How to deal with wrong location in Google SERP

[Houdoe]

Hi,

If I understand correctly, Google provides search results based on the location of the user. That's fine, because most of my clients are local.

But if I look at my own search results, Google thinks I'm in a totally different town. Most likely based on my IP address.

Of course I can solve that for myself, but the same goes for my potential clients.

Is there a way to deal with this, from an seo perspective? For instance find out where most of the the IP providers are located and target that location?

[DSM_UK]

Hi Hans,

Unfortunately IP addresses are not great on a desktop pc, not always but sometimes our Internet Service Provider seems to play havoc with our actual location.

However on mobile it is usually a lot more reliable, so make sure your site is mobile friendly!

As long as you have all your data set up and Google+ and the likes linked then your local listings will work correctly, 
I wouldn't recommend targeting a popular IP location as it is not your true location. Keeping your town/city in your tagging will help for local searches for those who include there location in their searches.

But if your client's ISPs have their IP address located wrongly, I am afraid this is something you cannot compensate for.

Kind Regards,

Jimmy

[Andy.Drinkwater]

I don't think IP factor matters that much

Going to disagree with this here I'm afraid because I have seen some quite overwhelming results based on a user location. I am based in Chester, UK - If I search, based on my IP, I will be shown local results earlier - that kind of thing. I'm not saying this is always going to be the case, but based on locations, it can play a pretty major part.

@Hans - There are lots of things you can do to try and remedy this, but remember that Google has the final say. You could try building your brand strength more and perhaps talk create a few blog posts based around location and product, talk about surrounding towns that you cover and suggestions as Umar mentions above.

Also you could do a little testing and see how your competitors get around this issue. Crossing every 't' and dotting every 'i' is going to be a big key to success.

-Andy

[UmarKhan]

Hey Hans,

I don't think IP factor matters that much.. If you have a proper citations of NAP, optimized local content, G+ local pages, links from local sources and other local listings; I don't think this IP factor gonna hurt you that much.

But if you're very much sure that all the things are perfect and you're still not climbing then you can think about the local IPs.

[Houdoe]

Hi Umar,

Thanks for your answer! I'm not sure we're talking about the same thing here.

Let me explain: my company is in town X. I want it to be found by people in town X.

My potential client also lives in town X. But Google says he lives in town Y. Because his IP address tells that to them.

It seems that I'm lower in the search results than I would have been if the client was located in X, as he should. Or am I wrong here?

Cheers,
Hans

[UmarKhan]

Hey Hans,

Yes, Search engines use the following signals to determine the location of your website:

• Hosting location (I think it's still matters)
• Domain tld (eg .co.uk for the UK and .com for the US)

It is important to check that the actual location of your servers is reflected in their IP address using a tool like this one. I remember once Matt Cutts discussed this topic "How should I serve different content based on user location?" here https://youtu.be/GFf1gwr6HJw

Hope this helps!