Every other year, the marketing industry runs a survey of marketing experts to determine what are the most important Google Local Ranking Factors of your business's digital profile that help you get ranked on Organic Google Search and the Google Local 3-Pack. Nobody knows exactly what the criteria are as Google keeps it secret. This study started in 2008 and digital marketing expert by the name of David Mihm, would run this study moving forward.
Starting in 2017, Darren Shaw of Whitespark, took over the study from David and he has been publishing this report ever since. The process of building the report is to ask industry digital marketing experts to rank the importance of about 150 different factors that are thought to contribute to Google Search rankings.
The results of the survey are then aggregated and this report becomes the go to source to help the digital marketing industry determine what aspects of a business's digital profile you need emphasize to get ranked highly in Google Search. Ranking highly on Google is important, as 81% of all purchases of products and or services start with some sort of a Google search. Every other year, these marketing experts are asked to lend their knowledge for the benefit of the marketing industry and businesses that are looking to use their digital profile to grow.
Top 7 Google Local Ranking Factors
The report highlights the top 7 factors as rated by the group of experts. These 7 factors determine where you are listed in the Local 3-Pack and or in Google Organic Search results. The 7 most influential factors that have been determined to affect your rank are:
- Google Business Profile
- On-page signals
- Review scores
- Links
- Behavioral signals
- Citations or Listings
- Personalization factors
In future videos, we will review each of the 7 factors in more detail and walk you through what each entail.
Google Local 3-Pack and Organic Search
In addition, we will explain what the difference between the Google Local 3-Pack and what Organic Search results are. The final piece of this series, we will go over how Preferred Digital Solutions can help you improve the traffic to your site and start gaining more sales through your digital profile.
Google 3-Pack
Google Organic Search Results
If you are interested in seeing how your business is doing in the eyes of Google, click here to receive a complimentary SnapShot Report.
