Naming Your Business Keyword Near Me Might Not Be A Great Idea

Chris Tweten posted a photo the other day on Twitter of a dental office sign with its company name – the company name is named “Dentist Near Me.” Of course, the SEOs in all of you are thinking, oh, this dental practice wants to rank for all [near me] related dental queries.

I don’t think I’ve seen a business named in this naming convention.

Is this considered black hat #SEO? pic.twitter.com/ULHGmAJBUh

— Chris Tweten 🍁 (@ctwtn) January 21, 2022

But it might not be the best SEO strategy to name your new business with “near me” in its business name. John Mueller of Google responded to the example and said “I kinda wonder if it works against them, because of how easily search engines change “near me” into just a location, making it really hard for people to search for them by name. For a local business, probably not a problem though, and the cute name likely helps marketing too.”

I kinda wonder if it works against them, because of how easily search engines change “near me” into just a location, making it really hard for people to search for them by name. For a local business, probably not a problem though, and the cute name likely helps marketing too.

— 🐄 John 🐄 (@JohnMu) January 23, 2022

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I guess we can see over time if this business had success from it.

But it won’t be a long term SEO strategy, if we convince all our SEO clients to start renaming their businesses with “near me” in the business name, then Google will act on it.

Forum discussion at Twitter.