Table of contents
Geo-dependent and geo-independent queries. Types and definition
4 March 2022
Reading time: 9 minutes
Most often, users search for information on the Internet without specifying their city or region. Therefore, search robots need to determine their location themselves, showing in the results only those sites that will be useful locally, and hiding the rest.
In order for the site to be relevant in the search results for geoqueries, the optimizer needs to prove to the PS that the resource is useful and worthy to be in the search results in a particular region. To effectively promote various requests, first you need to determine the type of request in order to understand which page (commercial or informational) they should lead to.
All requests can be divided into non-geo-dependent and geo-independent ones. This division will help optimize sites of different scale and focus. In the article we will look at the difference between queries, how you can get to the first places in search engines and what tools to use to determine the type of queries.
Geo-specific queries
Geo-dependent search queries (GZ) - a set of keywords that, when entered in search engines, reflect results tied to the user's region.
Such requests include the following:
- about events and local news;
- about local events;
- ordering goods or services.
The result will depend on the city or region specified, as well as where the user is currently located.
Most often, such requests are commercial, as the user wants to purchase a product or service.
Examples of geo-dependent queries: “buy a bed Moscow”.
The user does not have to enter his city or region, you can simply enter a common phrase and information will appear in the search results depending on its location.
For example: “order cleaning”
If the user lives in Moscow, then with such a request, the search engine will return all cleaning companies that clean in Moscow and the Moscow region.
You can check a geo-dependent query in the following way: it compares search results for a keyword for different regions.
If there are differences in the results, and there is also highlighting of the region in the snippet, then the request is geo-dependent, if it is the same, then geo-independent.
Large search engines such as Google and Yandex have created algorithms that generate search results depending on the user's location.
Yandex determines geodependence based on statistics. If the majority of users enters a request indicating the city, then it belongs to geo-dependent ones. Google determines the region based on the user's query language and country. The country is bound by ip-address. The inconvenience is that if you enter a request in English, you can see foreign sites.
Geo independent queries
Geo-independent queries (GNZ) - queries in which the result of search engines is not tied to a specific region.
For example: Who won Eurovision 2010?
Regardless of whether the user is in Moscow or Khabarovsk, the issuance page will display the same result.
These queries include informational ones: the user is not going to buy anything, it is just important for him to find out some information.
According to GEO, the following are in the search results:
- feedbacks;
- videos and infographics;
- large informational articles;
- thematic pages and blogs.
Promoting geo-dependent and geo-independent queries
It is very important for companies with local production to advance in their region. This is due to the fact that the top positions are always occupied by the most relevant resources.
Competition for them is high and it will be more difficult for the site to reach the TOP-10.
The benefits of promotion are:
- speed;
Competition in the region will be much less than when moving throughout Russia and, especially around the world.
- customer confidence;
Customers can always come and make sure that the store / production exists.
- presence of target audience.
Optimization factors that contribute to a good site ranking in the region
- Region binding via webmaster panels.
- In Yandex, this can be done through the service for web developers in Yandex.Webmaster. To do this, go to the “Regionality” section and set the desired region. Unfortunately, Yandex allows you to link only one region, so if the company has several branches, then you need to use additional promotion methods. Alternatively, you can create regional subdomains and add several company addresses to Yandex.Directory;
- In the Google search engine, you cannot bind the region by yourself, the search engine will assign it automatically based on the language and ip-address, the coincidence of the georeference of documents and the user's location.
- Mention of toponym in meta tags, URL and page body.
- Regional phone number on the contact page, as well as placement on it of information about the delivery/provision of goods/services in the region.
- Links from regional sites and placement of toponyms in link anchors.
In addition, for the PS it is a clear signal of the "regionality" of the site - attendance, click-through and behavioral characteristics of users from a given region relative to others. Therefore, it makes sense to pay attention to the convenience of the site as a whole, so that it presents users with simplicity and efficiency in performing actions that are useful for the owner: calling the company, leaving an application, replenishing the basket, paying, and so on.
And, in order to promote the site on geo-independent queries, you can create a “Blog” section, where information on the subject of the site will be published.
Services for determining the type of request
You can determine the type of requests using services:
- SemRush.
Shows which keywords to look out for. There is a database of keywords for 26 countries.
- Yandex.Wordstat.
Shows statistics of search phrases by region.
- Key Collector.
Service for working with the semantic core of the site.
- Pixel Plus.
A set of expert tools to help you analyze search results.
- Google Trends.
Checks the popularity of a search query by city/sub-region. You can view related queries and compare your site with competitors' sites by popularity in sub-regions.
- MOAB.TOOLS Semantics
Performs collection of keys and frequencies. There are settings by region.
In order for the site to work and make a profit, the user needs to see it in the TOP-10 offers from search engines. Determining the type of request helps to solve the main tasks of optimizing a resource. It is thanks to the correct division that it is possible to carry out promotion on relevant queries and build a strategy for promotion and improvement of ranking.
