Ranking factors are again a hot topic for local SEO professionals because of Google’s recent announcements, called the Venice Update. Because of this, SEO professionals will need to look at using what worked for their organic searches in ranking local searches.
Google has also given out the three pillars of ranking higher on Google Places: prominence, distance and relevance.
Relevance means that elements of your business, such as the business name, description and other profile information, should match the search query.
Prominence is determined by several factors or signals that Google looks into to see just how popular your company is compared to your competitors.
Distance, meanwhile, is your location from the city center. The sad truth is that higher ranking business listings are often those that are closer to the geographical city center or what is called the centroid. If you are around one to two miles away from the city center, then you have a good chance of ranking an A for that city.
The good news is, it seems that Google is looking to degrade the importance of being proximate to a city center by focusing more on domain authority and page authority.
What These Mean
So what are the things that could boost your rankings, according to these three factors?
1. Reviews.
Reviews do not only help people gauge what your customers feel and think about your business, products and services, but also improve your ranking. The more reviews you have indicates just how important your business is. Andrew Shotland, reporting on a Bizible study, says that getting five reviews significantly increased ranking for some listings, after that, it is the 100th review that gives rankings the additional boost. Having no reviews also pulled down rankings.
2. Complete your profile.
Relevance dictates that you should get your main keywords into your online profiles and use the most appropriate business categories that are available for your listing. If you do not complete your profile, there is little else you can do to increase your relevance.
3. It is not just about the number of citations you have.
Traditionally, people thought that the number of citations is a very important ranking factor on Google Places. But it has become very apparent that it is not the number of citations but the quality of the page that carries the citation to your business that matters more. This means that even if your business has a link on citation sites, but which sites do not have good page authority or page rank, then it will not be worth much, at least not as much as it has been previously believed.
This does not mean, however, that you should not work on getting citations, as the sheer number of these may prove that your business is prominent.
4. Get a local phone number posted on your website.
5. Work on getting a higher authority for your website.
The Rumors: What Could Help Your Local Search Ranking
1. Business name length.
Bill Slawski has come out with a report that Google has tried to secure a patent that would rank search results based on the search term used. The gist is that longer business names are seen to be more direct in trying to search for a business so Google presents results for these as is, whereas shorter business names are appended with the geographical location.
For example, those searching for ABCDEF Restaurant will see results for that particular term, but searches for ABCDEF will return search results for ABCDEF Lima Ohio (the location is added).
2. Check-in services.
In as much as Google is using social signals to help determine how important your website is, Chris Silver Smith writes in Search Engine Land that Google might also be using check-in services to rank businesses on Google Places.
Google might be using check-in services to see how popular a place is by taking into consideration how many people have checked into the venue or how many check-ins have been made at that venue.
Google’s ranking factors are forever changing, but instead of chasing the algorithm and looking for superficial shortcuts, make sure to represent your establishment as honestly as possible and in a way that best serves your customers. SEO Inc. understands that organic SEO for small business not only achieves the above, but helps increase your rankings and traffic as well.
