Near me searches use the searcher's location, so state yours plainly: the address as text on every page, a listing with the right pin, category and hours, and the same details everywhere.

Two words at the end

A growing share of searches on phones end with two words: near me. Work boots near me. Dog groomer near me. Pho near me.

The searcher does not name a place, because they do not need to. The phone knows where it is, and the search engine fills in the rest.

What it cannot fill in is where your business is, unless you have stated it clearly, in places it reads.

How a near me search is answered

Google already treats many searches as local without the extra words: a search for a plumber returns plumbers nearby. Adding near me makes the intent explicit, often from someone ready to go now.

Google describes local results as weighing three things: how relevant a business is to the search, how far it is from the searcher, and how prominent it is, from reviews, links and mentions elsewhere.

A website cannot change distance. It can make relevance and prominence easy to establish, by stating plainly what the business is and where.

Where your location should be stated

The second is the gap seen most often. An address inside an image, a map embed or a PDF tells a search engine very little, while the same address typed as text tells it plainly.

The listing does most of the work

For a near me search, the map results usually appear near the top, and they come from Google My Business listings.

Check the pin. Zoom in and make sure it sits on your entrance, not in the middle of the plaza, at the back of the industrial park or on the house next door.

Choose the category that describes the business most precisely, since it is a strong signal of what you are. Keep the hours current, holiday hours included, because many near me searchers want somewhere open right now.

Google Map Maker closed last week, and edits to the map are now suggested directly in Google Maps. Look over your listing now and then for changes you did not make.

A website that says where you are

Put the address as plain text in the footer of every page, written exactly as it appears on the listing, unit number included.

The contact page should add what a map cannot: which entrance, where to park, the landmark beside you, and the hours. People searching near me are often already on their way.

Page titles should name the town with the service, in words a person would read, such as commercial roofing in Kamloops, rather than a string of ten town names.

Structured data, a short piece of code describing the name, address, phone number and hours, can be added in an afternoon by whoever maintains the site.

Service areas without a storefront

Businesses that go to the customer, such as cleaners, trades and mobile services, can set a service area on their listing and hide the street address if customers never visit.

On the website, the service area belongs in words: a short paragraph naming the towns covered and how far you travel.

A page per town, each with the same text and a different name swapped in, is stuffing that search engines treat as low quality.

A town earns its own page only with something specific to say, such as work done there.

A worked example

A workwear store in an industrial area sells boots, high-visibility clothing and rain gear to trades crews, many of whom search from a job site at lunch when a boot splits or the rain arrives.

Its website showed the address only in a picture of a business card at the bottom of the home page, and every page title said Quality Workwear and nothing else.

The Google pin sat in the middle of the industrial park, a street away from the door.

Crews searching for work boots near me rarely saw it, and some who did drove up the wrong street first.

The fixes took an afternoon: the address as text on every page, directions from the main road, titles naming the town and what the store sells, the pin moved to the door, and matching hours.

Nothing about the store moved. What changed is that every place it appears now says where it is.

The same details everywhere

Search engines compare the name, address and phone number on your listing with those on your site and on other sites. When they match, the business is easy to confirm. When they differ, each version weakens the others.

An old address on a directory, a former phone number on a review site, the name spelled three ways: each is a small contradiction. Fix the ones on sites people actually use first.

What not to do

Do not write near me into your page text. It reads oddly to people, and search engines treat it as the searcher's location rather than words to find on your page.

Do not fill the footer with every town in the region, or list a mailbox address to seem closer to more people. Google's guidelines do not allow mailboxes as listing addresses, and such listings get removed.

The counter-case

Pages cannot move a business closer. A shop on the edge of town will appear less often for searchers on the far side, however good its pages are, and that is as it should be.

A specialist that customers travel to find depends less on near me than on being found by name and specialty.

Still, every business has a location, and stating it clearly costs little. Put the address in text on every page, keep the listing exact, and make the details match everywhere.

The location check

  1. Search near me for what you sell, on a phone.
  2. Move the pin onto your actual entrance.
  3. Put the address in text on every page.
  4. Add directions and parking to the contact page.
  5. Name your town in the main page titles.
  6. Match the hours on the site and listing.
  7. Correct old addresses on directories people use.

Step two takes a minute and is the one most often wrong. A searcher on the way to you follows the pin, not the address, and a pin on the wrong street loses them before they arrive.

Why one week of ranking changes is no reason to rewrite these pages is covered in rankings moved this week and Google is not saying why.

Frequently asked questions

How do near me searches work?

The search engine uses the phone's location and shows businesses that are relevant, nearby and well established, mostly from map listings, so your location has to be stated clearly.

Should I add near me to my pages?

No. Search engines read near me as the searcher's location, not as words to match. State your address, town and service area plainly instead.

Why does my address need to be text?

An address inside an image, a map or a PDF is hard for search engines to read. Typed as text on every page, it is clear to them and to people.

What if customers never visit my premises?

Set a service area on your listing, hide the street address if customers never come to it, and name the towns you cover in a short paragraph on the site.

Do I need a page for every town?

Only where there is something specific to say about it. Pages that differ only by the town name are treated as low quality.

Why does the map pin matter so much?

Near me searchers are often already on their way. A pin in the middle of a plaza or on the wrong street sends them somewhere else.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Address only in a footer image?

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