Google is the undisputed king of the search engines ad to maintain its repute, it is dedicated to providing relevant and justified results for every search query. As per the experts of Google, one out of five search queries comprises a location component which makes it a must for businesses to address local SEO. With a little time and efforts invested in Local SEO strategies, a business can welcome home traffic and conversions that are relevant and profitable.

Google is known for its frequent updates and efforts for enhancing the user experience. Recently the search engine giant came up with an update that has affected the labeling process of Google Search and Map services. Evelyn Kao, a product manager at Google asserts that these changes are aimed to make the search results more relevant and locally oriented for the users. After creating the country code top-level domain names (ccTLD), this is the second attempt by Google to enhance its user experience.

To search for something locally, users have to type the relevant ccTLD in the browser. This means that someone seeking information about any business in Canada has to type www.google.ca in the browser to ensure relevant searches.

Location-based Tailor made search results

The recent changes made by Google are aimed to offer its users more relevant local search results. Now, the domain does not affect a choice of any location but Google itself will provide more relevant results based on your location only. Any query on Google gets the search results on Google Search or Maps based on the geographical location of the user.

The effects of the update:

It is simple, in case you are traveling to a country and searches for something specific, your search results will automatically tune for your current location. This means that the SERPs will show the search result only for the country you are in. The update is applicable for all types of searches made by the customers including desktop searches, mobile search, Maps or Google on Android and iOS. This also eliminates the need of typing the local ccTLD in the address bar for any local search.

How to change country settings?

For any reason, if you aren’t able to get the relevant search results for any country you are in, you can change the country settings easily. At Google’s page, the country set in the settings can be spotted below the search bar. To change the settings— go to Search Settings—- Country settings— select preferred location.

How will this update affect the online marketers?

SEO professionals will also experience an effect on their efforts of developing a good ranking for any business with this update. Though the primary motive of Google is to help users with relevant information, the update must be considered thoroughly while creating a marketing strategy for any business. This will help in ensuring that a website offers more local search results to the audience and thus appears in the top SERPs & Google Maps.