A quick view at some of the ways location affects what we see in search engine results. Presented at http://www.sascon.co.uk/ 2012

1. What does location
Title Text Here
based search look like?
Edward Cowell - SEO Director
Subheading
http://goo.gl/XqQQP
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2. “ 1 in 3 search queries have local intent
and 97% of consumers use the web
to shop locally. “
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3. “ Google has placed location and location-
based search front-and-center in its
search engine.
Location biasing is the only personalisation
“
filter you cannot disable.
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4. April
• More local sites from organizations. [project codename "ImpOrgMap2"] This change makes
it more likely you’ll find an organization website from your country (e.g. mexico.cnn.com for
Mexico rather than cnn.com).
• Improvements to local navigational searches. [launch codename "onebar-l"] For searches
that include location terms, e.g. [dunston mint seattle] or [Vaso Azzurro Restaurant 94043], we
are more likely to rank the local navigational homepages in the top position, even in cases where
the navigational page does not mention the location.
March
• Better handling of queries with both navigational and local intent. [launch codename
"ShieldsUp"] Some queries have both local intent and are very navigational (directed towards a
particular website). This change improves the balance of results we show, and helps ensure
you’ll find highly relevant navigational results or local results towards the top of the page as
appropriate for your query.
• Local result UI refresh on tablet. We’ve updated the user interface of local results on tablets to
make them more compact and easier to scan.
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5.  Use keyphrase research to work out what types of location based
queries and locations are most important to you.
Keyphrases Local Monthly UK Searches
[argos opening times] 22200
[argos stores] 5400
[argos london] 1900
[argos store finder] 1000
[argos old street] 1000
[argos milton keynes] 880
[argos brixton] 590
[argos plymouth] 590
[argos birmingham] 590
[argos wimbledon] 390
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6.  The way location is presented in the search results page is
constantly changing - ‘opening times’ - February
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7.  An example based on ‘opening times’ - Now
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8.  Information moving from the website to the results page
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9.  Google Knowledge Graph
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11.  Whether mobile or desktop,
organic results are actually
quite location specific.
 IE: Sitelinks dynamically
change based on location
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13.  Knowledge Graph for mobile and tablet will make results more
varied
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14.  Lets not overlook Google Places
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15.  Places creates opportunities for the little guys
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17.  Location is also important for the big guys
Marissa Mayer - Google’s first female
engineer when she was hired in 1999.
Currently vice president of Local and Maps
for Google, Mayer previously oversaw the
user interface and user experience for
Google.com. Walmart have proposed
adding her to their board.
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18.  Expect local to get more social: Google+ + Google Places
http://blumenthals.com/blog/2012/03/16/google-updates-
blended-display-on-desktop-and-mobile/
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19.  Local search doesn’t just happen on search engines. Here I
search within my maps app.
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20.  Final note: Because 61% of people looking places up on maps
intend to visit them it’s important we get local optimisation correct.
Black Dog Ballroom 1 Black Dog Ballroom 2
Wrong – very bemused bar maid Right – Good SASCon show party
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