Will local optimization effect international ranking?
-
Lets say a company serves Canada and US customers regularly, but they are based in Canada. They currently have no local optimization or confirmation of their location on their website.
If I were to begin local optimization (google my business, local content, link building, schema etc), would Google recognize this website as a Canadian business and remove rankings in the US that it is currently appearing in now without any locational information?
-
Hi Miriam,
Thanks for your great reply. It is a fairy tricky situation. In this case, we're dealing with a B2B manufacturing company and currently the lions share of their business comes from the US. Rankings on important keywords are roughly the same in the Canada and the US.
We're currently trying to weigh the benefits of whether establishing the location of the firm and building that credibility would out out-weigh the potential risk of Google then penalizing ranking in the US.
Thanks again for your help!
-
Hi Aaron,
This is a bit tricky, actually. Let's say you are Whole Foods - an international corporation. Your corporate headquarters are in Texas, but you've got stores in the US and Canada. Being headquartered in Texas does not prevent your branch in Calgary from showing up in Google's local pack of results because you have a physical location there. No sweat!
What you are describing is a different situation. It sounds to me as if you are offering virtual services to US-based customers from your headquarters in Canada. Is that correct? If so, then there is some chance that strongly localizing your business to a particular city in Canada might in some way alter Google's perception of you business as a best answer for US-based-or-related queries. We're talking about organic queries here, presumably, rather than local ones, though, because if you don't have US offices, you're not ranking in the local packs for US-based-or-related queries. So, in the long run, if your organic content and authority are currently strong enough to show up for searchers in the US, chances are, they will continue to do so, but it is not out of the question that strongly localizing your business to a city in Canada might in some way impact this.
I'm afraid I've never seen a trustworthy study done to prove how much impact, if any, this type of marketing might have on a business in your situation. In your shoes, what I'd do is try to find a comparable business - one that is headquartered in Canada but also appearing for US-searches and see if they appear to be doing well both on the local level for their city and on an organic, international level with their general content. My gut feeling is that the impact would not be very big, but I wouldn't rule it out completely.
It would be great if a community member who has been in Aaron's situation could comment on their own experience!
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Disconnect MOZ Local and Google My Business
I've had problems with one of our eight branch locations when I connected GMB to Moz Local about a year ago. The location was suspended for being a duplicate. I would like to sever the connection so I could keep Moz Local live but at least temporarily delete the suspended Google My Business. Also, if you might have any guides or tutorials on performing this task it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Local Listings | | gallowaywebteam0 -
Do any Local Rank Trackers Report This Way?
I'm having trouble finding a local rank tracking service with useful reporting. I've tried several and for the money, have gravitated toward's Whitespark's service as for $25/month I can track unlimited locations. But their report is indicative of what I've seen time and time again in my 18-year experience as a Software Developer and Internet Marketer. Whomever is making the design decisions isn't a Seasoned (Local) SEO, and/or probably hasn't done their homework well enough by talking to seasoned SEOs. Their Summary Report looks like this (see attachement). When I'm doing Local SEO I'm looking at a lot of reporting data but among that, probably the most important is: How many of the listings moved up into position #1-3 on Local Finder which is also usually the Local 3-Pack (sometimes a 2-pack explaining the discrepancy in the first two rows between the number in the #1-3 column.) I also want to know how many listing moved UP into the #4-10. And vice versa, what fell out of #1-3 and #4-10. The problem with the format of this report, if a listing falls from #2 to #5, it will be a decrease in #1-3 and an INCREASE for #4-10. This would give me the false impression that a listing that was below #10 came into the #4-10 when in actuality the increase in #4-10 was because of a decrease in #1-3!! One situation is positive the other is negative. What I want to know is how many listings (totals without getting out the calculator): moved up into #1-3 (White Spark does this via the Increase column in the Local 3-Pack row) moved up into #4-10 moved down out of #1-3 to #4-10 moved down out of #1-3 to below #10 moved down out of #4-10 to below #10. Does anyone know of local tracking services that give you this kind of data in this way? XQppQKs.jpg
Local Listings | | Consult19010 -
Local Listing Conundrum
Hello Mozzers, I have a client with a unique situation that I am hoping I can get some feedback on. One of our service industry clients has a location that is claimed on all major sites (Google, Bing, etc., etc.) - so all is good there. They are experiencing an issue, however, because their check-in building is actually located at their conference center across the street, which has a different address. The issue is mainly that it is confusing and a pain point for customers as they get to the destination without realizing they need to actually be at the building across the street first for check-in. The client is considering changing their primary address to the conference center address across the street, which was previously not a separate / claimed entity. They would still maintain the main business listing and just adjust the name. Their thought process is that Google would bring people to the conference center / check-in building first rather than to the main business building. I personally have major concerns about making the switch. I feel like this would be potentially confusing to both users and search engines. And, the main business listing has already acquired a ton of reviews that we would be starting from scratch with. My immediate recommendation would be to better communicate the check-in process to guests and not go through the change of address process, but I figured I would throw it out to the community for feedback. Thoughts?
