Local SEO

The Basics

As of April 2010 Google claims that local search makes up 20% of the total search volume. Now if  comScore Inc. is accurate when they claim that Google’s total monthly search is around 10 billion then local search is made up of 2 billion searches. That’s 2 billion Google searches, per month, that have local intent. That translates to millions of searches per month for products and services here in Orlando.

So what does local search look like? When a user, in Orlando, types in VW repair Orlando into Google, they may find a few different local varieties.

The OneBox

The OneBox can be described as the “holy grail” of Google Local search as it’s the main focus of the page. and it’s listed alone. I have read and experienced twice the click through rate of a #1 ranking. Google only shows the OneBox when it is certain that the keyword search could only apply to a specific business name or the most relevant result.

2 or 3-Pack

The 2-3-Pack is a result of Google’s not having enough strong contenders to rank more then 2 or 3 business for local search. The rankings depend on citations from authoritative sources that it deems trustworthy.

7 or 10 Pack

The seven pack seems have replaced the 10 pack to be the most common of Google’s local business listings. Our client, Exclusively Financial, ranks top for Davie Florida mortgages.

We have noticed that what Google ranks you for is dependent on the content on your site. Geographically you may can get ranked for surrounding cities. Our client Full Throttle of Orlando ranks for Orlando VW ,Winter park VW mechanic, VW dealer in Altamonte springs and hundreds of other variations of VW related keywords and several surrounding cities.  The greater geographic listing success is related to how high, or in this case low geographic competition.

Users Trust Google!!

Google users seem to take your rankings as a sign of being a leader within its field.