Local Pack/Finder Ranking Factors Google My Business Signals (Proximity, categories, keyword in business title, etc.) 25.12% Link Signals (Inbound anchor text, linking domain authority, linking domain quantity, etc.) 16.53% Review Signals (Review quantity, review velocity, review diversity, etc.) 15.44% On-Page Signals (Presence of NAP, keywords in titles, domain authority, etc.) 13.82% Citation Signals (IYP/aggregator NAP consistency, citation volume, etc.) 10.82% Behavioral Signals (Click-through rate, mobile clicks to call, check-ins, etc.) 9.56% Personalization 5.88% Social Signals (Google engagement, Facebook engagement, Twitter engagement, etc.) 2.82%

Localized Organic Ranking Factors Link Signals (Inbound anchor text, linking domain authority, linking domain quantity, etc.) 27.94% On-Page Signals (Presence of NAP, keywords in titles, domain authority, etc.) 26.03% Behavioral Signals (Click-through rate, mobile clicks to call, check-ins, etc.) 11.5% Google My Business Signals (Proximity, categories, keyword in business title, etc.) 8.85% Citation Signals (IYP/aggregator NAP consistency, citation volume, etc.) 8.41% Personalization 7.32% Review Signals (Review quantity, review velocity, review diversity, etc.) 6.47% Social Signals (Google engagement, Facebook engagement, Twitter engagement, etc.) 3.47%

Introduction Another year, and another Local Search Ranking Factors survey is here. My apologies for being late with it again. I developed our own survey tool and, as with any software project, it always takes longer than you expect. Now that it’s done, I’m confident that we’re off to the races and I’ll be much quicker with the execution, analysis, and write-up of the survey in the coming years. My thoughts and summary of the survey results can be found here on the Moz Blog, and I would love to hear your thoughts and questions in the comments section here.

Definitions GMB Listing Google My Business Listing. Your primary listing at Google that is editable in the GMB dashboard and publicly accessible at 3 locations: Google Search (knowledge panel) (example) Google Maps (example) Local Finder (example) GMB Landing Page The page that a GMB listing links to. Usually the homepage or a location page. (example) Local Pack The regular local 3-pack that appears for most local search terms. (example) Local ABC Pack A local 3-pack with A, B, and C to the left of each result. No review stars, ratings, or counts appear for this type. This pack type is returned for branded terms such as "Starbucks" and, inexplicably, for storage and gas station terms. (example) Local Snack Pack This style of local 3-pack appears for dining, hospitality, and entertainment terms. Results have a photo, no phone number, and no links to the website. (example) Local Finder The complete list of local results that appears when the "More places" link at the bottom of a local pack is clicked. (example) Local Services Ads These special packs are generated by Google’s paid lead generation program called Local Services. These packs appear at the top of local search results in specific industries and cities (example). For more information, please see Tom Waddington’s excellent post on the topic here.

The Survey The 2018 survey is structured into five primary sections: Thematic Ranking Signals

Specific Ranking Factors in Local Pack/Finder and Local Organic Results

Foundational vs. Competitive Ranking Factors

Factors Focusing on More and Factors Focusing on Less in the Past Year

Negative Ranking Factors I. General Ranking Factors In this section, participants are asked, “In your opinion, to what extent do each of the following thematic clusters contribute to rankings across result types at Google?” They then enter a percentage of influence for each of these eight thematic areas, for both local pack/finder results and local organic results: Google My Business signals (proximity, categories, keyword in business title, etc.)

Citation signals (IYP/Aggregator NAP consistency, citation volume, etc.)

On-page signals (presence of NAP, keywords in titles, Domain Authority, etc.)

Link signals (inbound anchor text, linking Domain Authority, linking domain quantity, etc.)

Review signals (review quantity, review velocity, review diversity, etc.)

Social signals (Google engagement, Facebook engagement, Twitter engagement, etc.)

Behavioral/mobile signals (click-through rate, mobile clicks to call, dwell time, etc.)

