Accurate Rank Checking for Local SEO

[Davey_Tree]

Hi all,

I am wondering if anyone out there has cracked the enigma of figuring out how to accurately find local rankings for multi-location businesses.

I do understand that "accuracy" should be used loosely given the numerous factors that come into play for local such as distance from searcher and business location being located directly in the city of the search. So I definitely get that nothing will be entirely accurate but the programs I have used and the incognito browser approach just seems so far off. Moz tells me something different than the Google Adword Preview Tool which is different than SEMRush which is different than serps.com and so on.

I have done the appending to search strings with near=city as well. I unfortunately do not trust any of them at this point. I would LOVE if my company flew me out to every single city we are in so I could do local searches but that is probably not going to happen

Any thoughts or recommendations for how I can get the most accurate local rank, even if it is an incredibly manual process? Is there an easy way for me to change my location anymore since Google stripped that option away awhile back? That was the ONLY time I felt I was getting somewhat accurate results.

Thanks!

-Ben

[Nigel_Carr]

Hi Davey

Whilst you can change your version of Google to any country you can't do it by city.

Check out this nifty tool which seems to do the job really well:

https://www.isearchfrom.com/

Regards

Nigel

[JoyHawkins]

Use this tool in an incognito tab: https://www.brightlocal.com/local-search-results-checker/

To get the most accurate results you need to search from a zip code, not a city name.

I've honestly always found it to be extremely accurate and is almost always the same thing the person I'm talking to is seeing.

[Davey_Tree]

Thanks Nigel and Joy!

I am playing around with both tools now!

-Ben

[Chad.Edwards]

Hi Ben - Chad here from Moz. Kudos to Joy and Nigel for the great tool suggestions. I checked those out myself!

You make a good call out that there is no perfect method for tracking rankings given proximity and geographic location - I'd also add personalization as the other big factor. I was recently in the same room with 4-5 members of my client's digital team in Texas. We all ran the same keyword search on laptops and mobiles, and nearly all saw variations in the local results. So, there's that. : )

Moz has put a ton of thought and testing into how to get the most directionally accurate results, but personalization in particular challenges any method. It may go without saying, but I tell my clients to pick one method or tracker (maybe two at the most) then look at the directional changes in rankings vs. the absolute rankings themselves. It takes the pressure off small changes in rankings and allows them to become a useful confirmation that all is well or an alerting system that something has gone/is going in the wrong direction. This is in contrast to metrics like traffic (online and off), GMB insights data, and conversions/sales that tend be better indicators of success in your digital efforts. Best of luck! -Chad