We all know that the requirements of local SEO keep changing every few months. That is why it becomes quite hard for SEO experts to keep up with the latest update. However, if you wish to see the ranking of your website go from being a ghost to the top of the SERP list, you have to constantly study the ever-changing algorithms.
There is no doubt the websites that are well-structured and optimized will get more traffic over time, which implies that they’ll be generating more leads and sales than the others. Trust us, without local or traditional SEO, people on the internet will not be able to find your site. You’ll be a ghost for them on the internet, and all your hard work will be of no use.
However, if you want to know about the local search ranking factors, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we’ve managed to list a couple of ranking factors that will help you boost the rating and ranking of your website. With the help of these ranking factors, you will for sure dominate the search results each time someone types in the focused keywords or phrases.
What Is Ranking In Local SEO?
We know that SEO stands for search engine optimization, right? Well, in SEO, the word ranking means your websites or the position of the content on the SERP.
Let’s suppose that someone is searching for “encore capitals”, and whenever the person hits enter, a website with the same URL is shown. What does this means, that the search engines have ranked that particular website on such a keyword? And whenever someone types in the following keyword, the site that is optimized for it is shown.
Now comes to the positioning of the website. If you see that encore capitals are showing on the top of the page, this means that the search engines have considered this site to contain good quality content and this website has an ample amount of traffic coming on a daily basis.
Note: Being featured in rich snippets, and promoted ads are something entirely different.
If you manage to rank your website even in the third position of the search engines, it is still considered to be good. Why? This is because your CTR is getting close to the #1 ranked website.
Without further ado, let’s dive into the crucial local SEO ranking factors that’ll help you in ranking your website on the first page of the search engine.
Local SEO Ranking Factors That You Need To Know About
To be honest, local SEO is all about getting a position on top of the SERP. Don’t worry, after reading the below-mentioned factors, you will be able to rank better on the search engine pages as well.
#1: Accessible And Secure Website
Firstly, you will always want your website to be accessible to the search web crawlers and the people on the internet. A robot.txt and sitemap are imperative for web crawlers, whereas, a good URL for your website will aid the people of the internet to search for you.
#2: Page Speed Ought To Fast
The uploading speed of the page is another leading local SEO factor that you need to take care of. Most of the search engines want a good user experience, and if the loading time of the page is more than a few seconds, not only will the user experience be affected, but search engines will decrease the ranking of the website.
#3: Mobile Friendly
Did you know that a recent study shows stats that more people have started to use their smart devices for conducting searches on the internet? This implies that if your website or blog page is not optimized for mobile end users, then you are losing a lot of potential customers.
#4: Domain Age, Authority
Most of the sites that you get to see on the first page of the search engines have been live on the internet for more than 3 years.
So, if you have a website whose age is more than a couple of years and have applied SEO tips and tricks, you will rank on the first page for sure.
#5: Well-Optimized Content
According to Highfive list, content plays a vital role in the world of local SEO. Content is considered to be the king and SEO is its kingdom. So, if you think that the content of your website is well-optimized for all the focused keywords, there is no doubt that search engines will rank your website among the first page of the search engine for relevant queries.
#6: Technical SEO
There are on-page SEO tips, and there come technical SEO tips.
Technical SEO includes:
- Adding keyword phrases in Title
- Content Hierarchy
- Meta Descriptions
- Alt Image Tags
- Scheme Markup
#7: Good User Experience
As mentioned above, your primary goal is to retain the attention of the user. If your website does not provide a good user experience, then you can expect an increased bounce rate. An increase bounce rate will gradually decrease the ranking of your website. So, you can say goodbye to your leads and sales.
#8: Links
There are three types of links that are the most vital for local SEO.
- Inbound Links
- Internal Links
- Outbound Link
All of the above-mentioned links help in determining the authorities and relevancies of the webpage and the content.
Final Words
Keep in mind that you will not benefit from these SEO tips overnight. It’s like sowing a seed in the ground and waiting for a couple of months to reap its benefits. Be patient, and be consistent!