Deciphering Local Search with the Pro’s

There are several websites across the internet that discuss Google’s Local Search Ranking Factors. Some websites are dedicated completely to local SEO. It’s a big topic in the SEO world and it’s something that you should get to know if you’re an online marketer or if you’re a business with a location.

In this article I intend to show you what the top industry professionals are saying about the Local Search Ranking Factors, and then adding a few comments of my own. Hopefully by the end of the article you get a decent idea of what matters in Local SEO and where you can find more information that you can trust.

What does Google say about Local Search Ranking Factors?

Let’s start here because no matter what anyone says, it’s Google that decides what the ranking factors are and who is at the top of Google.

According to Google Support, rankings are based mainly on things like relevance, distance and prominence. The article goes on to clarify each.

• Relevance has to do with how closely related the search query is to a local listing.

Some of the things that might fall under this category could be: Your business category in Google My Business page matches the searcher’s query, keywords in website match searcher’s query, business name matches searcher’s query (just to name a few).

• Distance has to do with how far away the business is from the location being searched (an example search query could be “Nashville Dentist). However, if you continue reading it also says that if you don’t specify a location in your search, Google will calculate the distance based on what they know about your location. So the location of the search query can also sometimes play a factor in the search results.

Distance seems pretty self-explanatory, however there is a lot that can be said about distance. You may find at times that you rank better for being near the center of a city, but perhaps you may find that you rank better for having a location near others in the same industry.  You may find that you’re getting more business than your competitors because you happen to be right around the corner from everybody who is looking for your services (such as if you were a tailor working near several suit shops).

• Prominence is the last thing listed here. This is how well-known or prominent a business can be. The factors determining this include things like links, articles and directories.

Here’s a fun one. Here we see who is “popular”. You want to get listed on all the important directories, you want your favorite customers to write reviews for you, you want to encourage new customers to write reviews, you want your content to be engaging, unique and worth linking to etc. Consider for a moment that you’re an accountant. What makes your website any better than the next accountant? Do you blog? Do you promote your content through social media?

Knowing and understanding these basic concepts can help us get some insight into what will get us to the top of Google for local search queries. It can also help us judge which information across the internet may be accurate and which may be false.

What does Moz say about Local Search Ranking Factors?

When it comes to SEO, Moz is one of the top resources available for strategies and SEO research. This of course applies to local SEO as well.

One of the resources at Moz is the Local Search Ranking Factors for 2014. A survey was given to several SEO experts who answered what they believed to be the top factors to influence the Local Search Results. Take a look at the screenshot below to see what the overall top factors were:

Let’s take a look at these overall factors in order from most influential to least:

1. On-page signals
2. Link signals
3. External location signals
4. My Business signals
5. Review signals
6. Personalization
7. Behavioral/mobile signals
8. Social signals

When we look at the top 4 factors, (which make up  69.5% of these influential factors) you can see that they align with what Google says is important.

On-page signals includes being relevant. Having keywords and the location in the title of a page help get you ranked. Link signals has a lot to do with prominence. External location signals also has a lot to do with prominence. My Business signals has to do with relevance. You can see that this resource from Moz will likely benefit you in your journey to finding out the local search ranking factors.

The bottom 4 factors which make up the last 30.5% of the ranking influence include review signals (prominence), personalization (relevance), behavioral/mobile signals (prominence) and social signals (prominence).

The article at Moz also gives a lot more information about how to rank in Local SEO based on survey answers. It’s a valuable resource that we use at The Bird Marketing when we rank our clients in local SEO.

What are top SEO experts saying about Local Search Ranking Factors?

I decided to ask some of the top SEO experts and marketers what they feel are the most important local search ranking factors. The answers I got were all very helpful, and their help is very much appreciated!

Phil Rozek – Local Visibility Systems

 Phil Rozek is the founder of localvisibilitysystem.com and is known as one of the top experts with  regard to local SEO. He got going in local search around 2008 and has built quite a reputation since.  Some know him through his blogs, others may know him through whitespark.ca and you may have  even seen him on Moz or mentioned at Search Engine Land. At The Bird Marketing we follow what  Phil has to say because we know that his advice  carries a lot of weight. We recommend taking a look at his local seo strategies on his blog. On top of that he’s also been recognized as one of the Yelp Elite! (check out Yelp to find out more about what that is).

So I asked Phil a few survey questions and his answers were great! Here it is:

QUESTION 1: What would you say are the top 5 most important ranking factors in Local SEO today?

1. Location. Your business had better be in the city where searchers are looking.
2. Popularity with searchers. Is your business the obvious choice to click on? Do you give people both searchers and customers) opportunities and reason to search for your by name (your “brand”)? Google generally knows which results searchers like, and it takes that into account. (See this presentation from my buddy Darren Shaw.)
3. A few good links.
4. Basic on-page optimization.
5. Reviews – ideally on a variety of sites.

Question 2: What changes do you think may occur in 2015 with regard to Local SEO?

We’ll soon find out

Question 3: What would you say are common mistakes made in Local SEO?

Too many business owners and local SEOs don’t get where citations fit into the big picture. Citations in large numbers are useless. You don’t need 200 of them. You should get your info as consistent as possible on maybe the top 50, then get listed on a few (maybe 5-10) sites that are specific to your industry, then move on.

People also don’t focus on what happens *after* searchers see the business in the search results initially. As part of their due diligence, many people will search for the business by name. Will they see lots of reviews from various sources, or nothing special? And what happens if / when they click through to your site? Can visitors find a ton of helpful information about your services right away, or do they have to figure out your “elegant” navigation first and listen to your charming autoplay video? The “back” button is the biggest enemy to your local SEO.

Question 4: Have you noticed any false information with regards to do Local SEO? (If so, what?)

I and others attacked some common myths here:
http://www.localvisibilitysystem.com/2013/09/17/top-local-seo-myths/

David Mihm – Moz Local

See above.

Andrew Shotland – Local SEO Guide

1. Links

2. NAP consistency

3. Location

4. Content

5. Flexibility (Google is always throwing curve-balls after all)

My big prediction this year is that Google is going to lose market share in Local. See http://www.localseoguide.com/15-local-seo-predictions-for-2015/ for more detail.

Erick Racedo – Zing Marketing & Plumbers SEO

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