Web Gnomes

David Mihm’s Local Search Ranking Factors 2012

by tabita

David Mihm
Image from www.davidmihm.com.

David Mihm’s Local Search Ranking Factors is the local SEO resource I reference most frequently.

My “Claim Your Place!” local SEO training slides include a screenshot of the top 10 search ranking factors from the 2011 edition.

People ooohhh and aaaahhh when they realize that this amazing information is available right here, on the Internet.

Local Search Ranking Factors Survey

But where do these magical local search ranking factors come from?

David spends his precious time interfacing with dozens of Local SEO expert to conduct a survey to get this information.

You can read all about the methodology in “The Survey” section of the Local Search Ranking Factors page.

Top Ten Local Search Ranking Factors

So what are the top ten local search ranking factors? (my comments in italics)

  1. Physical Address in City of Search
  2. Proper Category Associations
  3. Proximity of Address to Centroid (this one climbed the ranks quite a bit since last year)
  4. Domain Authority of Website
  5. Quantity of Structured Citations (IYPs, Data Aggregators)
  6. City, State in Places Landing Page Title (i.e. on your website homepage)
  7. Quantity of Native Google Places Reviews (w/text) (this is also new to the top ten list)
  8. Quality/Authority of Structured Citations
  9. Local Area Code on Place Page (local numbers matter!)
  10. HTML NAP Matching Place Page NAP (NAP = name, address, phone number)

But wait, there are 80 more! Make sure you take a look at the full results list.

Informative Comments from the Experts

Here are a few of my favorite comments from the experts:

On “Consistency of Structured Citations:”

Your Places page may be naked. Your website may beg for a mercy killing. You may not have a single customer review. But you still may rank OK…if your NAP is accurate and consistent everywhere it appears on the web.
This is do-or-die. In my experience, having consistent business info in your citations is the trickiest part of a good local ranking: you’ve got to monitor your listings on a ton of directory sites, often jump through annoying hoops just to make simple fixes to those listings, and keep duplicate/incorrect listings at a minimum. But it can also be very simple to ensure consistency: use your real address, don’t flip-flop over what to call your business or which phone number to use, and realize that it might take a little while to get your info consistent (and that that’s OK!).
—Phil Rozek

On “Proximity of Address to Centroid:”

Proximity seems to be different based on industry, but in general the closer you are, the better you rank.
—Mike Ramsey

On “Quantity of Inbound Links:”

It’s the quality that counts, not the quantity. Still, the more quality links you have, the better.
—Darren Shaw

What About Google+ Local?

David addresses the big update on May 30 related to the merge of Google Places and Google+ Local, saying that the survey results where already on their way to him when this event occurred.

But the huge change makes him even more excited to see what the results will be next year. I know I can’t wait!!

Need the local SEO basics? Check out my step-by-step guide on local search!

Over to You!

Did anything surprise you about the survey results?

Comments

    • tabita says

      Hi Paweł, thanks for reading! And I sure can…

      #8 has to do with the quality of the structured citations that are available online for your business. For example, a site like Yelp would have more authority than a site like MojoPages.

      #10 is a point about consistency related to your business name, address, and phone number. You want to make sure that you use the same information on your website and your Google Places page (or now, Google+ Local page).

      Hope that helps!

  2. Phil Rozek says

    @Tabita
    Thanks for highlighting my comment from the LSRF! This is a great recap you’ve done– and thanks for publishing.

    @Pawel
    Tabita pretty much hit the nail on the head regarding points 8 and 10. One small point I’d throw in regarding #8:

    Every time your business is listed on a site like Yelp, CitySearch, MojoPages, etc., that’s a “structured” citation. The “structure” comes from the fact that there’s a webform they have you fill out, and you get a business listing. An “unstructured” citation might be when your business info (name, address, phone) is mentioned in an online newspaper article. It’s still considered a citation, because your business info is being mentioned, but because you didn’t have to fill out a bunch of fields on a form in order to generate the business listing (citation), it’s not seen as having the same “structure.”