See Google search results as you would in any other location
See Google search results as you would in any other location
Fully localized search results
In the Google search, the search hits in connection with products and services, people, places, etc. are now often completely localized. This means that even without entering a place name in the search query, Google delivers suitable results based on the location of the searcher.
In the past, if you were looking for a restaurant nearby, you had to express yourself clearly and enter the exact location in the search query, eg “Italian Restaurant Hamburg Alsterdorf”. (Compare Google’s local adaptation from 2014, as described later in the article.)
In the meantime, you can omit the place name for many terms in the query and Google returns (often with an accuracy of a few meters) exact search hits in the area. Google often knows the location relatively precisely based on the settings or the IP address.
Since everyone now sees locally adapted results on their computer (and location) (and these already look completely different in the north of a city than in the center), the question arises as to who is number one. How do you know that the website occupies a certain place not only in your own street?
Such a search result can be misleading, especially in the office of your own company, because Google shows results in the immediate vicinity. If you search for a keyword of your own company, it is obvious that Google will also return the company’s website as a result – there is a physical proximity 🙂
From time to time I still hear from customers, “my website is always at the top” — unfortunately, however, “at the top” quickly becomes more and more “way down” as the geographical distance of the searcher increases.
You can see which location Google uses at the end of the Google search results page, just below the page number (see figure).
In order to see what the search results look like in different places, we have developed a tool that overrides Google’s automatic location detection and instead transmits a freely selectable location.
This means that everyone can now display the search results as in other parts of the city, postcode areas or in other cities, languages and countries.
The topic of search engine optimization is – shall we say – quite complex.
When optimizing and evaluating the results, one must bear in mind that Google presents search results tailored to each user and also outputs different search results depending on the location.
Personalized search results
Sometimes clients tell me that their website ranks #1 on Google, although my analysis shows otherwise.
This is because Google presents the customer with a customized list of results. In order to assess the SEO status quo using a “neutral” list of results, you should first switch off this personalization of the search results. Google calls this function “web log”, “log” or “personalization based on search activity” and the corresponding setting is hidden on the search results page at the top right under the gear wheel .
Localized SEO Search Results
If I search for “pizza” in Hyderabad, I get different results than if I do the same search in Berlin. This makes sense for many searches, and Google is pretty good at distinguishing when a search query is local. Usually when services or places are sought.
If I search for “Stadtpark” in Hamburg, I am naturally presented with the Hamburger Stadtpark. So Google knows where I am and thinks along with me. If I am now in Hamburg and looking for a hotel in Berlin, I can of course simply overwrite this Hamburg-oriented localization by searching for “Hotel Berlin” instead of “Hotel”.
However, this is not enough to get a neutral representation of my placement for certain keywords for SEO purposes. Because the search for “hotel” and “hotel Berlin” returns different results, even if I run the search from Berlin.
Here is a comparison between the searches for “Webdesign” and “Webdesign Hamburg” (searched in Hamburg) – see figure:
Localized Google results
Professional tools for ranking monitoring, such as Sistrix , do not automatically show this local placement, since a location-independent placement is determined here. This is a super-neutral mapping, but location-neutral searches are rarely performed! In addition, many services are local anyway.
Our #1 placement in Hamburg for the search term “web design” is extremely valuable to us and more valuable than a “Germany-wide” placement on the second or third search result page.
So how can I determine localized rankings for other locations?
How can I see in Hamburg what a Berliner sees when they search for “web design”?
Is the?
Yes, it works like this:
Various search settings can be set or overwritten on Google via the URL parameters.
Various URL parameters and their meanings are explained in the article ” Google search parameters in 2012 “. However, the decisive parameters for “simulating” a country or a place no longer seem to work properly. At least not reliably for the project described here.
However, you can override the location in Google’s search settings. Gear > Search Settings > Location. See pictures:
Another possibility is offered by the URL parameter “near”, there I can enter a city or postal code [ update , 10/29/2019: this setting is out of date , please note the new tool further up in the article]