Personalization The results here give us a sense of which general ranking factor areas are more important than others. II. Specific Ranking Factors In part A of this section, I asked the experts to rank the top 20 individual ranking factors (out of a total list of 137) that have the biggest impact on pack/finder rankings. In part B of this section, I asked them to rank the top 20 factors from the same list, only this time to rank them based on impact on localized organic rankings. Results are then tabulated via inverse scoring, where the number one-ranked factor received the most points for that question, and the lowest-ranked factor received the fewest points. (The factors ranking outside the top 20 for all respondents ended up with zero points.) III. Foundational vs Competitive Factors In this section, I asked the experts to rank the 10 factors they think are the most important foundational ranking factors, and to rank the 10 factors they think are competitive difference makers. Results are then tabulated via inverse scoring, where the #1 ranked factor received the most points for that question, and the lowest-ranked factor received the fewest points. (The factors ranking outside the top 10 for all respondents ended up with zero points.) IV. Focusing on More and Focusing on Less Here, I asked the experts to rank the five factors they were focusing on more in the past year, and the five factors they were focusing on less in the past year. Results were then tabulated via inverse scoring, where the #1 ranked factor received the most "points" for that question, and the lowest-ranked factor received the fewest points. (The factors ranking outside the top 5 for all respondents ended up with zero points.) V. Negative Ranking Factors In this section, I asked the experts to rank 34 negative factors in order of most damaging to most benign.

Discussion Please see my analysis and summary of the results here on the Moz blog. If you would like to comment on this project, please join the discussion here. Darren Shaw

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

November 20, 2018

Top 50 Local Pack Finder Factors #1 530 total Proximity of Address to the Point of Search (Searcher-Business Distance) #2 463 total Physical Address in City of Search #3 365 total Proper GMB Category Associations #4 333 total Product/Service Keyword in GMB Business Title #5 248 total Location Keyword in GMB Business Title #6 219 total Quality/Authority of Inbound Links to Domain #7 214 total GMB Primary Category Matches a Broader Category of the Search Category (e.g. primary category=restaurant & search=pizza) #8 188 total Consistency of Citations on the Primary Data Sources #9 166 total Domain Authority of Website #10 149 total Completeness of GMB Listing #11 148 total Quality/Authority of Inbound Links to GMB Landing Page URL #12 137 total Quantity of Native Google Reviews (with text) #13 130 total Click-Through Rate from Search Results #14 127 total Product/Service Keywords in Reviews #15 110 total Quality/Authority of Structured Citations #16 107 total Quantity of Inbound Links to Domain from Locally Relevant Domains #17 104 total Proximity of Address to Centroid #18 96 total Product/Service Keyword in GMB Landing Page Title #19 90 total High Numerical Ratings of Business by Google Users (e.g. 4–5) #20 83 total Page Authority of GMB Landing Page URL #21 80 total Consistency of Citations on Tier 1 Citation Sources #22 80 total Location Keyword in GMB Landing Page Title #23 75 total Quantity of Engagement Signals on GMB Listing (scrolling through listing, clicking photos, reading reviews, reading Q&A, clicking on Posts, etc.) #24 70 total Prominence on Key Industry-Relevant Domains #25 70 total Quality/Authority of Unstructured Citations (Newspaper Articles, Blog Posts, Gov Sites, Industry Associations) #26 67 total Volume of Searches for Business Name #27 65 total Proximity of Address to Centroid of Other Businesses in Industry #28 64 total Age of GMB Listing #29 64 total Verified GMB Listing #30 60 total HTML NAP Matching GMB Listing NAP #31 58 total Driving Directions to Business Clicks #32 56 total Quantity of Third-Party Traditional Reviews #33 55 total Diversity of Inbound Links to Domain #34 55 total Authority of Third-Party Sites on Which Reviews Are Present #35 53 total Mobile-Friendly/Responsive Website #36 52 total Quantity of Inbound Links to Landing Page URL from Industry-Relevant Domains #37 51 total Location Keywords in Anchor Text of Inbound Links to Domain #38 45 total Quantity of Inbound Links to GMB Landing Page URL #39 45 total Positive Sentiment in Reviews #40 45 total Clicks to Call Business #41 42 total Local Area Code on GMB Listing #42 42 total Volume of Quality Content on Entire Website #43 40 total Velocity of Searches for Business Name #44 39 total Geographic (City/Neighborhood) Keyword Relevance of Domain Content #45 38 total Association of Photos with GMB Listing #46 37 total Presence of Business on Expert Curated "Best of" and Similar Lists #47 37 total Quantity of Citations from Locally Relevant Domains #48 37 total High Numerical Ratings by Authority Reviewers (e.g. Yelp Elite, Google Local Guides, etc.) #49 37 total Overall Velocity of Reviews (Native + Third-Party) #50 36 total Topical (Product/Service) Keyword Relevance of Domain Content

