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Custom Location Settings



Rank Ranger supports local rank tracking with a variety of custom search engine setting options for Google search engines. To access these settings:
  • In the Campaigns screen, locate the campaign and click the Campaign Settings gear icon. 
  • Click the Search Engines tab.
  • Click the Custom Location & Options button that corresponds to the desired Search Engine.
local rank tracking
 

Custom Location Settings

Rank Tracking & Report Options

custom location setting

Click the Custom Location & Options button and complete these fields:
  • Custom Search Engine Name (optional): this displays in reports
  • Custom Location Settings: the search engine country has already been selected, you can target the location further by entering a state, city or postal code in any of these formats:
    • California: this narrows a USA search to the state of California
    • Miami, FL: this narrows a USA search to the city of Miami, Florida
    • 90210, USA: this narrows a USA search to a postal code within a city (in the US, it is necessary to add a comma after the postal code and include USA)
    • London: this targets a UK search to the city of London
    • WC1N: this targets a UK search to a specific postal code


Click the Save button
when you have finished customizing the search engine.

Business Results Settings

Default Setting
The default search engine setting for Business Results is that they are excluded from rank tracking.
  • Option 1:  Select Exclude from organic rank count if you don't want this campaign to report local pack or hotel pack in the Rank reports

    default business results setting

  • Option 2:  Select Exclude from organic rank count AND enter the Google My Business page name in the Business Name field if you want the business name tracked and reported in the Reports & Tools > Organic Search >Rank Tracking > Rank Insights - Local screen

    exclude rank but include business tracking

  • Option 3:  Enter the Google My Business page name in the Business Name field, and select the Include in organic rank count option if you want the local pack or hotel pack position considered as part of organic rank in the Rank reports

    Google My Business Title
    • Select the Include if Ranked option if you don't want the local pack or hotel pack included in the organic rank count when your business isn't found in the pack


If you choose Option 2 or 3 to enable Google My Business listing results reporting, then follow these instructions to enable tracking. 

Business Results Match
  • Select Exclude from organic rank count or Include in organic rank count based on whether or not you want local or hotel pack positions counted in organic rank (as described in the section above)
    • If Include in organic rank count is selected, and you only want the local pack or hotel pack positions considered in organic rank only when the Business Name is matched in the pack, check the Include if Ranked option.
  • In the Business Name field enter the Google My Business listing Title
    The Business Name must be the exact title that displays in the Google listing for the business location.
    Refer to the sections below for wild card options to accommodate Google business listings for multiple locations or business names.
Google My Business Title


Business with Multiple Location Listings
If the tracked domain has multiple Google business listings containing the same Business Name with location or service included in the title, use the (contains) option.
  • For example, by entering (Capital Grille), the Ranger bot will return Local Results for "The Capital Grille", "Capital Grille Wall Street", "The Capital Grille of New Orleans", etc.
Multiple business location pages


Company with Multiple Business Name Listings
If the Google Business Titles don't contain a common brand name, you can enter multiple business names in parentheses with a pipe between them.
  • For example, the Hilton Hotel in San Diego has a sports grill, lounge, and restaurant, so to track the Google Business page for each of the related properties, you could enter this in the Business Name field:
    (Hilton San Diego Bayfront)|(Fox Sports Grill)|(Odysea Lounge)|(Vela)
Multiple business name listings


Business Page URL (optional)
If the Google business listing has been optimized for a URL that is different than the campaign's primary URL, you may enter that URL in this field and we will use it as the landing page in your reports.
  • For example, if the website link on the Google My Business listing for a restaurant directs users to the reservations page, a menu, or a gallery of mouth-watering photos, you can enter that URL in this field. 
  • If the field is left empty, then the campaign domain URL will display in reports if the keyword ranks in Local Finder for the business name.
report landing page URL

In the above example, the search engine has been customized:
  • For search in Boston, Massachusetts
  • To include local pack and hotel pack results if the Google My Business listing title is "The Capital Grille"
  • To include the rank count along with organic results rank if the Google Business listing name is in the search results
  • To list a specific landing page URL in the rank reports when the Google My Business name is found in Boston based search results


Click the Save button
when you have finished customizing the search engine.

Learn more about Local Pack Results or Hotel Pack Results.

Optional Advanced Search Engine Settings


These Optional Advanced Settings are automatically set to display the optimum results for the selected search engine and campaign. Only change these settings if you specifically want to see results that vary from the default.

For example, when google.co.uk is selected the default language is English. If you want to track a different language, such as French, in google.co.uk then you should change the Search Results Language setting.

Search Results Language (lr parameter)
If you want to check search rankings only for a specific language (lr parameter), select it from the menu.
Important! Do not select a language unless it is non-native to the search engine you have selected (e.g., if you selected google.co.fr and you want French search results, then leave this set for All Languages because French is the default for google.co.fr).

Search Results Language


Search Results Country (cr parameter)
To check search rankings only for pages hosted in a specific country (cr parameter), select the country from the menu.
Important! If you have already selected a country-specific search engine like google.co.uk, and you want search results for the UK, then do not change this setting because UK is already the default for that search engine.

Search Results country


Search Location (Country) (gl parameter)
To check rankings as though you were searching Google from inside a specific country (gl parameter), select the country from the menu.
Important! Only select a Country if it is different than the search engine country (e.g., search engine is Google.com USA and you want results based on someone searching from Canada).

search location country


Interface Language (hl parameter)
If the campaign contains multiple language keywords tracking on a country-based search engine, and you think that your client / target audience has their browser interface language set to a language that differs from some of the keywords, then you may select an interface language.
For example, if most of the campaign's keywords are French, and some are English, and the campaign is tracking on Google France (google.fr), then you may choose to set the browser interface language to French.
             
interface language


SafeSearch Filter
Select a SafeSearch filter based on the level of adult content you want to display in search results
  • Off = adult content allowed
  • Moderate = explicit content blocked
  • Strict = adult content blocked 
Click the Save button.

safesearch filter




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