SEO has become extremely localized, so you’ll only see neighbourhood results when googling for businesses like:
- dentists
- dry cleaners
- restaurants
This makes sense because no one is looking for a restaurant or a dentist in another city. Business owners are continually in need of a “localized elsewhere” result, so here’s a few solutions.
FYI – we’re largely an SEO agency so we use professional keyword ranking tools for our purposes, but if you’re looking for a quick answer to where you rank, here’s 6 easy ways to check.
Update: Local Falcon
We’re in love with this tool. It shows neighbourhood level search rankings. The one for above is for the search term “coffee” and the rankings of Kafka’s on Main Street. You can see that it ranks 1st around the physical location, then it drops from 2nd to 5th when someone is just a few blocks away.
1) Google Ad Preview Tool
https://adwords.google.com/apt/AdPreview
You’ll need a Google Ads account for this one. The benefits of this are that you’ll see ads local to that area and a mobile view. Considering there’s more mobile than desktop google queries it’s always important to remember to test your ad on a phone.
I googled “pizza near me” from Vancouver.
2) I Search From
This is a simple tool that allows you to utilize the Adwords Preview Tool on desktop.
3) Change the URL
A painfully simple way is to change the words in this url:
https://www.google.com/search?q=digital+marketing+company&near=vancouver
Just change the search phrase and location. Here’s a few more examples:
https://www.google.com/search?q=soccer+store&near=toronto
https://www.google.com/search?q=restaurant&near=burnaby
4) BrightLocal
https://www.brightlocal.com/local-search-results-checker/
Another straightforward tool to quickly check your rankings. The tool spits out a url that is more accurate than the above method by altering the UULE parameter – the long string of seemingly random characters in the Google result pages.
5) Use a VPN
VPN services such as NordVPN and IP Vanish both have Canadian cities. Unfortunately, they each only have Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.
6) Override Chrome’s Longitude and Latitude
This is my favourite one. You can tell Chrome that you want results from another part of the world. The steps do to this one are:
- Open Chrome’s Console (Mac: Command + Option + I)
- Open up Sensors by finding the three little dots
- In a new tab, find the longitude and latitude by right clicking on a location on a Google Maps location and selecting “What’s Here”
- Head back to the original tab and put the longitude and latitude into the Custom Location under Sensors
Update: I can’t seem to override the Sensors anymore. Too bad, that was fun!
