, Local SEO, seo-usa.com, SEObook (with A. Wall's image), then Google News.
Nice overview! I think everyone else was focused on the section that talkaed about how links would be evaluated, which didn't really say much of anything. This analysis will help my clients out. Thanks!
At SMX West a Googler was asked about the link message on that post. She was talking about it in realation to the rest of the page and then said she really couldn't remember exactly what it was. Danny Sullivan asked the audience if they noticed any ranking change in how there links were valued and nobody raised their hand. That could mean the room was either lying or the link factor was really minimal and had no effect overall.
Great explanation, Mike. I think what we now see makes perfect sense in light of the Quality Raters guidelines that were leaked last fall. It just took Google this long to actually make our results match what it has intended them to be. As this is refined, we may even see the Local Packs disappear entirely from the SERPs.
Great post niftymarketing -
I am looking at ways to capitalise on this latest update for our site. As we do not have a fixed address for all locations (but do provide location based news content) is there a way to maximise our presence with the venice update?
I was looking to embed Schema.org tags, specifically GeoCordinates of specific long/lat co-ordinates
Would this be a way to assist our local based rankings?
Thanks
Simon
Yes. Along with onsite title tag and content work.
I work on a site that has a massive amount of localised content and although I can't say for certain I'm pretty sure that we started getting more traffic towards the tail end of February, although it doesn't seem like the types of queries delivering traffic have massively changed - seems like too much of a coincidence to me. You're right in what you're saying though, it's interesting that everyone has been focussed on the link side of things, I had people telling me they got slapped with unnatural link warning in webmaster tools on the 23rd February. The bit about brand, keyword and location was quite insightful and a bit contrary to my general way of thinking in which I'd normally put the keyword first and the brand last. Will have to try it out and see what affect it has.
Try to set up a custom filter in analytics to track all local subpages. That is the best way to see increase/decrease of local changes. My guess is you did benifit from that but without seperating other pages it's hard to know for sure.
Very much agreed on "Unique Localized Page Content." Adding localized testimonials is an excellent method, in addition to all of the cookie cutter "areas served" type content. I'd add that a video testimonial, from a customer in that service area, is another great way to add unique content to each page.
I would also throw out microdatagenerator.com as a suggestion for generating small business Schema.org formatting, though they only support a few business types and I haven't seen many updates since Schema.org was first announced.
Those that have no cookie cutter content will rock it. Period. But thats only because google doens't like it. I dont think it was pollution to the web personally but i also didn't change the world with a search algo so what do I know. For the video content do you transcribe it onpage so it can be read by S.E.'s?
Onpage transcription is always ideal. I have a hunch that having a unique video file on the page is well-perceived as far as unique content goes. If the video is a testimonial, there's no reason not to make it the most prominent testimonial and the page and style it as such.
Great post. Thanks a lot for this important reminder and explanation.
We have been so traumatized by the Panda than we forgot about the beauty of Venice... what a shame.
Thanks again for your post and all your advices.
I did a bit more digging into this in my blog psot here: https://www.epiphanysearch.co.uk/blog/google-venice-happy-days-for-local-businesses/, to try and understand why / how local sites were being promoted.
My findings were quite suprising in that contrary to some of the things you mention in your post (which were by the way the same things I expected to find), things like linprofiles (quality and anchor text used) don't seem to feature as ranking factors. Neither does the use of the hcard microformat.
In one of the examples I give, it seems on the face of it that a site is being promoted because there is one mention of the location in the body content - no mentions in the domain, url, page title etc, just one reference to it in it's text.
I also noticed there seems (in the examples I checked anyway) to be a negative correlation between whether a site has a verified Google Places listing, and whether they are eligible for local promotion as part of this Venice update.
My research was by no means a thorough, conclusive scientific experiment but some unexpected trends were starting to appear. It certainly doesnt seem to be a robust algo update
Take a look - I'd be interested to hear people's experiences that help confirm or contradict my findings
Great peice! Just a couple thoughts on it. Largely, what seems to be the biggest overall factor is as followed...
How does a company rank on "location + keyword". If you look at the examples above like the Divorce attorney one. The companies that were localized on the broad search rank in the top positions organically for "las vegas divorce attorney".
So, you are right in saying that places page have nothing to do with this, but anything that helps you rank organically in a location would including
1. Url
2. Title tag
3. Page Content
4. Links
5. Location signifiers - KML file, address information, etc (these just help Google understand the location tagged..not a huge, huge factor, but i see it becoming more and more important as a trust factor)
Actually I did find some examples where the Google Places page appears to be what influenced the local organics. See my post from a couple of weeks ago: https://www.seomoz.org/blog/local-organic-ranking. I found 3 or 4 examples where there was absolutely nothing I could find on-page that indicated the site's physical location, but, they did have a Google Places page.
Thanks for keeping us up to date. This little tip probably paid my seomoz dues for the month. I'll definately be getting my geo sitemap updated.
Mike great post!
"Local Guest Posting: Find hyperlocal blogs in your city. They are usually desperate for good content from locals. You don’t necessarily have to write about your industry though it would be nice to have the information semi-related. The main thing is using the author box to let people know you are a “location + keyword”."
Been doing this big time lately... this is our primary focus on getting localized links... it works though to write content off topic, but use author for links.... Darren Shaw`s new link prospetor tool rocks for finding places to get guest posts.
Can also get nice localized links with geo directories - kill two birds with one stone and get the citation at the same time.
I need to get on the Link Prospector tool. As far as citations/geo directories. Totally agree. Major local signals for places that have addresses. THe interesting thing about this update is I think it gives a chance to places that don't have physical locations but can still provide good results. They should be jumped for Joy. Thanks for your sweet list of locals and your comment Matthew!
I'm curious to know if there is a difference between the schema and microformats generator? Do they cause different effects and/or should both be utilized?
The main difference is search engines arn't consistant.
Hcard formatting works for coding address, reviews, etc. Schema has the same ability but has had a few issues in our test of generating rich snippets for a single testimonial.
So, Long run I think schema will be the reccomended way, for now...I try both if the address makes sense to have listed twice on the same page. (ex. Sidebar and Footer.) I have more info on it in my SMX west preso from last week.
https://niftymarketing.com/smx-west-presentation-about-onsite-seo-an-interview
I have heard you should not use both on same page BUT am not sure it's true.
What I personally do to try to cover all bases is hCard in the footer and Schema on the contact us page, which i think G views as the most important location-based page on a site. But that's just my particular recipe, not saying it will suit everyone's taste.