The recent leak of internal Google Search ranking documents verifies what we at Lastmile have long known about how Google handles local search - going beyond a single local page with rich local content is the key to local organic SEO success.
As the leaked information confirms in several places, using a static, one-size-fits-all approach to local marketing is no longer enough to compete and win. Here’s a look at several modules from the leaked documentation that underscore the importance of Lastmile’s local marketing solution:
‘localResultSignals’
‘localResultSignals’ illustrates that Google prioritizes depth and breadth of local information as a signal of relevance. By providing deep, relevant information about the iPhone 15 on your pages means that Google then prioritizes your page when users search for iPhone 15. Solutions that try to pack a large amount of thin content on a single page provides breadth at the expense of depth and a quality user experience and fails to take advantage of this ranking signal.
✅ At Lastmile, our local microsites become full websites for each of our customer’s locations, with unique pages for each distinct offering. We allow for commerce and engagement features like Buy Online Pick Up In Store, appointment booking, and chat. The depth of information included on our microsites differ between locations, making the content truly unique to each location.
'minSalientTermSimilarity’
‘minSalientTermSimilarity’ indicates that Google values pages that speak to both a location and a specific local topic. Google rewards local topic pages (e.g. a local product) because these pages are more relevant than just thin content on a single page because it better matches the user search term. For example, pages that speak to both “Astoria, NY” and “iPhone 15” for local search.
✅ At Lastmile, our local content pages allow you to go beyond just a few generic “featured product” pages at a location. For example, we fully support store-level inventory which allows us to create specific product pages tied back to inventory at a specific location or across stores in a geographic area. This means that when a user searches “iphone 15 astoria, ny” we have a page specifically for that product at that location.
‘availableIntents’
‘availableIntents’ highlights that Google is weighing both the purpose and efficacy of the content (ie. “what this content helps users do”) and the calls to action available in the content (ie. “what actions the user can take”). Effectively, this means that Google is rewarding local websites that go beyond thin content and actually helps customers engage with and purchase from a local business without leaving their local pages.
✅ At Lastmile, we support a full path to purchase funnel with multiple engagement options such as chat, appointments and BOPIS. Our microsites drill down to the content at the location level which allows us to do things like link a specific product to BOPIS workflows directly from our pages.
‘click time’
‘click time’ and ‘dwell time’ confirm that Google rewards content that generates higher click counts and impressions. The click-related modules highlight that Google measures clicks, bad clicks, good clicks, and last longest clicks, even though they’ve denied this in the past. Dwell time rewards page engagement, ranking sites higher when users stay on pages longer.
✅ At Lastmile, we feature more rich content on our microsites compared to competitor pages, with a robust set of rich structured data to help Google fully crawl and understand the content in local context. By featuring better local content for consumers to engage with, we see more time spent on our pages, more page visits and more interactions, leading our pages to appear higher in
‘synonym’
‘synonym’ indicates that using local colloquial language can improve ranking in local searches. This tells us that Google values hyper-localized content that makes an effort to achieve relevance for as many relevant geographic terms related to a location as possible.
✅ At Lastmile we are able to not only show content available in a single location, but also provide helpful information on where else nearby our client’s offerings are available. This goes way beyond the industry standard approach of just showing other nearby store locations, and actually helps customers find the specific product or offering they’re looking for without leaving our client’s local pages.
The modules we highlighted represent a small sample of the whole, but the key takeaway from the data is clear: websites with rich, in-depth local content consistently outrank static pages.
This is exactly why we’ve created Lastmile - to power a much deeper set of content on our listings and pages beyond basic location information (e.g. services, inventory, careers, staff, etc). We’re able to provide a deeper experience for consumers that go beyond the basic interactions and provide deep, relevant content for each location.
Get in touch today to learn more about how Lastmile’s solution provides a deeper experience for consumers and boost your site’s rankings in local search results.
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