Tuesday, September 02, 2014

Google's search results now appear to know your location.

Today I did a search and the result was either creepy or convenient, depending on your point of view. Someone asked for a theme for a florist site and I thought a quick way to find an acceptable theme may be to search for the term florist and check a few sites. The result was totally unexpected.

Here are the first three organic search results when I searched for the term 'florist'. That is results that aren't paid advertising.



WOW I thought. I'm sitting in an apartment taking a bit of me time in Port Douglas. Yes the IP address I'm connecting with is for the apartment and IP addresses are often associated with a location if the IP address doesn't tend to change. I've never seen this before with Google where the organic search results are specific to my current location. That's a huge change for Google.

The change however isn't for everything you search for. If I search for 'fish and chip shop' the search result isn't related to my location. If I type in 'accommodation' I get the usual online directories and services appearing first. For 'computer support' I get some local results. For 'motor mechanic' I get local results.

Google appears to have made some decisions on what people are searching for based on their current location. I should say this isn't consistent across devices. It can be harder for Google to determine the location of a mobile device. If I use my iPhone which is connected via 3G the results are not localised. Actually they are for Melbourne so Google may think the IP address my mobile phone service provider is using is based in Melbourne.

My desire was to share this information with JustLocal users so they know of a change which may affect them. If you're a business wanting to promote yourself locally, Google may give you some advantage, but it may be a good idea to make sure your key SEO assets include the local area so Google knows you're local. Google is also not consistent. What you see when searching can significantly differ from someone else in another area. For testing it may be necessary to get someone local to assist if you're not in the area of interest.

Creepy or convenient? I'll leave that up to you to decide.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

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