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Surprise: “Near Me” Brand Names Don’t Rank Higher for “Near Me” Searches

A recent thought article from Google suggests that improving “near me” search will provide bonanza with better rankings and more relevant referral traffic.

“Closer to Me” has been one of the keywords that many of us have recommended for the benefit of SEO over the years now.

But, there are reasons to think that this strategy has completely jumped off the shark, making it a waste of time.

And for those who have improved by creating a business name around the phrase, Google’s changes have actually destroyed their brand name on Maps.

‘Open now near me’ searches up 400%

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‘Open now near me’ searches up 400%

In March, Bill Ready, president of business, payment and billionaire users of the following Google, penned the 2022 Retail Marketing Guide: Drive foot traffic and in-store sales. This section caught my attention:

“Open search” now close to me “has grown globally over 400% YOY.”

Searching for “Near me” is a query for local products or services including eligibility criteria such as “Near me” when customers want to narrow down to see the businesses closest to them alone or in advance.

Also, during its Q1 revenue call, Google revealed that Map search for [near store] is up 100% globally every year.

“Open Now” is a type of dashboard that is often used outside of the regular 9-to-5 hours or used late at night, such as to find restaurants still open, or clinics and other types of stores. in the open. tomorrow night.

While searching for businesses near “Near me” or “open now” is often used separately, it is not surprising that both qualifying phrases are used simultaneously when asked.

The rise of ‘near me’ search optimization

The rise of ‘near me’ search optimization

If you have worked in SEO for a long time, this is not surprising. We know for almost a decade that “Near me” search optimization has great potential for many types of business in many markets.

The 400% growth rate for YOY is eye-opening, indicating that customers have increased their expectation that these qualifications will help them get exactly what they need.

The increase in the use of mobile devices during searches has had a significant impact on the “Close to Me” trend and has contributed to the overall increase in local search volume.

Google’s changes reflect the growing popularity of “near me” search, which is what Ready based on his statement:

Related research including “open now” also shows significant long-term growth:

Along with others in the industry, I strongly recommend that local businesses improve their relevant keywords in addition to the phrases “Close to me”. There are a number of such statements used by consumers, including:

I have also made improvements by using these statements on behalf of customers. In one case (private lawyer), keyword research has shown that there are no other lawyers competing in a niche using the phrase “near me”. I created an optimized page with the word “Close to me”. Its submission increased by 20%.

Find a daily newsletter that searches for marketers they rely on.

Improving the phrase “By Me” has been a solid golden advice for a long time searching internally. It was almost a slam-dunk.

Because when you have a website and web pages that include a page or pages “near me,” along with the name of the industry business section, many businesses that people want from local providers this will link local customers to websites and Google Maps boxes for these businesses. which has been improved. As more and more businesses became aware of the improvement, this provided a cumbersome marketing weapon that guaranteed an increase in valuable transmissions.

The rise of ‘near me’ businesses

The rise of ‘near me’ businesses

Over the past few years, several businesses have taken this improvement to the next level.

As an engineer their business name itself to include “Close to Me”.

If you check the records of all the business records in the United States, you will quickly find out that there are a number of businesses in the United States that have added “near me” their official business names.

This includes many business sectors beyond a few predictable types (e.g., locksmiths).

Obviously, many companies have adopted the idea of ​​improving the “By Me” query and have made it an integral part of their strategy that can be expected to bring back more references.

With all of their guaranteed online resources linking to “my business”, how could they not value this search?

Business registration for “Near Me” in Nevada

Business registration for “Near Me” in New York (partial list).

My nearest dentist in El Paso, Texas

Sushi Near Me in Los Angeles, California

Private landmarks near me, Denver, Colorado

Locksmith Near Me Miami, Florida – service area business

24 HR Locksmith Near Me, Jacksonville, Florida – Business location

Locksmith, Massage, and Near Me businesses in Manhattan, New York It is not clear whether these are area service businesses or fake alternative business lists.

Around My Home, Indianapolis, Indiana

I will take some blame for this.

