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Local Search – Reliable Organic Answers or Not.

Posted on 12. Apr, 2010 by LocalSearchPilot in Google Local, Local Search, SEO

When speaking at seminars about SEO and organic rankings, I’m constantly reminding my audiences to never forget “Google picks”. So does Yahoo! & Bing.

It never fails for 90% of the audience to question why they are never put  on page 1. They simply can not grasp the concept that while “they” might think they are the best “answer” for the query, the search engines do not.

If the search engines don’t know about you (or at least not much) and you have no “online equity”, they are not going to pick you. You are not an authority online no matter what your offline marketing says or how many plaques on the wall you have.

Google does not call your customers to find out how they’d rate you. Your customers need to give reviews online.

For those of us that are good with SEO, it is easier to “game the system” if you will. I questioned the reliability of the Google Local Business Listings earlier. I then put some random tags for “st louis cabinet stores” in that post (which is a post that is unrelated to “cabinet stores”) and now I hold the #1 position on Google & Yahoo! and #3 on Bing for that term.

Additionally I found that on http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&safe=active&q=cabinet+stores&start=10&sa=N (Canada) for the term “cabinet stores” my post was in the top 10. it has since dropped to #11 out of 21 million.

So what I question is where is the fact finding in the algorhithms? Where is the “if this, then that, or else this”.

It makes paid search look like a much better option and is the only area on the SERP where you as the business owner can take control, pick your keywords, target area and show up when “you” want. Relying on the search engines to pick apparently puts you in questionable hands.

I’m not going to compare search engines to an IYP but if you go to www.yp.com and search for something, you’re getting only businesses related to your query. It seems to me that more and more people are saying that the search engines is where you find local businesses, which you can, however, it’s clear that the SERPs contain a variety of info based on an algorithm and the reality is that most of the “answers” are in fact not very good.

How complex (or not) is the algorithm that it can’t figure out that my blog on local search is not a resource for kitchen cabinet stores?

A search on Google for “emergency plumber st louis” yields a top 10 that’s less than desirable. 2 of the 10 are for St Louis Minnesota, not Missouri. 1 is a website filled with articles, another of the top 10 is a link to an article from the Post Dispatch, 1 is for the city of st louis, by this time you get my point. That is a common search query and on Google there is no Local Listings (map) and 50% of the top 10 are terrible “answers”.

I’d suggest more options on the SERPs. I would guesstimate that 85% of the  people searching are unaware of the “show options” feature. Even if they did know it existed, your limited to Images, Videos, News, Blogs, Updates, Books, Discussions.

How about an option that would yield “businesses”, or one that would yield only “articles”, another that would yield “directories”, let the user decide what the organic results should be. We are at the point of personalized search yet the organic results are still based on what “Google” thinks.

Google tells me that for the query “accounting help st louis” the best results (and the 2 companies in the Map) are Recruiters.  My intent was not for employment, I need tax help. 6 of the 10 organic results are for job websites. I changed the query to “accounting services in st louis” and 4 of the 10 were still for jobs.

On YP.com, I am presented with nothing but accountants.

I’ve begun to ramble, but it’s a frustrating topic for me. The people behind the algorithm’s for the search engines are smart, smarter than me, yet somehow the SERPs are filled with irrelevant info 80+% of the time.

Somehow we need to “clean up the mess” or educate the masses that IYP’s have relevant info just about 100% of the time. For me Google is great for directions (what I use it the most for it seems), research, etc., but for finding a relevant local business it can be a challenge.  I will stop with my last query, a search for “accounting firms 63141” gives me one result in the Map and the company they list is 20 miles away from the center of 63141.  So I ask, how relevant is that?!?!?

Tags: Bing local search, Google local search, Local Search, Local Search Help, search engine optimization, search engine results, SEO, Yahoo local search