+ Ranking Factor Latest Trends What factors matter in 2016-2017 - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

+ Ranking Factor Latest Trends What factors matter in 2016-2017 for ranking your Google Business page and your website?

+ Largest Study of Local SEO Factors n One study looked at 100+ factors across 30,000 businesses n three variations of eight keywords across 100 different cities n The end result is that this one study looked at ~3000 local searches, ~30,000 Google My Business listings, websites, link and citations profiles which gave them over a million quantitative data points to analyze in what they think is the largest empirical study of Local SEO ranking factors ever done outside of Google.

+ High Ranking GMB Pages Factors These factors aren’t the “Truth” of how Google orders Google My Business results. Rather they show the factors that high ranking GMB pages tend to have.

+ Links to your GMB Page Quality/Authority of Inbound Links to GMB Landing Page URL is a primary factor.

+ The Importance of Citations Citations are defined as mentions of your business name and address on other webpages—even if there is no link to your website. An example of a citation might be an online yellow pages directory where your business is listed, but not linked to.

+ Research Shows Citations are Important Other factors being equal, businesses with a greater number of citations will probably rank higher than businesses with fewer citations.

+ Citations n Citations are a key component of the ranking algorithms in Google and Bing. n Citations from well-established and well-indexed portals (i.e., Superpages.com) help increase the degree of certainty the search engines have about your business's contact information and categorization. n Citations also validate that a business is part of a community.

+ Best Places to Get Citations 1. Data aggregators – Infogroup, Neustar Localeze, Acxiom, and Factual These aggregators license or syndicate their data to most local search engines, including Google and Bing

+ Best Places to get Citations 2. Local Search Engines Getting listed on sites like Yelp, Foursquare, Hotfrog, and others can shore up search engines' confidence in the accuracy of your business name, location, and website.

+ Best Places to get Citations 3. Local Blogs If you simply perform a search on your favorite search engine for "[your city] blog" or "[your neighborhood] blog," you'll likely see good candidates. The sites that show up for these kinds of searches are, by definition, very well-indexed by the search engines, and highly associated with a particular neighborhood, city, or region in local results. Businesses that are mentioned or linked to on these blogs are viewed as trusted, relevant results in the local search engines

+ Best Places to get Citations 4. Locally Focused Directories Like local blogs, local directories are well- indexed by the search engines and are highly associated with a particular city or region Good locally focused directories are n Best of the Web's Regional Directory n Yahoo's Regional Directory.

+ Best Places to get Citations 5. Industry-Focused Directories or Blogs The membership directory of your trade organization or a blog that is popular among readers in your industry will both probably be crawled by the local search engines for citations. Searches like "[your industry] directory" or even"[your keyword] directory" will give you some ideas of the kinds of sites on which to get listed.

+ Who is Google Rewarding in Your Industry? One trick is to always do a search for your industry and see what websites Google is rewarding for your industry. Examples: n Avvo.com and Lawyers.com for Attorneys n Psychology Today for Psychologists Then get citations or a page on that website.

+ Experts Weigh in on Factor Trends There seems to be a consensus among the experts about factors affecting rank. https://moz.com/local-search-ranking- factors

+ Organic Listings “Organic listings and rankings are still alive and well. This is your number one asset. There are lots of great long tail keywords a local business can rank for with minimal on- page SEO. Build more pages of great local content and get more traffic. Bigger websites almost always bring in more traffic.”

+ Just like Investing in Stock “Diversify, Diversify, Diversify!” n 3 Pack Optimization n Website Optimization n Local Directories Profiles (Yelp) n Facebook Local Advertising

+ Semantically Relevant Content “One of the biggest things I see impacting organic ranking these days is the presence of content on your site that is semantically relevant to your industry.”

+ How to Thrive “Those who gain meaningful local links and couple it with strong on- page optimization, good site structure and useful content will thrive.”

+ Top 10 Snack Pack Factors n Physical Address in City of Search n Consistency of Structured Citations n Proper GMB Category Associations n Proximity of Address to the Point of Search n Quality/Authority of Structured Citations n Domain Authority of Website n Product / Service Keyword in GMB Business Title n City, State in GMB Landing Page Title n HTML NAP Matching GMB Location NAP n 1Click-Through Rate from Search Results

+ Top 10 Website Ranking Factors Domain Authority of Website n Quality/Authority of Inbound Links to Domain n City,State in GMB Landing Page Title n Click-Through Rate from Search Results n Topical (Product/Service) Keyword Relevance of Domain Content n Diversity of Inbound Links to Domain n Geographic (City/Neighborhood) Keyword Relevance of Domain Content n Physical Address in City of Search n Quality/Authority of Structured Citations n City, State in Most/All Website Title Tags n Consistency of Structured Citations n

+ Carolyn’s Information Carolyn Lee Imagine Media and Marketing ww.seopalmbeach.com 561-722-2108