The author's views are entirely his or her own (excluding the unlikely event of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of Moz.
Have you noticed that we’re all playing one large marketing industry game of Concentration these days, in which we’re matching everything we do to intent? Google is playing it, SEOs are playing it, local SEOs are playing it...
Why?
Because Google wants its SERPs (and we want our SERPs) to stand out as the places where people find exactly what they need. Google is coming at this goal from several different angles, but there’s one particular hand I want to be sure to deal you in on today if you’re marketing local businesses: local justifications.
It’s okay if this is totally new to you — I’ve noticed that local justifications have gone largely unremarked. Today, we’ll quantify the prominence of these fascinating snippets, and show you how to play a winning hand that can enable you to stand out from your local SERP competitors in exciting ways!
What are local justifications?
A local justification is an extra snippet of text Google can display on business listings in the local packs, local finders, and Google Maps to signal to searchers that a feature of the business specifically matches their perceived intent.
In the above example, Google is matching my search for “accent chairs corte madera” with a highlighted notification that these furnishings are available at nearby stores. These notifications really stand out in the listings and have the potential to improve click-through rates on your listings.
Justifications have been around since at least 2019, and it was former Google staffer Joel Headley[1] whom I first heard share Google’s terminology for this listing feature.