Local Search Engine Ranking Factors

Getting a better ranking in Google Local is always difficult. The main reason is that it continues to be a “black box” that is hard to reverse engineer. It often seems to irrationally rank one business over another.

Our favorite research resource is David Mihm’s Local Search Ranking Factors which has been updated in June of 2010.

In a nutshell, they survey a bunch of local search experts on what they think most important factors are. They tally the results, and voila, you have an instant resource on what the true experts believe works and doesn’t work.

Here are their top 20 factors:

General Importance of Claiming Place Page / Local Listing
Business Address in City of Search
Associating Place Page with Proper Categories
Volume of Citations from Major Data Providers + IYP Portals
General Importance of Off-Page / Off-Listing Criteria
General Importance of Customer Reviews
Quality of Citations from Major Data Providers + IYP Portals
Product / Service Keyword in Place Page Business Title
Volume of Customer Reviews associated with Your Business
Quality of Unstructured Citations
Volume of Unstructured Citations
Proximity of Address to City Centroid
Customer Reviews Left on Third-Party Websites
Product / Service Keywords in Place Page Description
General Importance of On-Page Criteria
Quality of Inbound Links to Website
Velocity of Customer Reviews Associated with Your Business
Volume of MyMaps on which Your Business Is Included
Associating Photos with Your Place Page
Associating Local Area Code as Primary Place Page Phone Number

And here are the top negative factors that hurt you (the worst one is the last):

Negative Review Sentiment
Negative Ratings
Location Keywords in Categories
(800) Phone Number on Website w/o Local Area Code
(800) Phone Number on Website w/o Local Area Code
(800) As Primary Place Page Number
Multiple Locations on Places Landing Page
Multiple Place Pages w/Same Business Title
PO Box on Website w/o Physical Address
Multiple Place Pages w/Same Address
Hiding Address on Your Place Page
Multiple Place Pages w/Same Phone Number

Also, they provided a list of the top data providers and top review engines at the bottom of the report.

I recommend you read every word of this important report if you want to learn how to get better results in the world of local search. Thanks David Mihm!