Optimizing for these factors is the key to ranking higher, attracting more customers, and staying ahead of competitors. Next, we’ll walk through 12 proven strategies to improve your rankings in Google Maps SEO and get more customers through your doors. Whether you’re a single-location shop or a multi-location retailer, the right strategies can help you rank higher, attract more customers, and turn local searches into sales.
- You also need to rank for the right queries (often called SEO keywords), because some will deliver better results for your business than others.
- Search engines would absolutely have less data from where they can infer what the image is about so at least in some cases that might have significant impact on Google Images traffic.
- I’ve been using social media schemes to rank in the search listings consistently for the past 2 years.
- Billions of searches happen every day on search engines like Google and Bing.
- In particular, having keywords in the titles of landing pages, and keyword relevance across the entire site make a difference to your local rankings.
- Google won’t directly use this metric to rank your website, but you’ll be getting more backlinks if people find your content useful.
Find relevant topics with keyword research
Voice queries are more conversational and often longer, which means your content must reflect this shift to maintain strong SEO ranking factors. Building up backlinks—that is, getting your website linked to from a trusted, high-traffic site—bolsters your site’s standing in the eyes of consumers and search engine ranking algorithms. If someone searches “best bakery in Seattle,” businesses that have those keywords in their Google Business Profile and website are more likely to rank higher. Understanding how to assess your website’s SEO ranking is crucial for optimizing its performance.
Relevance of the content is one of the most important ranking signals for Google’s algorithm. At this point, we can confidently say that internal links and inbound links are still considered a ranking factor. It’s worth considering that there are many reasons why Google would downplay the importance of links, such as to reduce link spam. Google is not going to outright claim that links are a surefire ranking factor if they can be so easily manipulated.
Besides the content itself, this is how you tell Google what your article is about. Blog comments are also considered an update to existing content, so it is very important to make your users share SEO Anomaly their opinion. Duplicate content can be your worst nightmare because it’s often hard to identify.
Before we dive into the top SEO ranking factors, it’s important to note that these factors can and will change. BrightLocal’s study shows that 31% of SEOs deem links the most important signal for ranking on regular organic search. Beyond rankings, Google states that customers are 70% more likely to visit businesses with a complete Business Profile.
Yext is a tool for syncing and managing business information across multiple listings. It’s useful for keeping citations consistent, although you can do this manually. This isn’t surprising, as you need a Google Business Profile to stand any chance of ranking on the map pack.
Ranking factors in AI search experiences
Algorithms are adjusted based on human reactions, not by machine metrics. “So we have a set of guidelines that we published for these quality raters, which I think is actually surprisingly important. But it’s a lot of guidelines where we kind of draw out what we think makes sense for quality raters to review with regards to the content.
If not, let your site builder help you out or hire someone with a background in technical SEO. When that’s done, you can start looking at site structure and the content on your pages. Search engines are working hard to get a better understanding of a user’s search intent, to show that user the results that fit their need best. Related to that, they continue to improve how information is presented in the search results, which can differ quite a bit per search intent.
BONUS: Local SEO factors
SEO is both the art and science of improving a website, and pages within, to be as visible as possible for when people search for a relevant topic within any search platform. Dive deeper into the Bing ranking factors and Bing ranking algorithm to craft a winning strategy in 2025. While Google often dominates the SEO conversation, Bing shouldn’t be ignored. Understanding Bing ranking factors is essential for a comprehensive SEO strategy. For the most useful data on your local SEO results, use tools you can trust to give you a genuine average local ranking.