Weird stuff in the SERPS... ranking factors?

[captain_SEO]

If I do a search for "my brand name" in Mississippi then I get the top result for another company with the same brand name in another state. I am not talking about the local results or adwords just the plain old SERPS.

I am wondering if google has assigned some relationship with the brand name to that company - for whatever reason.

How can I attempt to get my brand to display in the results above a competitor who does not do business in the states that we do. We have local pages with company address etc.

Could it be that more people search for "my brand name" in the other location - so google assumes that should be the site to display irrespective of physical location?

[piatkow]

Do you mean that you are typing in a search of "brand name Mississippi" or do you mean that you are typing in "brand name" when your location is in Mississippi?

I think that a mod may wish to move this to a more appropriater location a it doesn't seem to relate to link building.

[captain_SEO]

piatkow,

I meant "brand name" without the location. Assuming that google knows your location without typing it into the search query.

The reason I posted it here - which was not obvious from my post - is that can backlinks and domain branding help or is it popularity of the search. In other words if the "brand name" search shows the competitor high in the SERPS and they click the link and they stay on that site - that must mean that the search is satisfied. So the "satisfied" user is happy with googles results.

Q.E.D. No matter how hard we try to promote the brand - they will still win on the popularity factor.

[martinibuster]

Could it be that more people search for "my brand name" in the other location

That could play a role in it.

Have you implemented Schema.org structured data markup to communicate all if your company information (including the name) to the search engines?

Is your site mobile friendly?

Is the name of the company in the title tags?

Is the name (and address) of the company in the footer?