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Welcome to the ineedhits Search Engine Marketing blog, where we share the latest search engine and online marketing news, releases, industry trends and great DIY tips and advice.
The top 3 local listings for any local searches are now appearing at the top of normal search results on Google.com and Yahoo.com. This means that by ranking high for the local search “Plumber San Jose” in Google or Yahoo! local, you will also appear at the top of the organic search results – a place every local business would love to rank!
I decided to do some research on some of the top listings in order to find out what factors Google Local uses to rank its local results.
Investigation 1 – “Restaurant San Jose”
Findings
1 A business listing with a URL associated to it seems to rank higher than one with no URL.
2 A business listing with more web pages linking to it seems to rank higher than those with fewer inbound links.
Investigation 3 – “Window Tinting San Jose”
Findings
1 All business listings that contained information in their details section came from Super Pages.com and the top listing had multiple sources providing business information.
2 Having the “search term” contained in your business name does not necessarily mean it will help your ranking, but it does help to make your listing stand out in the results (visually).
Conclusion
While the small sample I’ve investigated is probably not conclusive, I believe that in order to rank well in Google Local you need an up-to-date enhanced local listing in as many local search engines and directories as possible.
Local listings with the most reviews didn’t necessarily get the top ranking, but these enhanced elements of a local listing surely play a role in Google’s algorithm.
One thing I have not yet explored (that may affect the way Google Local ranks listings) is the number of links and the quality of the web pages (Page Rank) linking to a listing. In my next article I will post my findings.
George started his career at ineedhits in 2003 as an SEO specialist and was promoted to SEO Services Team Leader in 2005. He is now responsible for driving ineedhits' product development initiatives and is also in charge of managing ineedhits' Easy Search Advertising pay-per-click service. Top 10 Listing! Get more targeted visitors to your site! No click fees! Find Out More Here | 1000+ Guaranteed Visitors Get thousands of guaranteed website visitors to your site in 30 days! Get Started Here |
Cool findings Rene. When you mention getting listed on directories don’t forget MojoPages.com. Businesses can update their profile for free and MojoPages tends to get great google placement when a business profile has a review or complete profile information. Keep up the informative articles.
-Jon
By jon - June 6, 2007
Thanks for your post George, although I must say I don’t think that’s totally correct. From my own research I have already found that having links to your site from: Superpages.com, CitySearch.com and even Myspace.com Don’t seem to help as much as ext links to your site. As always quality of link helps, but I am seeing some competitors get the upper hand over my sites even though they are NOT listed in Superpages and Citysearch but they do have more links coming into their site….
By ExcitedEYE - June 6, 2007
I appreciate the work you have done. I am in more local listings, have more links, more reviews and a better website with higher organic results and still some businesses rank higher in the google local. And some of them do not even have a website!
By Computer services - December 31, 2008
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