What Factors Affect Local Google Rankings? | Vicinus
To rank in Google, your business must optimise a combination of different local SEO factors. This is because Google’s local algorithm relies on a variety of local search ranking factors.
However, as a result of this, it can sometimes be quite difficult to understand which areas of local SEO ranking for you to focus on in order to maximise your business in Google.
If your local SEO is optimised, your business will be more likely to appear in the first three businesses in the local pack ‘near me’ searches as well as higher in localised organic search rankings too.
What are the Top Local Search Ranking Factors?
| Local Pack | Local Organic Searches |
| Google My Business (33%) | On Page (32%) |
| Reviews (16%) | Links (31%) |
| On Page (15%) | Behavioural (10%) |
| Links (15%) | Personalisation (7%) |
| Behavioural (8%) | Google My Business (7%) |
| Citations (7%) | Citations (6%) |
| Personalisation (6%) | Reviews (6%) |
As you can see in the table above, many different factors are involved in optimising your local Google rankings.
However, although some areas such as link building, can be quite time-consuming and labour-intensive too, Vicinus can help with this process.
Vicinus can provide your business with an automated response system with regards to reviews. Our machine learning-led sentiment analysis gathers location-specific consumer insights and assists with review auto-respond to build customer trust in business. This will therefore save you both time and effort, allowing you to focus on other aspects of optimising your local Google rankings.
For more information on how Vicinus can help your business, please visit our website here.
How Important is GMB in Local Google Rankings?
The importance of Google My Business has grown exponentially over the past few years. From 2017, local pack rankings are taking up more space when it comes to local optimisation in comparison to counterparts such as links, citations and behaviours.
However, it’s still worth noting that combining all of these factors into your local search optimisation strategy is an effective way of boosting your local rankings in Google.
Below is a table showing the significance of GMB over the past few years:
| 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | |
| Local Pack | 23% | 20% | 22% | 19% | 25% | 33% |
| Local Organic Search Results | 10% | 10% | 8% | 7% | 9% | 7% |
As demonstrated above, the impact of activities related to Google My Business has grown significantly since 2018.
This growth has been borne out of the development of Google My Business as a tool for local search. With more features added to the platform every year, GMB has become a primary local ranking factor on search engines.
This means that optimising your GMB profile has never been more necessary. With Vicinus, you have full control over your business listings. With real-time management of all your locations from one easy-to-use platform. This helps your customers find only up-to-date and consistent information about your brand.
Our AI-powered hyperlocal marketing platform works to drive more calls, store visits, leads & website redirections for your business.
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