The results are in from Moz; here are the local search ranking factors of 2015!
A year ago Google released a new algorithm that Search Engine Land dubbed the pigeon update which was an update to local SEO that provides more useful, relevant and accurate local search results, meaning it’s easier now than ever to get the results you want from local searches. Moz has just released an analysis of the last year’s ranking factors
Let’s decipher the results!
Google My Business Signals – 14.7%
This includes the impact of keywords in the title, their proximity and their worth among other factors.
External Loc. Signals – 13.6%
This includes the IYP/aggregator NAP (name, address, phone number) consistency and citation volume.
On-Page Signals – 20.3%
The presence of NAPs, keywords in titles and page and domain authority.
Link Signals – 20.0%
This includes inbound anchor text, linking domain authority and their quantity. It’s now more crucial to have quality over quantity more than ever.
Review Signals – 8.4%
This revolves around everything to do with reviews including their quantity, velocity and diversity.
Social Signals – 5.0%
As the name suggests this refers to all the social media platforms used to boost a website’s authority; this includes Google+ likes, Facebook likes, Tweet favourites, retweets etc.
Behavioural/Mob. Signals – 9.5%
This refers to the click-through rate, mobile clicks, online check-ins and offers found through mobile devices.
What we can gather from these results…
- Ranking factors haven’t necessarily changed dramatically. The main feature that most people began to notice was the fact that the Google 7 box is now a 3 box, making it even harder for you to reach the first set of citations, but in effect it knocked a huge amount of competition out so is it a win/lose?
- Google seems to be making local searches LESS important using a pay to play environment. Dave Oremland, a local optimiser who assisted in the findings, said that Google is eliminating all elements of a directory as we humans know it. It is tough on small businesses, and its a rip off of consumers, who have been trusting in some type of non advertising directory for so many years.
- The future is becoming much more organic, but that’s not the only factor that’ll get you to the top of SERPs.
- Google only cares about what customers, users and visitors want and the revenue they get from their advertisements.
You can read the full report from Moz here.