Not long ago, I jokingly promoted some of the “worst local SEO strategies” – such as the famous advice of “change your business name to include a few of the top keywords. users type in search engines when searching for your type of business in your area “(This was not against the rules at the time, by the way.)

I have also blogged some “latest SEO strategies” which include the idea of ​​having a company named after a company, or even having a city or country named after a company or brand name!

Part of the point of this joke article was to teach people how Google, and Google Maps search, relied heavily on keywords for compatibility which complementing keyword optimization can heat a company to appears to be the most popular local business search.

Google has finally figured it out

Google has finally figured it out

About 10 years ago – when it became clear that customers were increasingly searching for local businesses by combining the phrase “next to me” in their queries – I wondered why Google was not crafting specific phrase management.

I asked a Google Maps agent about this and I was told they had a lot on their list of development priorities – but this was something they were probably close to.

Well, it seems that Google is finally getting closer.

Google has now made the query “near me” back to the nearest local businesses that match the search terms in the local maps. To do this, Google explicitly publishes the “Near Me” section of the user query and is similar to the rest of the query for businesses and websites that it believes are closest to the user site. This management eliminates the effectiveness of making keyword optimization with the phrase “near me” in Google Maps / internal search.

Local ranking showdown: business name vs. proximity

Local ranking showdown: business name vs. proximity

I saw that this was happening anonymously, but after getting a number of businesses in the picture above to check how they ranked their area in “Near me” the right search phrases that fit with their business names, the results are amazing.

When searching for a Dallas IP address for “near me ER,” 11 businesses appear on the Maps results before the “nearest ER” business list is written. Instead, the search for other businesses on the list by name comes up with them first displayed on the list, and sometimes themselves with the results.

Searching for another common-name name, “ER of Texas,” produces results from a list of two of their first sites on Google Maps, followed by other businesses within multiple locations for “ER”. of Texas “.

This is what makes the search results “ER near me” interesting – if Google determines that the queries are more likely to search for a business name, their list will appear first on the list.

This movement is really amazing. Google has done a lot of work to try to show the business list first in the search results for the right brand name. This was denied the “Close to Me” lists in the trade names.

There is a warning for search for the name if the name appears spammy (such as those with narrow keywords). One can imagine that businesses with the names “Near me” could be treated as a keyword, which would then deny the usefulness of the keyword. However, I found that they could still rank the questions “closer to me” – depending on the proximity of the radio.

In the “dentist near me” search for El Paso on Google Maps, I found a list of a hundred maps that I omitted – a business called Dentist Near Me did not appear when using the IP address location associated with El El Paso.

However, the business is located on the eastern edge of the city, and by changing the IP address of the browser to a location very close to that address, I was able to find a Dentist near me in the fourth natural position of Maps. Miami’s “Locksmith Near Me” was in 16th place.

Searching for “Sushi near me” in Los Angeles also did not return the business with that name in the first three search results. Search Boxes Near Me in Phoenix has released a list of businesses in the fifth place. The “24hr Locksmith Near Me” was ranked 24th on the Maps in search of “my closest key” in Jacksonville. Search Exterminator Near Me in Indianapolis ranked 56th in the business list.

Denver’s “special signs near me” seem to be an exception to how this works. But, I believe that is mostly because the business is located near downtown Denver, and there are a few other branded businesses near the center.

Switching to Lakewood Search, located in Denver, reduces the listing space by a number of positions. It could also be that “private brands” may not be recognized as part of the business compared to Google’s “branded stores”. The creation of Denver’s “flag stores near me” puts the business list in fifth place. It is likely that the business was highly valued because of its location near the city center – not because of the modification of the key word “Me next to it” in its business name.

When I was looking to find business examples with “my” real names, I went through a lot of situations which were brand names and fake sites. A number of companies have made additional maps for Google maps with the names “________ near me”. These often use the exact address of their normal business, perhaps expecting customers to search “near me”, see the site, and arrive in an undercover state to run the business with their real name tag. .

