A Little Wrinkle in Local Search

If you've ever wondered why some searches you make on Google give you local results and a map, while others don't, I'm afraid I can't really tell you, except that Google is forever trying to guess whether you want to see local results or not.

However, there are two things you can do to increase the chances of seeing a map and local business Places results. Both of them involve telling Google where you are.

Firstly, you can include your location in the search 'string', by typing in 'solicitor Bury St Edmunds' for example.

Secondly, you can tell Google your location so it assumes you want to see local results whenever you search for a service. You can occasionally do this when you do get a map, by selecting the 'change location' button if it appears.

But you can also do it another way: when you make a series of searches for services without specifying your location (this seems typically to be 5 or 6 searches), Google will eventually ask you your location in a small box at the top of the organic search results. When you type your location in here you can also ask Google (on that browser) to remember this for future searches.

From then on, you should get local search results, with a map, whenever Google detects your search is for a 'local' service (dentist, solicitor, car repairs, and so on).

It's yet another wrinkle in Google's quest to give us all what it deems to be the best possible results whenever we search its massive database.

Google isn't perfect - not by a long way - but it is very, very clever!

Roy