If you want to rank a local listing in Google for competitive terms it’s important to have a good understanding of how search works. This index covers everything you need to know about optimizing a local listing.
Once you complete all these local SEO recommendations you will have a great advantage on your competitors and you will also capitalize on other marketing opportunities.
We used Moz’s Local SEO survey and included great content to guide you throughout the SEO learning process:
- Learn
- Apply
- Experiment
- Rank
- Evaluate
The following are the Overall Ranking Factors from Moz’s Local Survey:
- Place Page Signals Scored 19.6% Categories, Keyword in Business Title, Proximity
- On-page Signals Scored 18.8% Presence of NAP, Keywords in Titles, Domain authority
- External Loc. Signals Scored 16% IYP/aggregator NAP consistency, Citation Volume
- Link Signals Scored 14.4% Inbound anchor text, Linking domain authority, Linking domain quantity
- Review Signals Scored 10.3% Review quantity, Review velocity, Review diversity
- Personalization Scored 8.3%
- Social Signals Scored 6.3% Google+ authority, Facebook likes, Twitter followers
- Behavioral/Mob. Signals Scored 6.1% Clickthrough rate, Mobile clicks to call, Check-ins, Offers
Below we’ve listed each of these factors and made recommendations to great articles and guides. These links are in order from most important, to least, they can teach you a good amount about Local SEO, how to properly layout your foundation and optimize your listing.
Place Page
- Google My Business set up – http://goo.gl/DUHnyD From: +Google
- Categories – http://goo.gl/lJ4CdP From: +Mike Bluementhal
- Keyword in Business Title – http://goo.gl/VGa1mv From: +Linda Buquet
- Proximity – http://goo.gl/BualVM From: +Linda Buquet
On-page
- Domain authority – http://goo.gl/NdF1ka From: +Moz
- Keywords in Titles – http://goo.gl/WZlWbj From: +Moz
- Presence of NAP – http://goo.gl/qWavxU From: +Darrem Shaw
- Schema Markup – http://goo.gl/Uhed3K From: +GoodAtMarketing.com
- Internal linking – http://goo.gl/rGg7Ns From: +Moz
- Location Pages – http://goo.gl/dhuRfj From: +Matt Cutts
- Geotargeted Sitemap – http://goo.gl/rxq8l2 From: +Mike Bluementhal
External Loc.
- IYP/aggregator – http://goo.gl/7J6MUv From: +Cody Baird
- NAP consistency – http://goo.gl/RfBSzk From: +John Crenshaw
- Citation Volume – http://goo.gl/548Fjl From: +Moz
Link
- Inbound anchor text – http://goo.gl/VN2KY9 From: +Moz
- Linking domain authority- http://goo.gl/eiCoI5 From: +Moz
- Linking domain quantity – http://goo.gl/AQf5uX From: +Moz
Reviews
- Review quantity, velocity, diversity http://goo.gl/VptNUg From: +Philip Rozek
Personalization
Social
- Google+ authority http://goo.gl/FwxvsB From: +Joel Popoff
- Facebook likes http://goo.gl/G4WLmR From: +Amanda DiSilvestro
- Twitter followers http://goo.gl/YV2O0f From : +Andrew Shotland
Behavioral/Mob.
- Clickthrough rate http://goo.gl/HNi9xt From: +Rand Fishken
- Mobile clicks to call, Check-ins, Offers http://goo.gl/T1sEjy From: +Mike Bluementhal
Conclusion
Staying on top of all the ranking factors is not a one man job, don’t be a jack of all trades, master of none. Use tools, find help and create quality. I’ve seen listings rank in 2 month with little work and some take over a year. Keep your head up and stay focused or hire someone good. If we missed any content that belong on this list please email us and well be happy to add it.