Best Tips to Get In the Local Pack
-
Apart from making sure your business information is 100% accurate, etc., what are your best tips to get a company ranking in the local pack? Do they need to rank well organically to be considered for the local pack or is it solely based on the consistency of their GMB page?
-
Thank you for the thoughtful and thorough response, Miriam! I really appreciate it.
I am looking forward to seeing the annual Local Search Ranking Factors 2017 study once that is released—I will keep an eye out for it!
Thanks again!
-
Thanks, Ria! These are extremely helpful.
It's crazy how much of a change we've seen with proximity impacting the local pack—but it makes sense and definitely provides the user better options! It is just a hard pill to swallow at times.
Thanks again!
-
Hey There!
In addition to Ria's smart tips, I would focus on links when you need to move the needle. Earning/building links on authoritative local and industry websites would be key here. This is one of the only things, honestly, that can make a serious difference when you are in a super competitive geo-industry market (like a personal injury attorney in LA!).
And I want to emphasize content publication - your ultimate goal is to become Google's idea of being THE authority on your topic, whether that's auto glass repair, organic groceries or yoga. You can become THE authority to Google by becoming THE authority to local consumers - the site they turn to for specific topical information, and that they link to, share, review, etc.
There are believed to be several hundred factors that Google takes into account in determining local pack rankings, so, understandably, it's a pretty nuanced environment. A bakery in rural California is going to be able to rank well with very minimal effort, but their location in San Francisco is going to have more of an uphill battle, simply due to the strength and breadth of their local competition.
Something to keep on your radar: the annual Local Search Ranking Factors 2017 study will be being released here on Moz soon. This polls the opinions of some of the top Local SEOs in the world, and you will be able to gain expert insight into what really brainy folks feel is impacting rank most heavily today, both in the local and local-organic results. So, stay tuned for that as it's coming soon!
-
Nice tips, Ria. I'll add some more!
-
There are many factors to it, but I've personally found the main influencers to be:
- citations, citations, citations.... consistent across all local directories
- reviews... I find sometimes that a client won't be ranking in the local pack, and then they get a couple of reviews on Google and are included.
- good presence or mentions on local websites (local news, local blogs, local businesses, etc)
- PROXIMITY! Local pack is all about proximity these days. Not something that can be easily helped, but it's good to bear in mind.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How to change your location for local search results?
Hi Everybody Back in december 2015 I came across this article https://gofishdigital.com/google-results-change-location/ explaining how to change location for local search results using the google emulation tool by setting up new coordinates. This was also picked up by mikeblumenthals' blog as being one of the best way of doing this. I tried it at the time and it worked very well. I tried using it last week and again this week but my location no longer seems to update. I have tried it on fifferent computers located in different locations and still it doesn't work. Does anyone know if this feature is no longer available and if not what else they'd recommend to verify local search results. Thanks
Local Listings | | coolhandluc0 -
Local SEO business name issue due to aggregator
So I work for a college and we have multiple locations. My tactic has been always to keep the name the same for all of them (no city name), and then change the address and phone number for each. But there is 1000s of college listings websites out there that aggregate college and school data from the same source: the US government. Now the way that they have most, if not all, multi-location colleges listed is: "college name-city name". I can see the value in that, but I guess I'm just wondering what to do since it obviously can't be changed. Should I revert all of our listings as "college name-city name" to match the 1000s of listings that have it that way? I've been under the impression that I should leave the city/town name out of the name, but I'm just wondering what you think best practices would be? Thanks
Local Listings | | TomBinga1125
Tom0 -
SEO best practices for store locator and local pages - 301 or not?
I have been struggling to answer this on my own and now throwing up for the Moz community for a life line. Our company has several location across 6 states. We have local pages that we are working to improve with better content. We also have a store locator that will list the stores but the pages are not the same. See below example. I can't help but feel like I am splitting juice and traffic that should be combined to one page for each location. Any ideas or advice on how we can best combine/funnel the traffic to one optimized page? Here is an example: State local page - http://www.jakesfireworks.com/michigan/ Locator page for state - http://www.jakesfireworks.com/locator/?state=MI City local page - http://www.jakesfireworks.com/michigan/grand_rapids City Locator page - http://www.jakesfireworks.com/locator/?id=183&state=MI
Local Listings | | devonkrusich0 -
How much local traffic should I expect
I handle mostly small business and provide SEO optimization services and content creation. My question is about local search. what is a reasonable amount of local search traffic for small service companies. For instance I handle an electric and hvac company with an estimated population of 100,000 people within a ten mile radius. With approx 20 companies who provide competition. Should I expect 10 hits a day 20, a hundred? How do I quantify results on a local level as to not make expectations too high. The good metrics I have is the amount of prospects who have found my clients through the web and purchased services. That percentage is high. But Is there room to improve if my client received 15 hits a day?
Local Listings | | donsilvernail0 -
Does Google local account access affect local rankings?
Is it possible that being a third party manager to a Google plus account have a negative impact in local rankings since access is coming from a different city? Example: I work in Houston but manage a client's Google account that is in New York.
Local Listings | | mgordon0 -
Branding Accuracy for Local Search
Hello Mozzers! We have a hotel client who's brand is, say "The Moz". However, they appear online with a few different variations, e.g. "The Moz", "Moz Hotel", _"The Moz Hotel". _In the past, we have tried to include the word "hotel" in client names on local listings, for search purposes. However, does branding accuracy trump what may end up being a small gain in search? Thanks for your thoughts! Frank
Local Listings | | FrankSweeney0 -
How does dynamic call tracking affect local SEO?
I would like to begin tracking calls and offline conversions, but I am concerned that if I add a dynamic call tracking software that it will negatively affect SEO.
Local Listings | | FluidAdvertising1 -
Unable to verify my google local listing page by phone verification.
Hi, I have created the Google local listing page for my business site. I want to verify it using the phone verification but there is only a option - "verify by postcard". Is there no option to verify it using a phone number? Help needed.
Local Listings | | SangeetaC0