The University of California Irvine’s Center for Statistical Consulting and Local SEO Guide jointly conducted a study that furnished information about the Local SEO ranking factors. The outcome of the study will help the users to prioritize their local SEO operations. The data obtained showed similarities between GMB pages which ranked better in Google searches. Some of the local SEO ranking factors are mentioned below:
Website Signals
The SEO ranking signals from the website page of a business is seen to influence the ranking of the GMB page of the business. Few factors like usage of keywords and the number of words in a page impacted the ranking in a positive way. The results also reflected that if the website ranks in the organic search, then the ranking of business’s GMB page is likely to be high.
Links
The study conducted showed that the links are the most important competitive differentiator when it comes to Google business ranking. Factors like citation flow, trust flow, and AC rank have proven to be essential link metrics.
GMB Signals
Signals included in the GMB pages like reviews, photos, and pages associated with the Owner Verified Profile are considered to be among the top ranking factors. The keyword in the GMB business page is one of the known ranking factors. The study conducted showed that the GMB signals will affect the page ranking to a great extent.
Toolbar Page Rank
The Page rank is officially dead now. But the study revealed that there was a high relevance between a high page rank and high-ranking local pages.
The study conducted also revealed that factors like citations and Geo text are not important. It is essential to maintain the citation consistency but the volume does seem to make a larger difference. It is better to focus on other factors once the citations are consistent. Another factor, Geo text like usage of state and city in the title are unlikely to affect the ranking position of the GMB pages.
From the study, it can be concluded that links are the dominating local SEO ranking factor and second being the website signals. For a good local SEO strategy, it is crucial to prioritize them in the specific order.
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