Local vs Out of Town Competitions in Google

Google Local has been around for a while now but many companies are still unaware of how it is used and whether it is worth submitting their business it. To clear up some of the confusion, Matt Cutts released a video last week explaining its purpose and when you should use it.

Ultimately, the idea of the local results is to help users find local businesses. He explains that this isn’t put in place to be detrimental to those other competing businesses located outside of the area, as they are still available in the normal search results.

For those who have mobile businesses, there is the ability within Google Local to specify a service area. However this service area is limited to a 50 mile radius around your company base, and so you still need to have a physical address within the area. Therefore, if your company is based in London but you offer your service to the whole of the UK, unfortunately you will only be able to optimise for the London area.

At the moment there are many instances within the Local results where companies have submitted their locations using fake addresses. Within the video Matt Cutts stated that Google are working hard to check on the authenticity of businesses within Google Local, which makes it important to ensure that you only submit and optimise for the area in which your company is physically based.

Authors: Gemma Neesham and Ahmed Bhula