3 types of local searches

There are a few types of local searches. Contextual, inferred, and intent. Contextual is really easy for the search engines to understand. In this case, a user provides Google or other search engines with a location, and that location is exactly the same to where the user currently is. So if I’m somewhere in Houston, and I conduct a search for the term “Smog check Houston” the search engine has a very clear understanding of what I want.

They have the complete context. The next type of search is an inferred search. In this case, if I was in Houston and I conducted a search for “Smog check San Antonio” the search engine has to infer that I’m actually interested in local results from San Antonio, despite the fact I’m currently in Houston. The last type of search is intent, and this is becoming one of the most popular types of searches. As the search engines get better and better at understanding the intent of a search, people are less likely to include additional location context.
In this type of search, I’m in Houston, Texas, and the only thing I type into the search engine is “smog check.” Part of identifying the right Local SEO strategy is also identifying what type of search query your target audience is most likely to use. There’s potentially a different approach to rising to the top in a contextual query versus an intent query.