Understanding the Treatment of Generic Terms by Google

When you enter the name of a prominent business chain into the Google search engine, it is likely that the first page of the resulting SERP will include a map function showing the addresses and locations of several of the individual businesses in the chain that are located particularly near you. This is a representation of the Google Maps section of Google's service, and clicking on the map will bring you there so that you can use its more advanced features. However, entering the phrase "near me" at the end of the initial query will likely generate a SERP with this map feature positioned even closer to its top. This shows that Google's ranking algorithms are aware of how any given business listed on it would be more relevant to search engine users whose places of residence are recorded as being located near it. Because this feature is dependent on Google analyzing the geographical data of both registered businesses and users who search Google for them, a business cannot hope to somehow become more likely to be searched by potential customers near it by adopting "near me" as a keyword. Websites undergo SEO campaigns based on keywords so that anyone from across the Internet can potentially find those sites by inputting those keywords as search queries. Google does not let websites benefit from attempts to associate themselves with a generic phrase such as "near me" because the phrase is already used by searchers as a method to filter their results. Generally, a website will appear among the results for queries that include a phrase like "near me" if the target of its SEO efforts is a keyword made up of one of its products or services and the city or area in which the business is based. This is a foundation of optimizing a website for local audiences, and this mostly overlaps with optimizing the site on a broader scale. To help convince both search engines and potential visitors that the business is servicing an exclusive area, that area should appear throughout the site's content pages and fine print. For more information click here https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/9mywlq/howdoyourankforthenearmephrase_people/.