Local Search Results Biased Towards User’s Location

Here’s the dilemma: You have a beautiful new website. You’ve claimed your Google My Business listing. You’ve been blogging and posting to Google+ regularly. You’ve even kept up with Google’s best practices, but for whatever reason, you’re still not ranking in local searches.

What’s the reason? It comes down to your “location”.

We had a hunch that a user’s physical location would skew search results, but we weren’t sure how much. So, we set out to do some field testing. The results found that location & distance are huge factors when Google is providing you with results. You can be standing at different points throughout the town and get different results, even when searching for the same thing. Along the way, we found out that other elements play a role in local rankings, such as density, device connection, and search phrase.

Read the full article and analysis on Martindale.com: Search Location Drastically Affects Local Rankings