Top 50 Local Organic Factors #1 533 total Quality/Authority of Inbound Links to Domain #2 445 total Domain Authority of Website #3 315 total Diversity of Inbound Links to Domain #4 267 total Topical (Product/Service) Keyword Relevance of Domain Content #5 241 total Mobile-friendly/Responsive Website #6 236 total Geographic (City/Neighborhood) Keyword Relevance of Domain Content #7 205 total Product/Service Keywords in Anchor Text of Inbound Links to Domain #8 186 total Click-Through Rate from Search Results #9 178 total Quantity of Inbound Links to Domain #10 171 total Quantity of Inbound Links to Domain from Industry-Relevant Domains #11 170 total Volume of Quality Content on Entire Website #12 161 total Location Keywords in Anchor Text of Inbound Links to Domain #13 161 total Product/Service Keyword in GMB Landing Page Title #14 132 total Quantity of Inbound Links to Domain from Locally Relevant Domains #15 110 total Location Keyword in GMB Landing Page Title #16 109 total Quality/Authority of Inbound Links to GMB Landing Page URL #17 109 total Quantity of Inbound Links to Landing Page URL from Industry-Relevant Domains #18 99 total Physical Address in City of Search #19 94 total Geographic Keyword in Domain #20 89 total Prominence on Key Industry-Relevant Domains #21 87 total Product/Service Keyword in Domain #22 84 total Business Title in Anchor Text of Inbound Links to Domain #23 84 total Volume of Searches for Business Name #24 82 total Consistency of Citations on the Primary Data Sources #25 80 total Load Time of GMB Landing Page URL #26 76 total Quality/Authority of Structured Citations #27 75 total Proximity of Address to the Point of Search (Searcher-Business Distance) #28 73 total NAP in Schema/JSON-LD on GMB Landing Page URL #29 67 total Diversity of Anchor Text to Domain #30 64 total Quality/Authority of Unstructured Citations (Newspaper Articles, Blog Posts, Gov Sites, Industry Associations) #31 63 total Authority of Third-Party Sites on Which Reviews Are Present #32 59 total Velocity of Searches for Business Name #33 58 total HTML NAP Matching GMB Listing NAP #34 57 total Location Keyword in Most/All Website Title Tags #35 54 total Page Authority of GMB Landing Page URL #36 51 total Volume of Quality Content on Service Pages #37 48 total Velocity of New Inbound Links to Domain #38 47 total Quantity of Inbound Links to GMB Landing Page URL #39 45 total Proper GMB Category Associations #40 44 total Website Uses HTTPS by default #41 43 total GMB Primary Category Matches a Broader Category of the Search Category (e.g. primary category=restaurant & search=pizza) #42 43 total Embedded Google Map for Location on GMB Landing Page #43 41 total Volume of Content on GMB Landing Page #44 40 total Presence of Business on Expert Curated "Best of" and Similar Lists #45 38 total Location Keywords in Anchor Text of Inbound Links to GMB Landing Page URL #46 37 total Diversity of Inbound Links to GMB Landing Page URL #47 29 total Quantity of Citations from Industry-Relevant Domains #48 28 total Business Title in Anchor Text of Inbound Links to GMB Landing Page URL #49 28 total Quantity of Citations from Locally Relevant Domains #50 27 total Diversity of Anchor Text to GMB Landing Page URL

Top 30 Foundational Factors #1 449 total Proper GMB Category Associations #2 435 total Consistency of Citations on The Primary Data Sources #3 429 total Physical Address in City of Search #4 378 total Proximity of Address to the Point of Search (Searcher-Business Distance) #5 295 total Completeness of GMB Listing #6 258 total Consistency of Citations on Tier 1 Citation Sources #7 229 total Verified GMB Listing #8 158 total HTML NAP Matching GMB Listing NAP #9 142 total Quality/Authority of Structured Citations #10 134 total Mobile-Friendly/Responsive Website #11 126 total GMB Primary Category Matches a Broader Category of the Search Category (e.g. primary category=restaurant & search=pizza) #12 103 total Proper Category Associations on Aggregators and Tier 1 Citation Sources #13 83 total Product / Service Keyword in GMB Business Title #14 79 total Domain Authority of Website #15 78 total Enhancement/Completeness of Citations #16 74 total Prominence on Key Industry-Relevant Domains #17 70 total Quality/Authority of Inbound Links to Domain #18 64 total Topical (Product/Service) Keyword Relevance of Domain Content #19 60 total Consistency of Citations on Tier 2 Citation Sources #20 59 total Association of Photos with GMB Listing #21 59 total Quantity of Citations from Industry-Relevant Domains #22 58 total Quantity of Citations from Locally Relevant Domains #23 58 total Geographic (City/Neighborhood) Keyword Relevance of Domain Content #24 56 total Proximity of Address to Centroid #25 55 total Age of GMB Listing #26 48 total Local Area Code on GMB Listing #27 42 total Quantity of Native Google Reviews (with text) #28 42 total NAP in Schema/JSON-LD on GMB Landing Page URL #29 41 total Quantity of Structured Citations (IYPs, Data Aggregators) #30 40 total Matching Google Account Domain to GMB Landing Page Domain

