The world of commerce has undergone a great evolution. There are immense changes in the ways business and its customers deal with each other. With the coming of web, people have moved from traditional ways like newspapers, radio etc. to modern ways of using search engines (like Google, Bing) to advertise their business online.
The customers are relying more on local searches to find the goods or services on web which can match their needs exactly. The offline search has therefore been replaced drastically by local searches. The increase in completion further compels businesses to ensure their visibility on web to the customers.
What is Local SEO Search?
Local SEO works very similar to the SEO campaign but the focus is more on optimising the business through local listings. Using specific search engines, business can list them on the web based on their demographic locations. This list acts as a systematic database along with their geographical locations and contact information which helps to solve the search quarries in two ways.
- It allows the visitors of the web page to be informed about what he is looking for like keywords, business type or any specific product or service.
- It allows the visitors to be informed about the location of these products/ services or search them according to the location. These specialised searches using specific search engine is referred to as a local search.
How are local searches ranked?
The SERP (Search Engine Result Page) gives preference to certain web pages based on the visitors search. This preference depends on various factors which ranks a web page/ business in the top searches. The algorithms of search engine identifies which local business rank in local search. Search engine enables various features to a business to help them get the traffic on board. The relevance, distance and prominence of a business joins together to find the most suited match for the visitors search.
There are various factors which may hamper or improve the local search rankings. Primary factors affecting the local business’s chance to get the traffic include the categorization of the business, it’s name, contact details etc.
How are factors identified?
Depending on the experience and observations of SMBs (Small and Medium Sized Business) and SEOs (Search Engine Optimizers) various surveys and analysis have been conducted to get a close view understanding of the factors affecting local search rankings.
The impact of the changes and updates are disused over these surveys and researches to understand how evolution is impacting the possibility to improve local search rankings.
Myles Anderson in his post shares the results of survey conducted with attendees of Inside Local Webinar to study the impact of Google’s Pigeon update.
This and other such surveys help to bring forward various factors from the eyes of SMBs and SEOs that affect local search rankings.
Factors which can help to improve local search ranking includes:
- Categorisation of business
- Location of the business
- Consistent structure citations
- Quality and quantity of the structured citations
- Use of Keywords and Services
- Use of Local Area Code
- Fetch Genuine Reviews
- Optimisation Of Social Profiles
There is no one fixed method to optimise local search rankings. All businesses should monitor its requisites and implement those factors which they think can enhance their count in SERPs. The above mentioned factors are only few of the many. Study of the Local search ranking factors is an essential and important work for every SEO and SMB to be able to get a visibility in local searches.Understanding the effects of each of these and other relevant factors is of paramount importance.
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