Google local ranking factors
07-21-2009 I was reading Local search ranking factors by David Mihm – it’s a great read if you get a few minutes. I tried to condense it down for someone who has never heard of “Google local” let alone pondered how Google would rank their site number one. The first thing I did was make this Excel spreadsheet about "Real estate agents Fort Wayne IN" so I could show how a site gets ranked 1st or 6th or not at all.
;)
For those who love playing around in Excel, this is great stuff. But I was struck by how much info would need to be explained even when opening up the Excel file. So to simplify it, I made a short video to give an overview of the data in the file and how I used it.
What I took away from this is how easy it is to cover up ALL your mistakes if you just have some citation and links. They are the hardest thing to achieve on my short list of what is important, but everybody can get them with a little effort.
Now for those who actually read David's column and realize that I cut out a few factors or have a problem with how I weighted each category, this is just a demonstration. It’s meant to show how Google ranks a website for Google local. It’s not a reverse-engineered computation of a thousand listings.
For those out there who are taking your first pass at improving your Google local ranking, did I help you out at all? Let me know if you have any questions or comments.
Google local Ranking Excel file
Andy
Google search, Local seo, excel, google local, ranking, real estate 
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Reader Comments (20)
Great spreadsheet - nicely done.
Great video, such an easy way to explain local results
Thanks Jason and David
I hope this helps you and others.
Andy
Andy,
Interesting project...I tend to think that G's Local algorithm doesn't lend itself to such a basic reduction...Mike Blumenthal and others did a quantitative study last year that took a look at trying to quantify a number of the various factors...using advanced statistics including several types of regression which I admit I didn't fully understand.
Essentially we learned from that experience that even a fairly broad data set across a number of industries did not lend itself to simple analysis. Mike has some excellent visuals on that presentation which help show the general idea behind the algo. I think it's a helpful study.
We are currently working on a larger-scale study but even quantifying factors that Google lists in its own Local search patent is tough!
At any rate, thanks for taking a look at my survey and glad that you and others find it interesting enough to dive into like this!
Hi David
Thanks for stopping by.
Yes I know that Google's formula for ranking local pages is probably longer than this post and certainly more involved than I have suggested.
My goal is show what it takes to get listed in the top results and what you could do if you wanted to move up the list. This is more of a
"Google local ranking for Dummies". Now if you want more of a college level course by all mean visit mike site because it is great stuff.
Andy
I agree that reviews/citations seem to impact the value that google places on a local listing......but a big problem with that is the google reviews tend to be very old and they come and go for no reason. It is frustrating as a business who works hard to get good reviews from our customers to see reviews go from 80+ to 10+ with no way to reconcile. This customer reviews going poof problem has come up a few times in the last few years with no understanding of what caused it and how it got fixed. Any thoughts on how google pulls reviews from other sites and what causes then to loose them?
I do not believe it is at random. Somehow Google arrives at a sampling of reviews based on CTR, authority, age of the review, reviewer and all of the above for the sites that host the review. I believe it is a system to combat fake reviews and spam. Google has alot of work to do in that regard and that is my guess as to why the reviews change in number. As Google updates the review system some get dropped and others move to the top, even the negative ones.
Andy
Andy as more time passes I have looked into the reviews issue further it seems as though all reviews for all google local are gone from kudzu.com. I have found 1 or 2 reviews from kudzu but the businesses used to have many more. I read how cityvoter.com had to cut a data feed to google due to google not reporting correctly...any insight about kudzu (also looks like our yelp reviews are gone as well all that are left are google reviews and I think insinderpages).......
Getting google to respond is like calling the men in black...who do you dial?
Oh our local profile is:
http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=9001939556488552734&q=atlanta+movers&gl=us&hl=en&cd=12&cad=src:pplink&ei=_JzgSqmyC5GOyASV9vzzCQ&sig2=QN0AxZUtP6ju-T-3_Rxxqg
I believe most of this is updating problems on Google end and not "purge". It has happened before and the best thing to do is not panic.
They usually come back in a month or 2. Probably just in time for another update.
How do I list my spa like these? The Philippines is not in the dropdown menu for local listings:
http://maps.google.com/maps?client=safari&rls=en&q=antipolo%20massage%20spa&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wl
Google is using some 3rd party data sources for those listing. Look through some of the most popular listings and find where they a re listed.
Places like
JiWire.com, asiarooms.com, hotel-ami.de, cosmotourist.com
Andy
Andy, the video really helped me realize how little I know about SEO. I have 4 businesses of my own that all have same phone # and address According to video this is going to hurt me on rankings? I'm also trying to help some small Businesses get a web presence, one is listed #1 and the other wont show at all. any ideas?
Send me a email with some more info.
andyc@localseoinc.com
I just watched your video and I dont understand what a "citation, link" is? Do you have time to help a new business owner?
Thanks
Hi Brandi
A citation link is when a website list your business info, business name, address and phone number. Generally in a directory and or internet yellow pages.
Sure I can help you out, send some info.
Hi Andy & All,
Just another question to throw out there...but first the preface;
About 6 months ago I decided to put a link to a youtube video on my site's homepage, something like the one at the top of these comments. I figured having only a few views on the counter would detract from the video's authority so, after a few drinks one night, hit play on the video about a million times to boost the view count....youtube got pissed off and froze my counter for about 4 months.
Anybody think that doing the same (so to speak) by leaving multiple happy reviews of your LBL in a short period of time from the same computer could result in a ranking penalty?
Hi Shamon
I don't believe that Google will count that as a penalty I just believe
they won't count it at all. Google looks to a constant flow of reviews over time, if there is a spike in reviews they a just discounted and not listed.
Andy
Can you explain this-
27 photos and 17 videos in their google local business account. 23 of the photos were from the owner. See link below and please explain how they seemed to hijack the international airport address here in portland etc. Does google allow more information from bigger players?
http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=4762713399769198261&q=portland%2Blimo&hl=en&gl=us
Thank you for looking at this
Seems like Google has fixed the problem.
Not sure what would have caused it.
Andy
Good article. Give some useful advice.