2023 LOCAL SEO RANKING FACTORS REVEALED! – (Rank #1 in on Google Maps & Search Now!)
it's arrived! the 2023 local SEO ranking
factors are out if you want to know how to get your business on top of Google Maps and Google
search this year you'll definitely want to tune in for the next few minutes now here is the thing
Google doesn't actually tell us these ranking factors themselves but luckily Darren sure the
president and founder of white spark conduct an annual survey with input from 44 top local experts
including yours truly to figure out the 149 most important local ranking factors this year's survey
is extra special because it also includes a list of things to avoid if you don't want your Google
business profile suspended plus tips on improving conversions and local service ads and even how
local Pros are using artificial intelligence for SEO it's basically The Ultimate Guide to local SEO
and I swear by it I've put the link to it in the description below obviously we can't go through
everything in detail here but I'll give you the rundown on the ranking factors that matter most
if you want to show up in a local map pack and the key areas to focus on to dominate the local
organic results sounds good let's dive in let's start off by looking at what effects your business
visibility in the local pack the most the primary category of your Google business profile is the
number one ranking Factor you need to consider for some businesses choosing a primary category
is straightforward like if you're a plumber for example but for others such as lawyers or
dentists there can be several categories that could apply it's important to Choose Wisely
as your primary category heavily influences your chances of showing up in the local pack if you're
unsure about which category to pick a good idea is to check out your competitors one way to do
this is by downloading a Google Chrome extension called GMB everywhere I've put the link to it in
the description below once you have installed it you can search for a keyword you want to rank for
on Google Maps and G GMB everywhere will highlight the primary and secondary categories that your
competitors are using the second most critical ranking factor to consider is the presence
of keywords in your business name if you have one or more keywords you want to rank for in your
Google business profile name it can significantly increase your visibility in the map pack however
be careful not to add keywords to your business title just for the sake of ranking as it goes
against Google's guidelines instead only add keywords that genuinely represent your business
in the real world for instance suppose a clinics primary services like this one are based on
Chinese medicine and this is clearly how they represent themselves in the real world based
on their shop front in that case they could add the keywords Chinese medicine to their business
title this would be perfectly acceptable and could significantly improve their local pack rankings so
according to the survey the third most important thing when it comes to local rankings is how close
your business is to the person doing the search basically the closer you are the higher you'll
show up on the map pack unfortunately there's not much you can do about this one so let's move
on to the next one next up is all about where your business is physically located if someone does a
search that includes the name of the city where your business is or they're using a device that's
based in that City then you're more likely to show up in your local pack results for example if
you're a divorce lawyer in Las Vegas you're more likely to show up in a local pack if someone
searches for divorce lawyer Las Vegas or if they're using a computer or phone that's located
in Las Vegas and they search for divorce lawyer so if your business isn't located in the same city
as the search it's unlikely that you'll show up on the map pack the solution move your business
to where your target market is okay I know that sounds pretty drastic but it could be a really
smart investment if your main customers are in a particular City so the next big thing on the list
is called removal of spam listings through spam fighting unfortunately some shady business owners
use spammy tactics like stopping their business name with keywords making multiple fake Google
Business profiles with fake addresses and writing fake reviews to rank higher than honest businesses
like you but here is the deal fighting against these spammers has become a major strategy amongst
local SEO experts they even consider it as a separate local ranking Factor because it directly
affects the visibility of their clients listings in the map pack and you should care about it too
so if you think your competitors are being sneaky then do something about it report their sketchy
Behavior to Google using the Google redressal form I've dropped the link in the description for
you this will help level the playing field for everyone but hey there is a pro tip for you create
a dummy Google account to use when submitting your reports not because your competitors will figure
out who you are because they want but because even the Google redressal form can be abused by the
same Shady businesses and when Google says too many reports from one account they might start
to question its legitimacy so it's best to keep your real account out of it moving down our list
we have the high numerical Google rating Factor this one is simple listings with lower ratings
like a three out of five tend to rank lower in the map pack than those with higher ratings like
F4 or 5 plus having good reviews on Google also helps improve customer perception of your business
so make sure your business gets glowing Google reviews by providing top-notch Quality Service
up next we have the additional Google business profile categories Factor while your primary
category is crucial for your Google rankings in a map pack adding extra categories can also
make a difference so don't forget to include them in your listing whenever possible if you're not
sure what categories to use take a peek at your competitors listings on Google Maps just like we
did when we looked at the primary category if you got GMB everywhere downloaded it will even show
you which secondary categories they're using that you might want to consider using too all right
we've made it to the last Factor on the list I wanted to talk about number of reviews this one's
pretty straightforward having more reviews on your Google listing can definitely boost your rankings
in a map pack but here is the catch according to a recent study by Joy Hawkins at Sterling Sky there