Top 30 Competitive Difference-Makers #1 318 total Quality/Authority of Inbound Links to Domain #2 246 total Quantity of Native Google Reviews (with text) #3 208 total Domain Authority of Website #4 175 total Quality/Authority of Inbound Links to GMB Landing Page URL #5 162 total Product/Service Keywords in Reviews #6 156 total High Numerical Ratings of Business by Google Users (e.g. 4–5) #7 147 total Quantity of Inbound Links to Domain from Locally Relevant Domains #8 134 total Click-Through Rate from Search Results #9 123 total Positive Sentiment in Reviews #10 111 total Volume of Quality Content on Entire Website #11 109 total Quantity of Inbound Links to Domain from Industry-Relevant Domains #12 104 total Product / Service Keyword in GMB Business Title #13 98 total High Numerical Ratings by Authority Reviewers (e.g. Yelp Elite, Google Local Guides, etc.) #14 97 total Topical (Product/Service) Keyword Relevance of Domain Content #15 92 total Product/Service Keywords in Anchor Text of Inbound Links to Domain #16 89 total Proximity of Address to the Point of Search (Searcher-Business Distance) #17 84 total Diversity of Inbound Links to Domain #18 76 total Quantity of Third-Party Traditional Reviews #19 74 total Completeness of GMB Listing #20 71 total Quality/Authority of Unstructured Citations (Newspaper Articles, Blog Posts, Gov Sites, Industry Associations) #21 71 total Quantity of Google Posts Posted #22 69 total Location Keywords in Reviews #23 67 total Location Keyword in GMB Business Title #24 66 total Diversity of Third-Party Sites on Which Reviews Are Present #25 59 total Quantity of Inbound Links to Domain #26 59 total Quantity of Inbound Links to GMB Landing Page URL #27 56 total Clicks to Call Business #28 55 total Page Authority of GMB Landing Page URL #29 53 total Business Title in Anchor Text of Inbound Links to Domain #30 52 total Volume of Searches for Business Name

10 Factors Experts Are Focusing on More in the Past Year #1 259 total Quality/Authority of Inbound Links to Domain #2 222 total Quantity of Google Posts Posted #3 151 total Quantity of Native Google Reviews (with text) #4 137 total Topical (Product/Service) Keyword Relevance of Domain Content #5 86 total Association of Videos with GMB Location #6 84 total Association of Photos with GMB Listing #7 84 total Volume of Content on GMB Landing Page #8 81 total Quantity of Inbound Links to Landing Page URL from Industry-Relevant Domains #9 79 total Reference to Location Specific Entities on GMB Landing Page #10 71 total Quantity of Inbound Links to Domain from Locally Relevant Domains

10 Factors Experts Are Focusing on Less in the Past Year #1 267 total Consistency of Citations on Tier 3 Citation Sources #2 204 total Quantity of Structured Citations (IYPs, Data Aggregators) #3 168 total Proximity of Address to Centroid #4 167 total Quantity of Engagement Metrics (+1s, comments, shares) on Google+ #5 161 total Authority/Quality of Engagement Metrics (+1s, comments, shares) on Google+ #6 147 total Consistency of Citations on Tier 2 Citation Sources #7 82 total Enhancement/Completeness of Citations #8 65 total Quantity of Engagement Metrics (likes, comments, shares) on Facebook #9 64 total Quantity of Third-Party Traditional Reviews #10 55 total Location Keywords in Anchor Text of Inbound Links to Domain

