Increasingly searchers are looking to locate goods and services from local businesses online and more often than not using their smart phone to make that search. Local SEO is making sure that your business is visible in the search results at the precise moment these potential local customers are looking. Location or local search results in a search results page typically appear at the top and above the organic results they can be in a variety of formats that can include maps, reviews, listings etc. The importance of appearance in these sections is that only a few are chosen so in a competitive sector it might be that only the top three appear and in turn most likely to get the attention of a potential customer. Get it right and be found ahead of your competitors.
SEO & Local Search Survey
Moz the well known marketing software company has produced a survey that looks at what the most important factors are to do well in local search. They examine the hundreds of different factors that influence appearance both positive and negative
ts 2017 survey of local search ranking factors. The survey is based on the aggregated opinions of dozens of local search experts, who have been asked to provide their opinions on this year’s top ranking factors on local search.
Without further adieu, let’s dive right in. The specific ranking factors are broken down by rankings in Google’s local pack, and rankings in Google’s organic local search results. It feels like more emphasis is placed on the local pack ranking factors, which could be due to the fact that the local pack appears before organic search results snippets.
In the full local search survey you can see all of the top 50 ranking factors for each section. In this article I will narrow down just the top 10.
Top 10 Local Pack Finder Factors
Proximity of Address to the Point of Search (Searcher-Business Distance)
Physical Address in City of Search
Proper GMB Category Associations
Quality/Authority of Inbound Links to Domain
Consistency of Citations on the Primary Data Sources
Domain Authority of Website
Product/Service Keyword in GMB Business Title
Quality/Authority of Structured Citations
Consistency of Citations on Tier 1 Citation Sources
Click-Through Rate from Search Results
Top 50 Local Organic Factors
Quality/Authority of Inbound Links to Domain
Domain Authority of Website
Diversity of Inbound Links to Domain
Topical (Product/Service) Keyword Relevance of Domain Content
Quantity of Inbound Links to Domain
Quantity of Inbound Links to Domain from Locally Relevant Domains
Click-Through Rate from Search Results
Geographic (City/Neighborhood) Keyword Relevance of Domain Content
Product/Service Keywords in Anchor Text of Inbound Links to Domain
Mobile-Friendly/Responsive Website