SEO courseModule 6 of 10: LocalLesson 6.3
Distance, and Why You Show Up in Some Places and Not Others
How close you are to the person searching, and why your visibility changes from one street to the next. The one local factor you can't fake.
Why it matters
Distance is one of Google's three local factors, so your visibility changes street by street.
Why Google cares
One of Google's three named local factors
Do this first
Check where you appear from your customers' streets, not from your office.
01What it is
Ask for the nearest swimming pool and the answer depends on where you’re standing. Two people in different towns get different answers to the same question.
Think of it like
People use the bus stop nearest to them. A better poster at a stop further away doesn't change that.
02Why it matters
To the people searching
Someone searching "estate agents near me" sees the closest agencies first, and sellers usually search from home. So your visibility near each customer's address is what matters, not what you see on your office computer.
buyers
Often search "near me" or by neighbourhood; results change street by street.
tenants
Same, often searching while out and about.
sellers
Search from home, so your visibility near their address is what counts.
landlords
Same, and may own property across several areas.
To Google and Bing
One of Google's three named local factorsGoogle names distance as one of the three main things behind local results, and estimates where the searcher is when they don't say. That's why an agency can be first around its office and invisible ten miles away. You can't win on distance where you aren't, so further out you compete on relevance and prominence instead.
An agent example
A lettings branch in a market town builds pages for a city 30 miles away where it has no office and no staff. A staffed branch in that city is still far more likely to show. The branch puts its effort into the places it genuinely covers, and wins there.
03Your turn
Check yours, then fix it
- 1On a phone with location on, search "estate agents near me" and "letting agents near me" in different parts of your patch.
- 2Ask friends in different postcodes to search and send screenshots.
- Local Falcon and BrightLocal both do this (paid, with trials).
- On Google Maps, mark where your competitors' offices are. Where are you closest, and where are they?
Here are my local ranking results at different points around my office, and where my competitors' offices are. Where am I weak, and what could realistically improve it?
- 1Virtual offices and addresses where you don't have staff break Google's guidelines and risk your profile being suspended.
- 2Only add a branch or service area that's real and staffed.
- 1Reviews that mention the area, local links and mentions (lesson 7.1), and area pages written from real knowledge (lesson 6.2).
- 2Keep your profile's categories and details accurate (lesson 6.1).
04Keep it up
Check your visibility across your patch every quarter.
That's lesson 6.3
Worked through it? Mark it done and we’ll keep track on this device.