Local Listings | | mbochic0 -
How can I rank for keywords Locally?
For this test I am using google's "Ad Preview and Diagnostics" tool in adwords. And I took some screen shots to show you my problem. My company name is PhillyDoors, Inc. and the website is phillydoors.com Keyword: garage door repair.
Local Listings | | phillydoors
Location: 19116, Philadelphia, PA (Location Of Office)
Ranking: 1 Locally, 1 Organically
Picture: 1 2) Keyword: garage door repair philadelphia
Location: 19116, Philadelphia, PA (Location Of Office)
Ranking: 30 Locally, 1 Organically
Picture: 2 Keyword: garage door repair.
Location: Philadelphia, PA (Location Of Office)
Ranking: 1 Locally, 1 Organically
Picture: 3 4) Keyword: garage door repair philadelphia
Location: Philadelphia, PA (Location Of Office)
Ranking: 30 Locally, 1 Organically
Picture: 4 I have done some link building in the past that is helping me rank number 1 organically. I am also using moz local and my score is 86%. (pic 5) I simply do not understand why I am ranking so well organically but my local rankings are pretty terrible. While the listing "Garage Door Repair Service" is ranking at the top of the list. I understand that it is against Google's policy to name the listing something like this when your company name and website name is completely different. What can I do to rank better locally for more keywords and more cities rather than just a single zip code? hrsZZfF TTFr1rQ aDJSwWV BnyZP BnyZP0 -
Moz Local is saying a 800 is not okay...does it really negatively impact citations/rankings?
So I was considering using Moz Local to help improve the visibility of one of my clients who is trying to improve their local SEO (they only have one business location). When I submitted my existing client's listing there was an automated popup that read: Sorry, we're unable to update this listing right now Toll-free number detected Many of the partners to which Moz Local submits your data do not accept toll-free lines as primary phone numbers. Choosing a local phone number may also be better for rankings and increase the number of calls you get from local search customers. Is is true that having a "local phone number" can result in better rankings? Is there any articles/studies/evidence to support this? Also are there any discounts out there for first time Moz Local users?
Local Listings | | RosemaryB0 -
How is this Ge Factory Service ranking like this?
Recently I was doing some research on "appliance repair" for a new client and I ran into some listings that are ranking locally on the 1st page without barely any backlinks or citations. I am wondering how they are doing this. I under stand since they are a GE company maybe this is why but there is not even no backlinks from the GE main site. This Ge Factory website is a pr0 so how is it ranking hundreds of listings without almost any citations?After searching Google I found over 10k listings for "GE Factory Service". How are they doing this? As I understand only Franchise listings are allowed to be posted Nationwide. After investigation I came to the conclusion that GE does not offer any Franchise Opportunities for their repair service. So isn't this in violation of the terms and conditions? These listings all have the address hidden since these are not storefronts. I have checked many listings and they are ranking for most cities I search including:Atlanta, San Diego, Dallas, Tucson,phoenix.Does anyone have any ideas how these listings with virtually no SEO? Any feedback is appreciated thanks
Local Listings | | bajaseo0 -
Correlation between ranking on Google organic result page and ranking on the local listing
Hi Moz fans, A quick question: any correlation between ranking on Google organic result page and ranking on the local listing or vise versa? Thnx Saab
Local Listings | | S.Saab0 -
Bright Local - Citation Burst. Winner or Loser?
Bright Local have a package called "Citation Burst." This looks great but, we all know directory submissions can have an extremely negative impact. Has anyone used Bright Local for Citation Burst, please let me know? Thanks Gary
Local Listings | | GaryVictory1