The three lists I listed above in Manhattan (locksmith, moving company and massage provider) can be fake lists. In many cases, some of the “Near me” lists seem completely fake, appear to be businesses in the service area, and when you see their locations they are next to police stations, downtown, near parks or around shared workplaces. As predicted, these lists are for moving companies, locksmiths, roofing contractors, plumbers and business sectors who have for some time been involved in fake list issues.

Now, in the real “near me” businesses that I have registered, a number of their websites have clearly appeared in the mainstream, keyword search results outside of Google Maps – often in the first place naturally, but not always.

“Closer to me” keyword optimization seems to still work there, and there may be a price tag for that in terms of referral traffic. But, experience shows that it would be of great value to search for Maps.

Many customers looking for a local provider are automatically searching Google Maps, which will see other businesses spend more time searching for “Near me”, not these highly optimized companies.

Google itself shows that customers are showing the local purpose of these queries, because each of the query queries reflects a combination of results with the top 3-Pack Maps, ahead of the standard keyword search results. .

Is ‘near me’ optimization a detriment to businesses?

When some of our local SEOs first started recommending the promotion of the keywords “near me,” there was a simple criticism that the keyword promotion was difficult to include on the pages. internet and to-do list in a natural way. But doing so, by adding business names, is far more of a face-to-face option than just adding isolated chapters, page titles and titles.

Adding business names seems to be detrimental to building a unique brand.

While keywords in a brand name can often have mixed value if done well, these closest to me brand names seem to be a strong job search marketing above all considering marketing and brand building.

Some will undoubtedly call the names of the symbols silently. I think these will also not work well for word-of-mouth marketing or business repetition.

Because Google is now using the “Close to Me” sections of user queries as a kind of proximity index, rather than a keyword matching keywords, the use of this’s brand name promotion is unfortunate at the moment .

Customers who want to use their business again are often searching the business name on the internet, if they do so on Maps they will have a lot of trouble finding these businesses because the functionality of Google is now damaging their ability to integrate well in search of their name.

I do not believe that this is necessary for any kind of punishment. Google has simply determined that “near me” queries are too many queries for customers who want to find specific businesses that are close to their physical site rather than businesses with names that match the query. “around me”.

For established businesses, one of the top types of search queries that will refer to traffic over time is brand name queries. While the use of “By Me” in brand names may have already paid off in the previous shareholding, the strategy is now seriously damaging the online business strategy of local businesses.

A gimmick whose time has passed

The Think With Google article citing 400% YOY growth in the “open now close to me” search advised businesses to improve for local ones to take advantage of these queries. Google did not provide instructions on how to do this.

However, I believe that this improvement does not mean adding keywords to “near me”, web marketing tools, very little should involve warming up the brand name to include “open now” and “near me” sentences.

Improving this means updating your work hours, frankly, your Google Business Profile, including all the titles and site signs of online guaranteed products to make your site signs more relevant. strong.

Consumer proximity is not the only requirement. Improving brand identity is important (for example, the volume and speed of reviews, being reported by other websites and linked to your business websites).

Bottom line: Any pros and cons of Adding “Close to Me” to your business name are often eliminated.

The ideas expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Land Search. Staff writers are listed here.

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About The Author

Pourquoi créer un compte Google Business ?

Google My Business (GMB) is a free web site that allows you to refine your referrals on Google when you search for geographical location. We want to revisit the concept of pour tous les commerces de proximité.

What is Google My Business est gratuit? Maya, the latest copyrighted page of Google is no longer available. This does not mean that you do not want to spend time together. You will be rewarded with a free quote from Google search or Maps to get to the top of our clients.

Pourquoi s’inscrire sur Google My Business ?

Go to the Internet, and Google My Business is your site. While these real estate professionals are geolocating, Google My Business is trying to get more profitable with its pros and cons. The information about the sites are different from what they use Google Local Guides.

How do I access my Google business account?

How do I access my Google business dashboard?

