Does Google Localize Keywords?

Can some one please explain this I am lost with out a clue. I understand and have ranked clients for local google 7 pack with out a problem. The problem comes when let say I change my geo parameter in google search. Now lets say my goal is not local 7 pack but totally organic. Example I rank keyword lawyers in x location. But when I put my geo parameter to just that city and put in as my keyword just Lawyers the site is no where to be found. But if I use keyword and city name as search Number one. How can I target just the keyword so that when I put in my google geo location settings I will show up just using the keyword.

I have read and read and can not seem to find an answer to how to rank a simple organic keyword by google geo location filter. Any one Please help me. This might sound like a nube question but Its really not. Is it building more links with keywords as (city)(state)(keyword) as my anchor text? Or is this soley based on backlinks from geo areas im targeting?

awesome! thanks for that study randybishop

Thanks Adam, I think generally that makes sense , but I do not feel its completely true. i.e. I am in L.A. and when I type "towing" I get a non localized page and the wiki for towing.

Adam718 said:

The answer is yes, google does localize rankings based on where the user is. So if someone in orange county searches "towing service", their results will be websites and services around there.

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This is what I am getting at Jononaquest, I honestly don't understand this part. I understand wiki since it is the website is very large and has a high authority rating. But Joes Towing from Orange County 50 miles away from LA shows up organically. Phone gives the user a different search then desktop but still what makes these websites pop up. A lot of them have this in common a low da and low pa. so how is google deciding this is important to me as a user and thus provide me better user experience? Im thinking it might have to do with more local linking between the geo area your trying to target then the actual on page geo factors. Any one got an idea?

Hoodbot said:

This is what I am getting at Jononaquest, I honestly don't understand this part. I understand wiki since it is the website is very large and has a high authority rating. But Joes Towing from Orange County 50 miles away from LA shows up organically. Phone gives the user a different search then desktop but still what makes these websites pop up. A lot of them have this in common a low da and low pa. so how is google deciding this is important to me as a user and thus provide me better user experience? Im thinking it might have to do with more local linking between the geo area your trying to target then the actual on page geo factors. Any one got an idea?

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Yeah, I have the same question, it is baffling to me.
Wish someone could explain this.

bartosimpsonio said:

Make sure you add structured data to your site, marking the address of your business using this information

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1 month later and I can say that I am ranking first page for many of the keywords + city , I used different WordPress plugins including plugins to post all schema data with a shortcode and also a geotag plugin which I geotagged each post for the location I was targeting for the keyword. I used google structure data tester to test the pages and authorship. I am still learning more about the schema details. I think my next step is to generate some backlinks. Currently I have 15 per google webmaster tools, but these are all yellowpage directories from local news directories.

jononaquest said:

1 month later and I can say that I am ranking first page for many of the keywords + city , I used different WordPress plugins including plugins to post all schema data with a shortcode and also a geotag plugin which I geotagged each post for the location I was targeting for the keyword. I used google structure data tester to test the pages and authorship. I am still learning more about the schema details. I think my next step is to generate some backlinks. Currently I have 15 per google webmaster tools, but these are all yellowpage directories from local news directories.

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Nice to see you followed up with a success story. That is why hosting locally helps SEO is because the IP of the host
contributes to the localization.

-RK