(Entry was posted by Michael Zittel on this post in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 10/21/2021).

The "near me" (geo aspects) of a page?

Do an "local" seo pros include the phase "near me" in their titles, meta? Or, do you rely on Google maps and schema to provide the "near me" (geo aspects) of a page?*Note: In the serps I do not generally see true local sites using "near me". I have seen Groupon optimize some titles with "near me".

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YOUR ANSWERS

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

James Slattery: Some people report success in including it inntheir permanent structure- but not enough to convince me its worthwhile
Michael Zittel: James Slattery Thanks for sharing. I agree, but though I would ask to see what others think. I may try it in a blog post just to see what happens.
Stockbridge Truslow: Near me? Near who? Think about it really for a minute... near me is only useful if you are ACTUALLY near them. Do you honestly think that Google is going to show a guy in NYC a restaurant in LA just because they put the words "near me" on the page? And if they did - would that LA restaurant being shown to a person in NYC be a good search result that anyone would want to see?

I guess my point is this... even if it did work - which it doesn`t - what benefit could you get by drawing traffic to your local site that wants some place near them but that isn`t near them at all? Pointless.
Michael Zittel: Stockbridge Truslow thanks for your thoughts. What if near me was combined with geo keywords and schema? Then, would it work. Personally, I doubt it. Just throwing out an idea out to see what the community thinks.
James Slattery: Stockbridge Truslow I have a biz that makes tons of money from exactly that scenario. People looking for people who service their area and aren`t necessarily physically located near them. Pointless? Nope. Profitable !
Stockbridge Truslow: Service area businesses are different too - they don`t NEED to be near you - you just need to be in their service area. Define that and you`re ready to rank.

"Near me" actually works like an operator, not a keyword term. Here`s proof.

Search:Near Me Restaurants"Near Me" Restaurants

By putting the "quotes" around "Near Me" it changes it into a keyword rather than an operator (for organic search - for GMB/Local search, there`s no difference). Notice that the organic results show sites optimizing for the words "Near Me" whether or not they actually are. Remove the quotes and it shows sites that are actually near me - not ones that optimize for the words.

Any correlation you`re seeing between using the words "near me" on your page and good ranking is spurious. It`s not really helping you.
Christopher Fischbach: Proximity works without highlighting "near me" if the pages are properly set up and the company is factually "near them" (searchers). However this applies to local searches only in verticals that are expected for local searches. But then, other factors come into play as well, that may or may not help to rank even if you`re off of "near".
Zachary Toto: Generally, you should maintain control and tell the SEs how to handle things rather than letting them do what they feel is best. In this particular case, it`s best to let the SEs handle the "Near Me".
Michael Zittel: Zachary Toto Thanks for sharing. That is pretty much the consensus so far.
Zachary Toto: Michael Zittel You`re welcome. I tried a quick search of Google Search Central to find a good article to point you to, but couldn`t really find one for this particular issue. You can dig through Google Search Central to find articles that may better help you. You could also try Bings resources as well as Yandex or any other major SE you use. Most SEs have webmaster resources you can use to help with your SEO.
Christine Hansen: Think John Mueller got a question like that and answered that it wouldn`t make much sense. Just googled it and found it at this video at time mark 48:48 - https://youtu.be/yxrA5ugDO88

YOUTUBE.COMEnglish Google Webmaster Central office-hours hangoutEnglish Google Webmaster Central office-hours hangout
Daniel Dutton: Not done a lot of local but it wouldn`t make much sense to optimise for that phrase. It is more probable for it to be used as an operator by a search engine to include sites that are close to the geolocation of the searcher.
James Slattery: Some people report success in including it inntheir permanent structure- but not enough to convince me its worthwhile
Michael Zittel: James Slattery Thanks for sharing. I agree, but though I would ask to see what others think. I may try it in a blog post just to see what happens.
Stockbridge Truslow: Near me? Near who? Think about it really for a minute... near me is only useful if you are ACTUALLY near them. Do you honestly think that Google is going to show a guy in NYC a restaurant in LA just because they put the words "near me" on the page? And if they did - would that LA restaurant being shown to a person in NYC be a good search result that anyone would want to see?

I guess my point is this... even if it did work - which it doesn`t - what benefit could you get by drawing traffic to your local site that wants some place near them but that isn`t near them at all? Pointless.
Michael Zittel: Stockbridge Truslow thanks for your thoughts. What if near me was combined with geo keywords and schema? Then, would it work. Personally, I doubt it. Just throwing out an idea out to see what the community thinks.
James Slattery: Stockbridge Truslow I have a biz that makes tons of money from exactly that scenario. People looking for people who service their area and aren`t necessarily physically located near them. Pointless? Nope. Profitable !
Stockbridge Truslow: Service area businesses are different too - they don`t NEED to be near you - you just need to be in their service area. Define that and you`re ready to rank.

"Near me" actually works like an operator, not a keyword term. Here`s proof.

Search:Near Me Restaurants"Near Me" Restaurants

By putting the "quotes" around "Near Me" it changes it into a keyword rather than an operator (for organic search - for GMB/Local search, there`s no difference). Notice that the organic results show sites optimizing for the words "Near Me" whether or not they actually are. Remove the quotes and it shows sites that are actually near me - not ones that optimize for the words.

Any correlation you`re seeing between using the words "near me" on your page and good ranking is spurious. It`s not really helping you.
Christopher Fischbach: Proximity works without highlighting "near me" if the pages are properly set up and the company is factually "near them" (searchers). However this applies to local searches only in verticals that are expected for local searches. But then, other factors come into play as well, that may or may not help to rank even if you`re off of "near".
Zachary Toto: Generally, you should maintain control and tell the SEs how to handle things rather than letting them do what they feel is best. In this particular case, it`s best to let the SEs handle the "Near Me".
Michael Zittel: Zachary Toto Thanks for sharing. That is pretty much the consensus so far.
Zachary Toto: Michael Zittel You`re welcome. I tried a quick search of Google Search Central to find a good article to point you to, but couldn`t really find one for this particular issue. You can dig through Google Search Central to find articles that may better help you. You could also try Bings resources as well as Yandex or any other major SE you use. Most SEs have webmaster resources you can use to help with your SEO.
Christine Hansen: Think John Mueller got a question like that and answered that it wouldn`t make much sense. Just googled it and found it at this video at time mark 48:48 - https://youtu.be/yxrA5ugDO88

YOUTUBE.COMEnglish Google Webmaster Central office-hours hangoutEnglish Google Webmaster Central office-hours hangout
Daniel Dutton: Not done a lot of local but it wouldn`t make much sense to optimise for that phrase. It is more probable for it to be used as an operator by a search engine to include sites that are close to the geolocation of the searcher.