I was only really able to see that with name searches.

This is the fabulous research you guys has posted here… I am glab I had find this page. This has been a knowledge adding time, reading this post.

I look forward to hear see something such good here…

Keep it up. Nice work !!! Hats off to you.

Heartily Appreciated.

EarlPearl -
As always, I get smarter every time I read something you write! Thank you for the vivid example. So glad we caught up with each other today!

Miriam

As far as -in- goes… I noticed a competitor in the top spot in Adwords who is using -in- in the title. I am going to do some experimenting with that in the exact phrase thing.. to see if I can pick up some additional advantage.

Say there are 3 businesses in Napa Valley that sell wine stain removal services; The Miriam wine stain removal company located in the town of Smallville, Dork Wine stain removal in Metropolis, and Clunk Wine stain removal located in Gotham City. Say that Dork and Clunk are the biggest oldest most well known wine stain removal companies in the region and that the Miriam company is newer, less well known…(but we all know it is the best!!!!)

Some searchers will search for Napa Valley Wine Stain Removal. Of course you have to be seen and rank well for those type of most generic phrases for the region.

Some might search for Dork wine stain removal or Metropolis Wine Stain Removal. In either case we know the searcher is trying to navigate towards Dork located in Metropolis.

Say some searchers are using phrases like Clunk wine stain removal or Gotham City Wine Stain removal. We know the searchers are trying to navigate toward that old wine stain removal that is somewhat known by it sloppy old premises in Gotham city, a town in Napa Valley.

If Miriam’s site somehow shows up for searches for Dork or clunk or Metropolis or Gotham City wine stain removal and some of those searchers are landing on Miriam’s great website describing her great and better services…..we know she captured some navigational traffic meant to go to the other businesses…..along with the natural search traffic for more generic phrases like Napa Valley wine stain removal.

Getting one’s business name/location/some sort of identification/ that is more specific than a more general search….like wine stain removal service……something that points to a specific wine stain removal service is more navigational.

That is good data above. The more navigational traffic one gets…that is directed to one’s own site/business the better the indication is that you are getting the name out about one’s own site.

Its a great observation by local hound.

Can I ask for clarification on a term used in your results? I’m not sure I’m correctly understanding ‘40 were navigational queries for competing firms.’ I want to make sure I’m understanding what you mean by that. Can you give an example?

Again, this was fantastic!
Miriam

For descriptive words “in” has shown up the most. Other variations are near, + , - and then really wierd ones.

I think the engines don’t worry about those words much.

The comparisons are most valid contingent on where the site ranks versus the competition. So if you are ranking first for service/state name and a competitor is ranking first for state name/service you’ll see differences in the stats for your site. You should account for that.

Here is a little tip. Suppose you are trying to rank for some service in someplace like Bergan County or any of those dense counties in Northern New Jersey, or similarly dense population areas.

Get a lot of town names on your site.

So if your service were Divorce Attorney…and the client was in some town in Bergan, somehow add town names like Teaneck, Tenafly, etc to the content of the site.

You’ll pick up traffic.

Get into G, Y, and MSN maps.

My businesses never saw searches for phrases with the zip codes until maps started appearing in organic google results.

After that we started seeing the searches with zip codes. Now I’ve added zip codes into the content and we can show up in both organic results and a map for those types of searches.

It is a small number, as you suggested, but as you also suggested these are the most valuable types of searches, with service type and geographic description. So a search for my service and a nearby zip code is better than a search for the service and the word NJ or New Jersey if the searcher with the phrase is actually miles and miles and counties away.

Love your research..Now I gotta read other stuff here. LOL

BTW, found this from the reference at Mike Blumenthal’s blog.

Really nice post