  • Google Local Page URL (or dashboard URL)
  • Your website URL.
  • Full business name and address
  • The business sector.
  • The information tab in the GMB Dashboard
  • If pending please provide the mark or other photographic evidence (such as a business license)

Qui utilise Google My Business ?

Société, it implies the sectarian, peuténéficier de ce service. No, you have a PME or a large enterprise, you can take advantage of Google My Business for free and illiterate.

What is the use of Google My Business?

Use the Google My Business app to connect with customers and stay in your business making it new to Google Search and Maps. The Google My Business app is a mobile app that helps you manage your business. With the app, you can do the following: Manage how your local business looks on Google Search and Maps.

How can I use Google My Business for free?

Is Google Business Data Free? Yes, it is free to create a Google Business Profile. Create your own brand for free, and you can manage your business with Google Search and Maps to start reaching more customers.

Is Google My Business worth it?

Is it worth all the effort? Regardless of whether you are a local, regional, national or international company, the simple answer is YES. Local search is an important part of a complete digital marketing campaign, Google My Business is a huge and ever-growing phenomenon.

Quel est l’intérêt d’utiliser Google My Business ?

Google My Business is beyond Internet use for my business. Grace aux informative rents on the fiches (address, telephones, horaires, avis, internet site), you can use the app to search the Google search engine or pack locally, which will boost your SEO promotion.

Pourquoi s’intéresser aux moteurs de recherche en tant qu’entreprise ?

1- The SEO allows a croissant explicit Cela prend du temps, but va vaut le coup: the first page of Google results results 90% of clics; le site en première booska obtient plus de 30% de Visiteurs en moyenne (source: Backlinko).

Quel est l’intérêt de Google ?

Google allows more content on the web, if you are active and popular on the web. As well as the safety, and online promotion is one of the most important web sites. Il faut être à la fois présent and facilitation available shub les internautes.

Quels sont les outils de Google ?

  • Google Apps at Work. Parmi tous les is outside of Google, Apps for Work is intangible. …
  • YouTube. …
  • Google and Google Business. …
  • Google Trends. …
  • Google Analytics. …
  • Google AdWords. …
  • Google My Business. …
  • Google Business Center.

Comment supprimer un compte Google Business ?

Comment on Google My Business supplier?

  • Connect to Connect My Google My Business and click on the third page bar and go to the main menu.
  • Cliquez on établissements.
  • Selectionnez la fiche entreprise à goods supplier.
  • Cliquez sur Actions puis sur “Supprimer l’établissement”

Want Google My Business? Sida Google My Business allows your clients to reach out to you and get a note on 5 years of client client lors de sa venue en magasins. The main purpose of rassurer les consommateurs and affichant automatiquement les avis iyo en y répondant.

Où se trouve Google My Business ?

Here you will find the results of the results page, the presentation of the articles as well as the reference to the online review. Ces profils renseignent le consommateur quant à l’activité de l’entreprise, si localisation, ses horaires d’ouverture ou encore aux coordonné à utiliser shub prendre contact avec elle.

Does it cost money to verify your business on Google?

You can verify and update your Google My Business page, and update it using: https://business.google.com/ which does not cost anything. If you feel that they have been compromised, or logged into your google account, do a security check and remove access to any unknown device, and change your password.

How is local SEO different from SEO?

Here is the difference. While traditional SEO focuses on improving the visibility of your site at the national or international level, local SEO allows you to capture a local search site to connect with the searchers in your area. SEO and local SEO use many of the same strategies.

What is the difference between local and organic SEO? Local SEO has a geographical component to which organic SEO is not mandatory. It is the practice of building appropriate signs around a particular area; brick and mortar trade. Organic SEO is a marketing practice that revolves around, more or less, around websites.

What is local SEO?

Local SEO is a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy that helps your business to be more visible in local Google search results. Any business that has a physical site or serves a geographic area can benefit from local SEO.

What means local SEO?

Local SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a way to improve the search engine appearance of local businesses, primarily those with brick-and-mortar sites. By following the best SEO practices, businesses can improve the natural search traffic generated by nearby customers.

