(Just when you thought you were done with SEO jargon, I rock up with ‘implicit search traffic’, hang in there.) Small business owners (like you and me) often find ourselves vying for internet space alongside big competitors.
But there’s light at the end of the SEO tunnel and that light is local SEO. But better still, there’s a little something called Google Maps and they can be pretty significant when capturing search traffic.
This (mildly TL;DR) article is about understanding how implicit search traffic can significantly improve your ranking efforts.
Here’s what we’re covering:
Why does SEO suck?
For freelancers and SMEs, optimising content feels like eating soup with a fork——utterly pointless. And why is that? It’s the fault of something called Domain Authority (DA). DA is a ranking predictor. It’s almost exclusively down to how many backlinks a website has. The long and the short and the tall refer to gargantuan sites like Wikipedia, Ahrefs, HubSpot et al and that equates to muchos traffic. Hooray for them!
MOZ developed the DA system (thanks). Each website gets a score out of 100. That score improves over time (if you do the work). My website’s DA is 9 (*sad face*), a testament to how hard finding quality backlinks can be. When I write a fresh new SEO-themed article (like this one) do you know who already has a similar article? That’s right, the big boys with DA scores of 70 and beyond——there’s no way I can compete with those bastards.
Thankfully, the likes of Semrush aren’t my direct competition——other freelance SEO content writers and copywriters are. My ranking focus lies with my local and nationwide competition. Those folks are my SEO performance yardstick.
Explicit vs. implicit search.
In SEO parlance, an explicit search is a location-modified search. For example, ‘hitman for hire Bedfordshire’. An implicit search is a search term without the location added.
Hang on, wouldn’t it make sense to improve local SEO by using an explicit search? Logically, yes but also, no. (And if you keep reading, you’ll find out why.)
Implicit search traffic and broad keywords.
I tend to avoid implicit keywords because implicit searches are general. They use competitive (broad) keywords that I will likely never rank for. In those cases, explicit searches are more useful because they tell Google exactly what the user wants. Explicit searches become long-tail keywords (LTKs) and those leave no room for doubt as to the intent of the user.
4 different keyword types for SEO.
It still sounds like it’s a win for explicit search. Just hold your horses.
Google and local search traffic.
Google displays radically different results when a location is added. Here’s what I get when I google ‘SEO content writer Oxford’:
Here’s what happens to the organic results when I google ‘SEO content writer’:
That’s right, The Sarky Type is never seen again.
Implicit search and Google Maps.
An implicit search on Google Maps is where things get interesting (my idea of interesting):
I pop ‘SEO content writer’ in the maps search bar, and whaddayaknow, The Sarky Type is the first organic result——proof that Google is doing something else with implicit searches in local results.
Full disclosure: I didn’t come by this myself (I’m not that smart). In my job, I have to read a lot and learn a lot——constantly. I sign up for newsletters from the industry bigwigs and I give their recommendations a try. This revelation came from Search Engine Land. (A must-have newsletter for those SEOing.)
In Google Maps, The Sarky Type is the first organic result on an implicit (broad) keyword. This happens because Google treats local search traffic differently. Why? Because Google uses a set of local ranking factors. The daddy of search engines is looking out for stuff like this:
- Relevance (how well a business matches the search query)
- Location (the proximity to where the user is searching from)
- Prominence (how well the business is known online/offline/how many reviews they have)
Now, you can’t change your business location so relevance and prominence are the two things you can fiddle with. That’s a bummer because proximity to the user is a top local ranking factor. That means, ranking for implicit keywords across a large service area, is really effin’ tough.
When you add a location, Google no longer uses the user’s location as the centre radius for the search results. Instead, Google chooses the search location modifier as the centre point for the search results.
Here’s what I mean…
When I googled, the location on my device remained the same (OX4 Sandford-on-Thames) but the search results from Google Maps were wildly different.
Check out search 1 with location modifier:
Search 2 without location modifier:
The results aren’t the same.
Remember, Google is choosing the location of where I’m searching from as there’s no location included in my search phrase. And no, it’s not a huge win for my local SEO, as I’m searching from my business HQ (idiot).
Side note: I conducted a separate search in Google Maps for ‘key cutters Oxford’ and ‘key cutters’ and the results were still different.
But here’s the REALLY interesting thing: on Google Maps distance and proximity are less influential with implicit search. And that opens up implicit keyword opportunities; you now have the potential to rank for implicit keywords——keywords you would never rank for on a general Google search.
That’s fairly rad.
*BONUS VALUE: things that will help*
An optimised Google Business Profile (GBP) is standard practice for local SEO strategy. It’s a free resource so there’s no excuse not to have one.
But if you don’t have one, go >>HERE<<
There’s also a tool called Local Falcon. It runs reports based on the performance of your GBP. No, I’ve not been paid by Local Falcon (or Google). Having me endorse a product would be truly worthless! I just try things out, and if they work, I tell you about them.
So give an implicit search on Google Maps a go (ideally from a different location to where you’ve registered your business), and review the results. Local Falcon can then help make improvements.
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