Tracking competitors and determining the strength of their (and your) online presence has been a recent theme.  In the last week I have written about how to compare two website’s ranking strength and also compare their link strength and quality.

The harder question today is how do you compare and analyze local search? Local search is clearly a growing segment.   It is very fragmented, but, there is one powerhouse: Google.  There are a multitude of local search sites ranging from local.yahoo.com to yellow page sites (like superpages) to city guides (like CitySearch).

I certainly don’t have a clear answer… but I have a few ideas.  Here is how I evaluate a local business ranking for a typical hotel.

The first place I look is the Google’s 10-box.  This is the map and 10 businessess that typically show up at the top of a search like Charlotte Hotel:

Clearly, being in this top 10 is important.  Businesses in the 10-box get a much higher exposure. Please note, the 10-box typically appears above the highly coveted #1 organic ranking.  The exact factors that cause a 10-box ranking are rarely agreed upon.  Better listings are often buried on page two! Your location to the center of town seems to help a lot here.

Next I look at the hotel’s actual Google Local Business profile.  I look at 4 factors there:

1) The number of reviews.  I think that quality matters more than quantity.  This hotel has 150 reviews.

2) The number of web pages. These are pages that have “citations.”  The more citations that Google has found, the more confident they are.  A citation is when another website references you… whether they link to you or not.  This hotel has 397 citations.

3) The Number of details, photos / videos, and user content. This hotel would have a score of 7 + 24 + 34 = 65

4) Has the Business Listing been claimed and updated by the owner? Many experts believe this is the single most important factor.

Often branded hotels have an edge in Local search. I think they are more consistent and adept at pushing, syndicating, and sharing their information across a wide variety of sites (like Expedia) and therefore rank higher.   A  boutique hotel or resort manager doesn’t have the distribution resources available to them typically.

Another factor that seems important is location. Duh.  The  more “central” you are the higher you rank in local… as a web marketer, that is not something I can help you improve upon.

If you want to learn more about how local search works (according to some opinionated experts) check out the excellent article Local Search Ranking Factors at DavidMihm.com

Also, 10 Likely Elements of Google Local Search Algorithm has some educated guesses of 10 important factors.

Do you wonder Why is Local Search So Important?

Get the basics at Local Search 101

 

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