Local Search Ranking Factors 2012

Didn’t want to get anything done today anyhow. David Mihm’s latest edition of the Local Search Ranking Factors Survey is now out. As tradition dictates, I will summarize the findings and then send you over to David’s blog for the full Monty:

Top 10 Local Search Ranking Factors for 2012:

1. Physical Address in City of Search on Place Page
2. Proper Category Associations on Place Page
3. Proximity of Address to Centroid on Place Page
4. Domain Authority of Website
5. Quantity of Structured Citations (IYPs, Data Aggregators)
6. City, State in Places Landing Page Title
7. Quantity of Native Google Places Reviews
8. Quality/Authority of Structured Citations
9. Local Area Code on Place Page
10. HTML NAP Matching Place Page NAP

Here’s the full Local Search Ranking Factors Survey Results.

Interesting to compare these to the Bizable Google Places Ranking Factors study that came out a few months ago:

For Blended Results:

1. Primary category matches a broader category of the search category = 1.42 improvement in rank. For example, primary category is set to “restaurant” and the search category was “pizza.”
2. The search category or a synonym in the business name = 0.64 improvement in rank.
3. The search category or a synonym in “at a glance” = 0.36 improvement in rank.
4. Five or more Google reviews = 0.31 improvement in rank.
5. At least one photo = 0.25 improvement in rank.Listings with all of these signals showed an improvement in ranking of about three positions – pretty high considering that on average there were five integrated local results in the main search page.

For Pure Local Results (GMaps):

1. Five or more Google reviews = 1.47 improvement in rank.
2. Search city in “at a glance” = 1.42 improvement in rank.
3. Search category or a synonym in in review content = 0.97 improvement in rank.
4. Search category or a synonym in the business description = 0.85 improvement in rank.
5. Search category or a synonym in “at a glance” = 0.85 improvement in rank.
6. Primary category matches the search category = 0.79 improvement in rank.
7. Search category or a synonym in the business name = 0.75 improvement in rank.
8. Secondary business category that was a broader category than the search category = 0.68 improvement in rank.( i.e. secondary category is “restaurant” when searching for “Seattle pizza.”)
9. At least one photo = 0.66 improvement in rank.
10. Owner verified listing = 0.52 improvement in rank.Listings with all of these signals showed an improvement in ranking of about nine positions. Given that they were in the top 30, an improvement of nine is significant.