In my previous blog, I told you how a Pigeon update changed Local Businesses giving them preference in listings.
Now, what if I told you how exactly Google’s local ranking works so that you can get your business up to the top and more visibility in the rankings. Read on the factors:
1. Relevancy of the content:
Relevancy in content needs a well local listed match when someone is searching for it. Adding a complete and detailed business information can help Google better understand your business and match your listing to relevant and precise searches.
TIP: This is why it is important to know who your audience is. Monitor your keyword buckets. If your local listing is optimized as per the keyword queries your target audience searches for, then you will likely to show up in the SERPs.
2. Your Location
This means how far each potential search result is from the location term used in a search. So, If a user doesn’t specify a location in his search, Google will calculate distance based on what’s known about his location.
TIP: Truthfully, you have little control over this. Because Google will rank a more relevant local listing higher in the search results than if a business is closer to a searcher’s location. But you can always specify your location and area codes at multiple-places to appear in the results of the searcher of your area.
3. Prominence of your Business
Prominence typically here means, how well-known your business is. Some places are more prominent in the offline world, and search results try to reflect this in local ranking. Say, a famous museum, a landmark hotel, or a well-known store brand that are familiar to many people. These are also likely to be prominent in local search results. Prominence is also based on information that Google has about a business from across the web (like links, articles, and directories).
TIP: Google pulls information from across the web- directories, articles, links, etc This includes your reviews and position in the search results to help position you in local search. So essentially, the more link building, the more positive customer reviews, and the better overall organic ranking your business has, the better local positioning your business will have.
4. SEO, SEO, SEO!
Google review count and score are factored into local search ranking: more reviews and positive ratings will probably improve a business’s local ranking. Your position in web results is also a factor, so SEO best practices also apply to local search optimization.
TIP: Optimizing your content and scrutinizing it from time-to- time will take you way up higher on the rankings. Just always keep ‘juicing up’ your website and other listings and let that traffic flow in.