National and Local rankings differences

[nikaus]

Hi Guys,
I am in Australia and have a client I am working with that ranks quite well for their main keywords.
The business is based in Sydney but delivers Australia wide.

The issue is - their main keyword ranks no.1 nationally.
If I set google to any of the main cities and type
Outdoor Mirrors Perth
Outdoor Mirrors Melbourne
Outdoor Mirrors Sydney
My client comes up no.1

But if I leave the city off the end of the keyword and I'm anywhere but Sydney I do not rank well for Outdoor Mirrors. The address of the business is in Sydney hence the no.1 there, but we said in Places that we deliver australia wide. Does anybody know why we don't rank well without the city added to the keyword and a way to remedy this?

Thanks

Nik

[donford]

Hi Nik,

The answer to the question is very simple, the fix maybe not so much.

Q: Does anybody know why we don't rank well without the city added to the keyword?
A: Google returns what they fill is the most relevant results for any search. In such case using the keyword in the city of Perth for example, the site is not the most relevant.

Okay maybe that is a bit crass, but what is actually going on may help take the sting out of it. Understand Google's goal is to give searchers the very best result for any search term. To do this they have to understand not only what each search term means but also try and interpret the searchers intent. So in your example when a person in Perth searches for Outdoor Mirrors Google may choose to show local results, national results, images, or combinations thereof.

It's quite clear there are differences in what type of results you'll see, for example in the US (Dayton, Ohio) Google thinks I want to view images of mirrors (2nd result images), followed by Pinrest results rank 3, and 4. The number 1 result is shows me outdoor wall art, but offers no outdoor mirrors whatsoever. Further research shows that term "outdoor mirror" has a bit of a negative connotation here as I'm seeing results about dead birds and other wildlife.

Culturally Australia maybe a bit different which Google may interpret the intent of the term "Outdoor Mirrors" as being somebody wanting to buy them locally. In which case they would show localized results.

I hope that helps you understand what is going on there...

So onto the fix.. how do you get your site to rank in these cities? First, you need to understand what Google thinks people want to see when they type in the keyword in those areas. Analyze the results, are they showing local retailers, local showrooms, just images? Once you understand what Google thinks people are looking for with that term, you can then develop content to become more relevant then the competition.

For example, if they are showing local retailers. You could write content that highlights delivery cost, time in transit, and local area installations for each city.

I hope this helps,

Don

[nikaus]

Thanks Don, that is helpful.
I have suggested a content strategy that incorporates the location information that can help with the local rankings. It is a strange one to deal with, when we rank no.1 nationally for a keyword (Outdoor Mirrors) but only show up no.1 in any city (except Sydney which is the businesses location) if you add the city name to the keyword.

It would make sense if it was the other way around, i.e. rank no.1 for the term Outdoor Mirrors on its own in any city but drop in ranking if the user adds location information to the keyword like the city.

We are looking to implement some location specific content, I will update this thread once things start to settle.

[donford]

Hi Nik,

I do wish you the best of luck. I think the reason you get #1 results for "adding city name" is your website likely uses the city name in the description, making it a new keyword "outdoor mirrors Perth" for example. That keyword itself generates different results then the broad keyword "outdoor mirrors" and again since Google treats intent differently based on location, you get different results. Furthermore since your business is located in Sydney, Google can easily draw a high correlation between outdoor mirrors and Sydney for anybody in that area.

Good luck once again,

Don

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Nik!

Google's local results depend entirely on having a physical location in a specific city. Right now, you have a physical location in Sydney, so you're doing well for these Sydney-based-or-related searches. But, you don't have an office in Perth or Melbourne, so there is no reason for Google to rank  you locally for these cities. Simply stating in your Google My Business description or service radius that you deliver nationwide is not going to override Google's bias toward physical location.

So, what this leaves you with is working to earn organic rankings for terms that relate to these other cities, and the main struggle here will be determine if it's logical for you to do so and then discovering content topics that make sense for the effort. Creating a bunch of pages that say 'we deliver to Perth', 'we deliver to Melbourne' will not be enough. It's not interesting and not a good reason to create a page. So, rather, you might need to think in terms of customer testimonials, stories about customers' use of your product, if you install your product then maybe video/text coverage of your installation projects, showcases of gardens in the different cities featuring your mirrors, contests in the cities, etc.

You'll need to find reason for writing about these cities beyond simply delivering to them. Then, you'll likely need to earn some good links to these pages. And, hopefully, that will lead to some organic visibility for these other cities where you lack a physical location. Hope this helps!