Every year, with the exception of last year, SEO company MOZ has released its survey results of online businesses’ top ranking factors. It’s a useful tool when companies want to see how these algorithms affect ranking when a search is performed for their business.
Something we are particularly excited to see is that Review Factors went up 21.53%. In other words, review velocity, quantity, and diversity have become more important factors when Google ranks your business in 2017. The more active you are in generating online reviews, particularly positives ones, the higher your business’s Google ranking will be.
Furthermore, the category of Review Signals (review velocity, quantity, and diversity, etc.) is the seventh most important local ranking factor for organic searches, while the Social Signals group (Google, Facebook, Twitter engagement) is the eighth most important local ranking factor.
As for Local Pack listings (see the bottom of this post for clarification on local pack and organic searches), the category of Review Signals is the fifth most contributing ranking factor for your business when someone searches for say, Pest Control in Denver, CO. The Social Signals category remains the eighth most important local ranking factor for the Local Pack listings.
The Business Signals category(Your business listing, proximity, keywords in the title, etc.), tops the charts for both Organic and Local Pack listings. So make sure to keep that information accurate and up-to-date.
In April, MOZ released its 2017 ranking factors for both Local and Organic searches. Here are the top eight local ranking factors you need to know:
Local Pack Search Rankings: These results come up when Google thinks there’s a geographical aspect to the search such as a City or neighborhood. Also, it brings up different packs of businesses for different categories like dining or a specific brand search. The results are based on a customer’s location using their I.P. address or GPS settings. Google has several Local Pack results and they are usually chosen based on Google My Business Listings (GMB), which is simply your business’s info (NAP {Name, Address, Phone}) filed with Google. It shows up in Google Search, Google Maps, and Google+. This one is most important for businesses.
The different Local Packs are:
- Local Pack: three regular results within proximity of the customer.
- Local ABC Pack: results are tagged with and A, B or C and show no star ratings. They are the results that appear when a customer searches a specific brand, or, for reasons we can’t explain, gas stations and storage facilities.
- Local Snack Pack: three local results for dining, hospitality, and entertainment search terms.
- Local Sponsored Pack: three sponsored businesses in addition to a local three-pack.
- Local Finder: what appears when the “More places” link at the bottom of a local pack is clicked.
Organic Search Rankings: Simply put, these are results that don’t have any geographical information attached when searching with key terms like restoration contractor or roofer. It doesn’t come up in the Google Maps format, yet it still provides general information about the topic and shows different businesses generated by SEO and other ranking factors. However, if someone searches for a general term like contractor and their GPS tracking is on, Google will likely assume that they are looking for a contractor in that area and also provide local results.
Clear as mud, right? The moral of the story is that generating online reviews and maintaining your Social Signals are significant ranking factors that will help you get to the top of Google searches.