Why do I need local SEO?

Local SEO helps your business grow â € “even if you do not have a website â €“ and helps you get more traffic to your site through this online guide. Since this lead comes from people who are specifically looking for products or services offered by your business, they are also more likely to offer you higher exchange rates.

What is the difference between local and global SEO?

Local SEO focuses on building an online presence in the local area, while international SEO focuses on building a topic presence anywhere in the world. Both types of SEO are valuable in their design.

What is SEO and SEA?

SEO and BADA: The meaning of SEO is short for Search Engine Optimization. SEO includes all the activities you do to ensure that your website ranks higher in the search results than search engines like Google. Search Engine Optimization (SEA), also known as PPC or Pay-Per-click.

Is SEA paid search?

SEA for digital marketing refers to the strategy of delivering search engine ads to Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. SEA, or “search engine,” refers to a form of money marketing that helps businesses find their ads in front of searchers by paying to get a copy of their ads at the top of the search results.

What is SEA in search engine?

SEA stands for Search Engine Ads, also known as PPC or Pay-Per-click. It is a method of direct advertising by Google and similar search engines. The search results are displayed at the top and right of the Natural Results on the Search Engine Results Page.

What is local SEO & Why local search is important?

Local SEO helps your business grow â € “even if you do not have a website â €“ and helps you get more traffic to your site through this online guide. Since this lead comes from people who are specifically looking for products or services offered by your business, they are also more likely to offer you higher exchange rates.

Why is a local search important?

Local search can help eliminate radios that are unlikely to be relevant to your business. This is not because search engines are making a concerted effort to protect consumer businesses, but because they want to provide relevant local results based on proximity and purpose.

What is local and organic SEO?

Based on these definitions, we can make a fundamental difference between Local and Natural SEO: Local SEO is about site optimization, while natural SEO is about content optimization. Both should improve your site and online presence in search engines.

What is local SEO? Local SEO is a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy that helps your business to be more visible in local Google search results. Any business that has a physical site or serves a geographic area can benefit from local SEO.

What is an organic SEO?

Organic search engine optimization (SEO) refers to the methods used to get high ranking (or ranking) on ​​the search results page for free, algorithm-driven search results provided.

How is organic SEO done?

Natural SEO refers to getting natural placement and getting results done through various proven strategies such as website optimization by writing high quality and highly relevant content, promoting keywords, adding meta tags , and reversal.

What does organic search mean?

What is organic search? Natural search results are unpaid results that appear on the search engine results page after a query.

Can you pay Google to rank higher?

Tip: There is no better way to apply or get a local ranking than Google. We strive to keep the search algorithm details confidential, to make the ranking system as fair as possible for everyone.

How much does it cost to be at the top of Google search? The average CPC is $ 2. 6,600 times $ 2 trial cost per 30% Click Thru Rate = $ 3,960. So using Google Tools, we can estimate that we will pay $ 3,960 a month to become Google’s # 1 liiska lon Salon Nashville list.â € The annual value of that # 1 ranking of Google will be $ 47,520.

Can I pay Google for SEO?

No. Google does not provide SEO services. Remember, Google is a search engine and they have developed their own algorithm to evaluate websites.

Is it worth it to pay someone for SEO?

The short answer is SEO is very effective “not only to generate traffic but also lead and sales. Don’t worry. The long answer includes research and data, not just empty words. Most SEO- are very sensitive to specific search metrics such as SERPs (search results page), rankings, and natural traffic.

How much does SEO cost Google?

PRICE PLACESEO costs
In the month$ 1500 – $ 5000 per month
Fixed price$ 1500 – $ 25,000 / contract
Project-based or one-time$ 5000 – $ 30,000 / project
clockwise$ 100 – $ 300 / hour

How much should I pay someone for SEO?

If you are hiring a top SEO company to run a local campaign, expect to pay $ 500.00 per month. The national or international campaign will require a minimum budget of $ 2,500 to $ 5,000 per month. Some companies offer a low-cost “trial package”, with no contract.

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