Last Updated on July 22, 2024
Avoid Paid-For Ads | Google Search Isn’t Returning Lock Shops | Google Search Is Returning Call Centers | Use Google Maps Listings that Show Addresses
When You Search “Locksmith Near Me” That’s NOT What You Get
When you search for a locksmith near you or any other ‘near you’ search term, you’re likely looking for one of two things:
Fast service (a company that can get to you straight away) and
Less expensive service (a company you can walk into so you don’t have to pay them to come out to you).
But recent Google changes have led to the results returning anything but real local locksmiths!
You’ll get locksmiths that price gouge you, locksmiths that aren’t local, locksmiths that are many miles away, and “locksmiths” that aren’t even real people!
- Everything you see before scrolling down in a Google search is paid advertising. The locksmith may not be near you at all.
- Google’s newest algorithm favors small web pages. In Phoenix, none of the page-1 organic listings returned for the search term “Phoenix locksmith near me ” will likely have a lock shop near you. They won’t have a locksmith shop at all.
- Google Maps is showing thousands of ‘locksmiths’ that aren’t even locksmiths!
To find a locksmith near you, that has a shop you can walk into, you need to disregard the ads, disregard the organic search results, and find within the Google Map results 1) locksmiths that have a complete address shown and 2) ‘locksmiths’ that are not just key machine kiosks.
Using Google Maps is the best way. Jump to How to Use Google Maps to Find a Real Locksmith Near You.
Google Ads Come First
I often work from my home in Gilbert, AZ.
To the right are the results seen after searching for “Gilbert locksmiths.” This is what is referred to as ‘above the fold’ because to see below this, you need to scroll.
Notice anything? Everything shown in this screenshot are Ads. Google is a company that makes huge revenue from customers buying ads.
No locksmith shown in the search result is an actual “locksmith near me.” None of them have lock shops in Gilbert. None.
Ignore these ads if you want to find a real locksmith near you.
Organic Search Results for “Locksmith Near Me”
Organic search results are the results that made Google famous. These are the results that are NOT paid results.
Google uses many factors to determine what to show in their Google organic results and these often change. Sometimes the results get better, sometimes they get worse.
In Google’s last update, they got much worse. We also have a locksmith shop in Phoenix, but when I’m sitting in that shop and run a search for a ‘locksmith near me’ only one result is an actual locksmith located near me.
All the other results are small, mobile-only locksmiths that may be near me or may be 20 miles across town. There’s no way of knowing.
All of the main locksmiths (the most reputable companies) near my Phoenix lock shop are now shown on page two of the organic search.
Google does a little better when I’m sitting in Gilbert. Of the 10 organic search results, 2 are reputable locksmith companies actually located near me. ACME Locksmith’s Gilbert Shop is 3rd and a good company called Pennington is 10th. The rest won’t likely have any locksmiths near you.
What Google returns the most in their search results now are paid-to-play listing sites. Sites that charge locksmiths to list on them to be shown on their pages. Angie’s List, Yelp, and other newer ones I’ve never heard of. Google’s latest update has given this listing site a big bump in business!
Google now also returns a lot of scammer sites. I won’t say which ones there are, but I see at least two high-ranking sites in this search that are known to be price-gouging, bait-and-switch companies. You can read more about that in our article on Locksmith Fraud.
They rank high for searches like ‘locksmith near me’ because they invest very heavily in SEO. They can afford to because they are basically charging up to 10X what a legitimate company would charge. They pay for backlinks and they pay for reviews, all so that they can rank highly.
While you can find good companies in the organic search results when searching for a locksmith near you, it takes diving into the company’s website to see where they are really located and researching on the BBB and other sites to see if they are reputable. It’s a bit of work.
Google Maps Returns Kiosks
Using Google Maps is ultimately the best way to find a close locksmith shop or locksmith, but even this method isn’t as easy as it used to be.
When you search for a business, Google will return three listings (a.k.a. the 3-pack) that it thinks are most relevant. Unfortunately, two of these “locksmiths near me” are completely bogus.
The two KeyMe listings are not locksmiths at all. So if you’re looking to walk into a shop and find a locksmith, they can’t help you. They’ve tricked Google into thinking that they are locksmith shops by misrepresenting themselves under the locksmith category.
They’re telling Google that all of their machines a locksmith shops, and Google is returning them in almost every search! They do this to get your call and steal business from the real local locksmith that is near you. I have details in the video below.
Learn How Key Machines Trick You to Get Your Call
Key Machines are Not Locksmiths.
Just ignore all the key machine listings unless you are looking for a key machine, but I believe you’ll still find that a local locksmith will cut you a key for less, so use your local locksmith for keys.
How to Use Google Maps to Find the Closest Locksmith
It’s not obvious in the 3-pack that the other locksmith shown is indeed a real locksmith shop that can likely get someone to you quickly and not just a mobile service that could be across town from you.
Just a few months ago, Google would show their address so you would know that they had a real location, and they showed mobile-only businesses as “serving” your location without an address. That made it very easy to determine who was really close by. Now they just list the city for both mobile and physical shops.
To get the locksmith closest to you from Google Maps
Click a “see more” link that can be found at the bottom of the 3-pack. This will take you to Google Maps and show ten possible locksmiths near you.
From there just click on each non-key-machine listing shown, and it will open up more details of their business.
Those with real locations near you will have an address shown, those without, won’t have an address.
Conclusion
If you want to hire and support local businesses, and find a local locksmith that is truly close by, the best way to do that is to dive down into Google maps, ignore the ads, ignore the machines, and select the locksmith with a physical store near your location.