Can't rank for a couple of phrases, even after going mobile

[hermosa]

I have been trying to rank for a phrase in the format "Blue widgets Cityname" for the longest time. It took me a while to make my site mobile-friendly and responsive, but I finally did it. It was a TON of work.

I have seen no improvement. In fact, I rank about 6 positions lower in the SERPS. I don't know what else to try. Any suggestions. I see companies ranking on page one that aren't even in the city I'm targeting.

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 7:25 am (utc) on Apr 16, 2017]
[edit reason] Added vocabulary to post lost when dropping thread description [/edit]

[Robert Charlton]

Without having some idea what kinds of changes you made when you converted to a responsive design, it's difficult to know why you might have dropped 6 positions.

Did you keep the same urls as in your old desktop site? Did you keep the same content, or did you change the content for responsive? Did you redirect changed urls? How long has it been since the changes were made? Are you taking about desktop or mobile results? Are you taking geo-location into account? Please describe roughly what the situation is (continuing to use examples, as you have).

With regard to the phrase itself, in a large city, eg, it's very possible that "Blue widgets Cityname" is an extremely competitive search.

It's also not clear whether you're talking about plain vanilla organic results among, say, specific product results that aren't featured in Google's local vertical... but even these can be hyper-localized...

... or, more likely, whether you're talking about more generic results that include "Local Packs" combined with organic, which is really a specialized area of search, for which we have a dedicated Local Search [webmasterworld.com] forum.

In that forum, I've just posted a thread about the most recent version of a guide that's essential Local Search reading, and you might want to check it out...

2017 Local Search Ranking Factors
https://www.webmasterworld.com/local_search/4844636.htm [webmasterworld.com]

[hermosa]

I kept the same URLs. I kept the same content. I did not use any re-directs. I am talking about desktop results. I have not checked mobile. My services aren't generic. They are targeted to corporations.

Thank you, I will check out your guide.

The last 3 days I have hardly had any traffic from Google.

[Robert Charlton]

The last 3 days

It's been Easter weekend, so I wouldn't be expecting that much traffic for the past few days, but different searches have different timing.

By "generic"... probably not a good word for me to have used... I meant a broad general search, for something like hotels or attorneys in a big city... as opposed, say, to a highly specific product like a 'cd tower'... a search that was discussed as an example back in 2011 when Google was localizing results for the desktop, and we could set default locations in Google serps.

For that query, even in 2011, the desktop ranking in the metro area I live in was affected by my distance from a store that was selling them, almost freeway exit by freeway exit. These were organic results, not map results. Desktop results were localized then, as they are now, by ISP information. Mobile uses the actual location of your phone, and for certain kinds of searches will get much more specific about proximity.

Again, how long have your site changes been live? Is the mobile version fast, or has the conversion to responsive slowed the site down?

Also, why do you believe your site deserves to rank on page one? This isn't to say that it doesn't... but it might be helpful to get a sense of why you think a site should rank these days.