5 Most Important Local SEO Ranking Signals

46% of all Google searches are local. If your local business doesn’t show up when someone searches for the products or services you provide in that location, that’s a huge missed opportunity. You are losing your profits to your competitors. But not anymore! In this blog, we will discuss the 5 most important local SEO ranking signals that can help you better optimize your site.

Getting your website rank for location-based keywords has never been difficult. Today, with increasing competition in the market and changing algorithms of Google, businesses have started to understand the benefits of the best local SEO services. If you know the top ranking signals and have hired a reliable local SEO marketing services provider, you can rank higher and improve your SEO results drastically. So here are the most important local SEO ranking signals you must know:

Local SEO Services

  1. Google My Business Signals

Google My Business factors such as location proximity, service categories, keyword in the business title make up 25% of the top-ranking factors for Google’s local pack.

 

What to do:

Claim your Google My Business listing. It’s free! Fill out all the information, such as a physical address, services/products, your logo, photos of your employees, list your office hours, and types of payments accepted, etc. This would increase your likelihood to appear in Local Pack and Google Map when users search for your services or products.

 

  2. Review Signals

97% of customers agree that they look online for a local business. And, what they look the most – reviews. That doesn’t mean if you write fake reviews for your own business, you will rank higher on Google or other search engines. Customers don’t just want quality and quantity but also credibility and relevance in terms of online reviews. 85% of customers consider online reviews as a personal recommendation. And, a whopping 69% consider a review relevant if it is written within 2-3 months.

 

What to do:

Maintain an active review page on the website and also on Google. Customers want the most up to date information about a business and the same is the case with Google. The search engine looks for fresh content when ranking a website for a user query. Work on generating reviews on multiple review sites. Keywords in reviews might help you more, but don’t stress on creating fake reviews for that.

 

  3. On-Page SEO Signals

Local SEO is much like traditional SEO. Just like organic SEO, on-page SEO factors in local SEO are signals that influence how each web page is ranked. There are more than 50 factors that you must consider to optimize your website. Unlike off-page SEO, you have complete control over these factors including domain authority and page authority; keyword usage in titles, H1 tags, content body, and header tags; URL structure; NAP information; site architecture; robots.txt; site uptime; image optimization; duplicate, fresh, and unique content; mobile-friendliness, and more.

 

What to do:

Create and maintain a review page, include customer interviews, create a webpage for each location, state or region. You can even create relevant and useful content based on your location, such as current trends, styles, events, and more.

 

  4. Link Signals

Links are influential factors in local search ranking. The more the number of authoritative links to your site, the higher the rankings. Link building is the best way to improve your search rankings. Top link signals that search engines look for include inbound link authority, link quantity, link diversity, and inbound links from locally relevant domains.

 

What to do:

Use Ahrefs and SmallSEOChecker to check your backlink profile. Create top-quality content that earns links to your website. Write locally relevant content for guest blogging and affiliate networks. Connect with local communities to get locally relevant links.

 

[Read: Content That Can Instantly Boost Your Local SEO Rankings.]

 

  5. Citation Signals

What is a citation? It is the mention of your business name, phone number and address online. Citations can be found on local directories, social media channels, websites, and mobile apps. How citations help you rank higher? Citations help in local business discovery and build customer trust. So how many citations do you need to rank higher? The more the quantity of high-quality citations, the better the ranking position.

 

What to do:

Search for geographically-relevant, good-quality online directories such as local chambers, trade bodies, and member associations. Begin building citations on these sites by providing your official name, physical address, and local phone number. Just like NAP information, make sure the details you provide in citations are consistent across multiple sites.

 

Other top local search ranking signals:

1. Domain Authority of Website

2. Diversity of Inbound Links to Domain

3. Topical Keyword Relevance of Domain Content

4. Click-Through Rate from Search Engine Results

5. The Relevance of Geographic Keyword in Domain Content

6. Keywords in the Anchor Text of Inbound Links

7. Mobile-Friendly or Responsive Website

 

Local SEO Negative Ranking Signals

  • Mismatch in NAP information on various websites
  • Presence of malware on the website
  • Multiple GMB location with same phone number
  • Mismatch in GMB address and address mentioned on the website
  • Mismatch of the phone number of GMB, your website, and other sites.

 

Conclusion

Identifying the signals of local SEO rankings is just the beginning of your marketing journey. You need the help of a reliable marketing company that specializes in the best local SEO services to get your website to the top of SERPs for local searches.

 

Source Soft Solutions provides local SEO marketing services to help your business grow locally, increase visibility, and improve brand recognition. With our years of experience and advanced tools, we can help your local business outrank your competitors. Get in touch with us today to see how we can help you drive your business.

 

Related Articles:

How can I improve my local SEO results?

Key Reasons To Adopt A Long-Form Content Strategy

5 On-Page SEO Factors That Will Boost Your Rankings

5 Content Strategies That Can Improve Your SEO Results In 2019

Tips to Rank Higher in Local Search

Want to rank higher for local searches?

Contact Us





    cf7captchaRegenerate Captcha

    Copyright Disclaimer: Unauthorized use, publication, and/or duplication of our website and blog content without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Source Soft Solutions with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.