seems to be a significant ranking boost once a listing Hits 10 reviews so it's important to aim
for at least 10 reviews on your listing however getting even more reviews beyond that doesn't
seem to have the same impact on your rankings so while having a ton of reviews is great it's
not the only thing you should focus on that being said don't limit yourself to just 10 reviews it's
important to keep Gathering more reviews to build trust and reputation to convert potential visitors
into to customers so that's a wrap on the Google Map Pack ranking factors I've covered eight of
them which should keep you pretty occupied for now but if you've already got these covered
then feel free to check the remaining 141 at your leisure in the meantime let's take a look at
the ranking factors that really matter if you want to come out on top in the local organic results
coming in at number one we have the importance of having a dedicated page on your website for
each service you provide unfortunately many business owners make the mistake of thinking that
a one-page website or bundling all their services onto one page is enough this couldn't be further
from the truth by creating dedicated Pages for each service you provide you can Target specific
keywords for each service and rank locally for them separately so don't be lazy and take the
time to craft detailed Pages for each service you provide it will make a huge difference
in your local organic rankings at number two we have internal linking across entire website
in case you're not familiar with this concept internal links are links that connect one page of
your website to another it's a basic yet highly effective SEO strategy that can significantly
improve your rankings by using internal links you can signal to search engine crawlers like Google
which pages on your website are the most important ones shockingly in nearly all the websites I've
analyzed I've noticed a lack of internal links that can be quickly improved in just a few clicks
identify your most important pages and ensure they're linked from other parts of your site to
boost their rankings moving on let's talk about quality slash authority of in-band links to domain
this is basically about links from other websites that point to your website and guess what the more
reputable these websites are the better it is for you and if those websites happen to be local even
better so if you can get links from places like your local Chamber of Commerce website newspaper
or even your local church it will really boost your rankings in local search results okay
so the next Factor we're going to discuss is geographic keyword relevance of domain content
this just means whether your website's content contains any location based keywords so let's
say you're a divorce lawyer in Wichita and you want to rank higher for your location to make
sure your website is relevant you must add the Geo targeted keyword widget into your website
content and tags you don't have to go crazy and add your location keywords too many times but
it's a good idea to at least have it in your page title and Main header this leads me to our
next Factor keywords in Google business profile landing page title when you create your Google
business profile it's a good idea to link it to a specific landing page on your website site in most
cases this landing page will be your home page now here's the thing you have to make sure that the
meta title of your landing page includes your primary target keywords going back to our divorce
attorney example you will see that the meta title of the page the link to from their Google business
profile includes the primary target keywords along with a location this shouldn't take you more than
two minutes to update if you have to let's talk about the next Factor quantity of inbound links to
domain from locally relevant domains now I kind of already touched on this when I went through the
third ranking Factor quality of inbound links to domain the key here is to get as many links from
other locally relevant websites as possible even if the quality isn't Top Notch for instance
getting a link from your local car mechanics website or your favorite Cafe's website can still
make a big difference these links can help signal to Google that your website is relevant to the
local community and boost your visibility in local search results alright let's talk about the
next ranking Factor topical product or service keyword relevance across the entire website in
local SEO search engines use topical relevance to figure out how much of an expert you are in
your industry this is important because it helps them decide where to rank your website and its
pages in search results so if you're a dentist you want to make sure your website covers all kinds of
dental topics like tick whitening dental implants gum treatment Invisalign and more this way search
engines will see you as an authority in your field and rank you higher for dentist related keywords
the last ranking Factor I'm going to talk about ties in very well with these topical relevance
and is called volume of quality content on service pages so we already know that creating separate
pages for your services is crucial for ranking well in local search results but just having a
bunch of pages isn't enough you gotta make sure the content on those pages is Top Notch if you
want to snag those top spots a misty paragraph and a few generic picks from free image stock
website won't do the trick you have to step up your game consider adding cool stuff like custom
images of your services before and after picks of your work case studies customer reviews videos
Awards and recognitions unique selling points and more that's what I call volume of quality that was
the last local organic ranking factor I wanted to talk about if you can get these factors right
you'll definitely see an improvement in your local search rankings and if you feel like you've
already covered them all no worries just work your way down the list because there are plenty more
factors to keep you busy before I wrap up I just wanted to remind you that this year's survey has
some super cool sections about suspension ranking factors negative ranking factors and conversion
factors if you want to avoid wasting time on the wrong things and prevent your business from
getting suspended make sure to check those out too that's it for today's video I hope you enjoyed it
and if you did don't forget to hit the like button and subscribe to the channel oh and if you want
to optimize your Google business profile faster be sure to check out the next video I'll catch
you guys later in the meantime happy marketing
