How Google Is Shaping User Search Behaviour
I believe I’m the first to observe this new addition in Google regional search, which effectively tries to suggest more local search queries for generic search terms.
Try it – Type in any generic service type such as lawyer, dentist, or florist into your regional Google search engine, and you’ll notice results such as the one above. In what seems to affirm to their ‘Do No Evil’, and ‘offer the most relevant results’ mantra, Google has started to suggest localized business queries for generic searches on regional google domains such Google.ca, .co.uk, and .com.au.
In essence, Google is shaping user search behaviour from searching generic phrases to more localized ones that offer better relevancy. After all, one of the main reasons most folks use regional google search rather than google.com is to get better results – No one wants to find a plumber in Waco, TX (due to heavy SEO) when they are really located in Vancouver, BC.
The caveat of course is that people are stubborn – they don’t change their habits easily, but this is a step in the right direction. Local search terms may have lower search volume but they generally have higher conversion rates as buyers are pre-empted by the very nature of the local search.
Implications on Organic and Paid Search
Shaping user behaviour and therefore traffic can have significant implications to the world of organic and paid search. If the trend continues, we will see an increase in traffic from local search terms, thereby increasing the bid costs on terms that were once cheap. It is impossible to say how long this might take for users to generally stop searching generic terms and start with localized search queries from their base (first) search.
In any case, this means that advertisers will have keep a very keen eye on the shift between generic phrase searches to local search, and adjust their campaigns accordingly. From an organic SEO standpoint, this means that search campaigns will require more components of local seo, in order to rank at the top. For example, some of my client’s rank very well for generic keywords (which is great), but do not rank within the top 5 for every single market they service, simply because a lesser number of hours has been focused on attaining city based rankings. In other cases, clients who have no e-tailer presence and are purely local will benefit from existing rankings that are relatively ‘cemented’ compared to other sites that are trying to optimize for local search queries.
In general, local seo will no longer be an add-on to an SEO campaign, but rather become an integral part of it, with local seo best practices such as:
- Building links or reviews from local citation sources.
- Having a separate landing page for each business location, or service area.
- A greater focus on local business directory link building (as a part of passive seo).
- Enhancing existing PPC campaigns with local maps targeting and business coupons.
- Since searches are being localized, optimization for the Google Maps one-box will become that much more important.
Why It Might Be Counter-Intuitive For Google Shareholders
Unless the industry jumps ship from generic keywords and switches over to local-only keywords overnight (ain’t gonna happen), revenue from Google Adwords will go down as local search terms generally cost far less to bid on than generic keywords. As previously stated, user search behaviour takes a long time to change, and this should diminish any impact on overall revenues Adwords as a paid search platform, but in the long term one has to wonder if Google is shooting itself in the foot? Perhaps it hopes to make more revenue from sheer volume of keywords, but I do not forsee local keywords being more expensive than generic keywords any time soon.
Rolling it Out in Canada, the UK, and Australia
I’ve only tested the local query suggestion box in .ca, co.uk, and com.au but the box seems to be customized based on which regional search engine is used. For example, here’s the difference between Australia and Canada respectively, for the same search term:
Thoughts? Comments? Observations? Let me know if I’m completely off base, or if you agree with me on my thoughts regarding this change. Looking forward to discussions in the comments then.
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Means more money for people managing PPC for large local portals, since the number of keywords to handle (and thus time investment) is going up. Nice find dude!
@Gab – Yep, I can totally see Marches, Reach Local, and other such platforms profiting from this shift if it sticks in the long term.
Hey Dev – Awesome find! This really is a move in the right direction by Google for both SEO and PPC. I see it the same way you do. It’s a move that’s in line with building user confidence through greater relevancy.
On the paid search side, this discovery confirms what we’ve been seeing lately – Google is rewarding advertisers who are more relevant in tighter geographical areas. Adwords’ quality score is being calculated more in real time and by geographical performance, so advertisers who monitor and improve their campaigns’ geographical performance by targeting tighter areas (City or state level vs. nationwide in one campaign) will reap a better ROI.
Google has once again given more power to advertisers who stay on top of these changes and make the best of the opportunities they bring about.
Is Google shooting itself in the foot?
It would seem that way at first glance, but I think that this change will actually solidify their hold as the search engine of preference, meaning more long-term revenues as their search market share is expanded.
Already most people I know don’t bother with the yellow pages anymore – they use Google for their local searches now. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a much greater number of local businesses advertising on Google in the coming years.
Nice pickup mate. I’ve noticed that I don’t get that little box AT ALL if I’m signed into my Google account. Probably because they already ‘know’ where I am from that. But I have noticed a real shift in an effort to personalise results these days. SEO, in my opinion, is going to take on a real shift in the coming year, because Google is changing the game… again.
Ooo! I feel a blog post coming on.
I feel kind of silly asking, but are you saying there is a another way of googling information other than the basic google.com search? I know that I’ve noticed certain areas pop up in a search, but they are often in different states. This would be extremely beneficial to me, as I own a website development company, and would love to target my region. Thanks for the information, I’ll have to research this futher.
Hi Dev,
You got that one spot on. I noticed this a while back and listed my sites on local businesses at google.co.in and surprisingly have even recieved telephone calls from them verifying the data. GOOGLE is definitely orienting itsself to local / regional target businesses.
@Amit – They definitely are and one of my predictions for ‘09 is that they will roll out local search to all of the international domains. Further, I predict that Google will get more ‘hyper-local’ as we already see it has in the States.
Local Search is going to dominate in long term. I think Searachwiki will be popular. I don’t know how much time it will take to be popular, but it will happen in future, that is for sure. And Searchwiki will make search more local in longer term.
Hi Dev, interesting article thanks, i’ll take some notes to apply to my websites. However what about sites that are supposed to be non-local like your blog, you don’t want to exclude any areas.
I’ve noticed the same, but have a different take on the implications. We work with primarily b2b companies, most in manufacturing sectors that do not market locally or even regionally, but nationally. Although they might have “competitors” in the same town, usually there are a number of distinguishing factors related to the size of equipment, expertise in a particular market, knowledge of specialty materials, that qualify them for jobs nationwide over companies that might be located in the same region as the customer. But, Internet searchers don’t always use long-tail searches to find those companies, using instead more general terms. Google’s increased focus on localization could cause search results to incorrectly prioritize companies that are located in the region of the search engine user/customer, that really aren’t the right fit. In an industry sector that has many players, that could ultimately waste a lot of the Internet users’ time and make b2b searches less useful.
I can see Google geting even bigger on the Local directories or yellowpages market, But att work smart and can stiil keep it sace in the Local Business yellowpages marketing!
I agree regional searches are occurring more frequently. I don’t know if a wholesale exodus to regional searches will come in the near future. With the availability of shipping around the country most people are looking for deals that they can have shipped two them. Most people already know their local area or have friends that can suggest who to call locally. Great post. Thanks.
Google has once again given more power to advertisers who stay on top of these changes and make the best of the opportunities they bring about.
Is Google shooting itself in the foot?
Thanks Great info! – I am in the UK and the “looking for local results” box does not seem to be widely used yet (July 09) – although since April the map results box appears for searches like “restaurant” and “flowers” (and are based on your IP address) – with the option of changing location .
I have recently started implementing a big search campaign for one of my clients and what has happened is they are ranking well for the local search terms but at the same time, the non-local search term which was previously ranking well – has slipped.
The client is worried that the lower ranking of the generic search term could be due to the increased focus on specific locations.
My view is that if anything the generic rankings should improve due to increased overall content which includes the generic non-local term.
Has anyone noticed anything similar?