Question

GMB rankings are heavily biased towards proximity of searcher to a physical location. But what about organic rankings. Take a digital service like an SEO agency for example. If I have no physical location in Philadelphia for instance, could I still rank my SEO agency website as an organic result for "SEO company Philadelphia" --- just by having a location page on my site ?  

Answer 1

Absolutely. Completely separate and diff algo than GMB/maps

Answer 2

I think it takes a little bit more than just having a location page on your site but yeah

Answer 3

I've been able to do it using location pages and connected location specific case studies!  

Answer 4

Yep. It's all text based along with other signals that *could* have to do with location. But vicinity does not directly dictate relevance.  

Answer 5

Local organic search is absolute real.  

Answer 6

Do you guys think Google cracks down on that eventually? Since the obvious intent of including a city modifier is to find something local. And it really wouldn't be hard to only allow business results with nearby addresses.  

Answer 7

I think citations, local directories and local links (newspapers, local blogs) also play a small part in ranking in organics for a location, but you can offset them with niche links and artificial local signals (location pages, embedded maps, geotagged images, hyperlocal content).  

Answer 8

Unless you are competitively bidding for business using advertising, it's about the end user, not the business. Why would Google do otherwise?  

Answer 9

Yes, it's done quite often.  

Answer 10

Yes, 100%. I rank #1 for web design in a city 5 hours away. On my landing page, I talk about the city itself also and include a map.