How to Own Your Neighborhood In Google Local Search Rankings

Online search is constantly becoming more sophisticated, and local businesses are in a prime position to reap the rewards of the many recent local-focused algorithm updates—as long as they know how. Google ’s goal is to display the most relevant search results with every query, and as a result, they’ve developed more complex algorithms that can filter results geographically, down to a neighborhood level of specificity.

The advancement is great for users and businesses alike; individual searchers are connected to relevant businesses in their own neighborhoods, and business owners can enjoy the traffic from a top-ranked position even without a massive budget. However, neighborhood-specific local search results aren’t perfect, and business owners have to do some work before they can achieve significant visibility in search results. While it will take time to achieve those rankings, the process is easier than many business owners think.

Getting Started with Google My Business

My Definitive Guide to Local SEO covers the basics of local optimization for businesses, including why it’s important for virtually all business owners and how to get started, but since we’re on the topic of optimizing your business for neighborhood-specific results, it’s important to emphasize the value of Google My Business.

If you haven’t already created a free page with Google My Business, make it a priority. It’s a simple process that will instantly and dramatically improve your local search visibility. Verify all your information, and make sure your listing is filled out as much as possible. The more images and videos you include, the better.

Running Down the Checklist

In addition to claiming your Google My Business profile, there are some priorities you’ll want to cover before you worry too much about how your business ranks within your neighborhood.

• Establish a website. Strangely enough, you don’t need a website to rank in Google local search results, but having one can add to your authority, and as you’ll see in the next section, it can also improve your chances at ranking properly within a specific neighborhood.
• Use the Schema.org Local format to improve how your business’s website and location are seen in search engines. A KML file is also good to include.
• Establish social media profiles on any platforms you can, but especially Google+, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Yelp. Updating your social media profiles regularly will do wonders for your local rankings, but claiming them is the most important first step.
• Ensure your address and company information is formally consistent across all platforms and brand mentions. Even a difference in notation, like “St” instead of “Street,” can interfere with this consistency.

The Problem With Neighborhood Boundaries

There’s one slight problem with the way Google currently analyzes and provides search results for neighborhoods. If you do a quick search for “Restaurants in Neighborhood,” you’ll likely notice that there are a few results in the local carousel from places located outside your specified neighborhood, and a few restaurants within your specified neighborhood that don’t show up at all.

Densely populated and well-known neighborhoods, like Greenwich Village in New York, rarely suffer from this problem because their boundaries are well-defined, and Google has had plenty of time to learn which results are relevant to the neighborhood and which ones aren’t. In contrast, most neighborhoods in the United States suffer from ambiguously or subjectively defined boundaries, as well as inconsistent references from local businesses.

While Google is making bolder efforts to improve its understanding of neighborhood geography and generate more relevant local search results, for the time being, having a physical location within a specific neighborhood isn’t enough to guarantee an appearance on neighborhood-specific searches. In other words, even if your restaurant is located in the center of “Midtown” a search for “Restaurants in Midtown” may not feature your business—unless you take the proper precautions.

In addition to the steps I outlined above, there are a handful of local optimization tactics you should leverage to secure your place in neighborhood-specific search results.

• Google My Business allows a descriptor in addition to your official business name. Make sure your descriptor includes your neighborhood’s name.
• Use the same variation of your neighborhood’s name, preferably the “official” name of your neighborhood, in every instance of your business online (if your neighborhood is known by multiple names or abbreviations).
• Include your neighborhood name in the description field of your Google My Business page.
• Include your neighborhood name on title tags throughout your website.
• Create a dedicated page on your website with a title that includes your neighborhood name.
• Check out Google MapMaker to see how Google defines the boundaries of your neighborhood, and submit any adjustments you feel are necessary.

Best Practices Moving Forward

Optimizing your local business for neighborhood-specific results does take quite a bit of setup, but there is an ongoing element you need to keep up with if you want to maintain or improve your search visibility.

• Encourage your customers to post detailed reviews online if they enjoyed their experience. Reviews on your Google My Business page are viewed with more authority than reviews on third party pages like Yelp, but all reviews have an impact. Positive reviews are much better than negative reviews, so give the best service you can and point your most satisfied customers to your Google page to post a review. However, don’t make the mistake of purchasing phony reviews: if you’re caught, your search visibility could face serious consequences.
• Use a local citation finder like WhiteSpark to find the best citation sources for your area, and submit new citations regularly. Guest blogging is another valuable route to building your local authority—just make sure to include your neighborhood name in all of your local citation profiles.
• Start a blog and get active on social media, regularly posting content that’s relevant to your customers. Don’t stuff your content full of keywords or you’ll end up hurting yourself, but do include your neighborhood name whenever possible in the body of your content and inbound links pointing back to your site. Consistency is key here—don’t attempt to post a mass of updates all at once and be done with it. Make new posts at least once weekly.
• Consider working with an independent agency with experience in local optimization. The setup process requires some technical knowledge, especially if your onsite optimization requires a major overhaul, and the ongoing process of building your rank requires a steep time investment if you want solid results. Depending on your resources and budget, an agency is likely the most efficient route to take.

Conclusion

With the rise of mobile search, and the high correlation between mobile search and local queries, Google is making a distinct push toward improving its local search results. Now’s the time for local businesses to leverage this trend to maximize local search visibility, along with leads, traffic, and sales.