Negative Factors #1 473 total Listing Detected at False Business Address #2 439 total Address is a PO Box, UPS Mail Store, or Other False Address #3 415 total Incorrect Business Category #4 357 total Site Hacked / Presence of Malware #5 340 total GMB Listings with Same Address/Phone Marked as “Permanently Closed” #6 315 total Reports of Violations on Your GMB Listing #7 295 total Association of GMB Account with Other Suppressed Listings #8 259 total Presence of Businesses in the Same Category at the Same Address #9 227 total Mismatched Address on GMB Landing Page #10 227 total Presence of Multiple GMB Listings in the Same Category with Same or Similar Business Title and Address #11 222 total Incorrectly Placed Map Marker in GMB #12 212 total Incomplete/Missing Data on the Primary Data Sources #13 201 total Mismatched NAP / Tracking Phone Numbers Across Data Ecosystem #14 196 total Negative Sentiment in Google Reviews #15 194 total Presence of Multiple GMB Listings with Same Phone Number #16 184 total Absence of Crawlable NAP on Website #17 184 total Low Numerical Ratings of Google Reviews (e.g. 1–2) #18 171 total Reports of Fake Reviews on Your GMB Listing #19 170 total Category Dilution #20 162 total Absence of Crawlable NAP on GMB Landing Page #21 162 total Choosing to Hide GMB Address #22 124 total Keyword Stuffing in GMB Business Name #23 109 total Choosing Service Area for Business in GMB (as opposed to in-location visits) #24 103 total Reports of Review Gating #25 102 total Mismatched NAP / Tracking Phone Number on GMB Landing Page #26 73 total Listing 800 Number as Only Phone Number in GMB #27 55 total No Hours of Operation on GMB Listing #28 53 total Receiving Too Many Google Reviews Too Fast #29 50 total Low Numerical Ratings of Third-Party Reviews (e.g. 1–2) #30 46 total Negative Sentiment in Third-Party Reviews #31 45 total Presence of Multiple Crawlable NAP on GMB Landing Page #32 28 total Reviews Copied from Third-Party Sites as Testimonials in Schema/JSON-LD on Website #33 17 total Keyword Stuffing in Title Tag of GMB Landing Page #34 14 total Malformed Phone Number on Website (dots or spaces instead of dashes) #35 13 total Multi-Lingual GMB Listings for the Same Place #36 10 total Mismatched or Private WHOIS Information #37 8 total Keyword Stuffing in GMB Description #38 0 total Keyword Stuffing in GMB Q&A #39 0 total Presence of Third-Party Reviews in Schema/JSON

Comments

What are some strategies/tactics that are working particularly well for you at the moment? Andrew Shotland, LocalSEOGuide.com: GMB Posts are one of the more interesting opportunities in local SEO these days. The control you have over the messaging allows for a lot of creativity. In particular, we are seeing traction in cases where branded searches are "leaking" clicks to other domains in the SERPs. GMB Posts are a great way to attract more engagement and clicks from potential customers who are already searching for your brand and may be in buying mode. With SEO, it's often the case that there's just as much opportunity to milk the keywords you already rank well for as there is in going after new keywords. We are also seeing a lot of improvement with multi-location brands where we are rewriting location pages to be more relevant. It doesn't matter if you have two locations or 2,000. This tactic can improve existing rankings as well as make it eligible to rank for additional queries. Andy Kuiper, Andy Kuiper Internet Marketing: Seeking a consistent flow of positive-sentiment reviews on your GMB page. BBB listings *surprising find* paid/unpaid doesn't seem to matter. Ensure as much completeness and engagement of the GMB page as possible.

Andy Monte, Directive Consulting: Targeting specific, long-tail keywords that have a high amount of "related keywords" associated with them is a great tactic to make sure you show up in the SERP. If the keyword is long-tail and specific enough, ranking usually isn't too difficult (however, usually these keywords have a low search volume), but if you can find ones with a fair amount of "related keywords" - you can actually rank for most of those related keywords and get traffic from them as well, which usually more than makes up for the low search volume.



I remember targeting one keyword that had a monthly search volume of 30, but because there were over 200 "related keywords," I was able to rank for all of them. After the first month of being published, that one page now generates over 2,000 organic users a month. Ben Fisher, Steady Demand: 1. Convincing clients to have a physical location that is located in the city in which they want to rank for has worked out very well. I use the method of starring the current location on maps, then searching the city name in maps.google.com. It is very easy to see the city boundaries. Once a client moves (or adds a new location) to be within the boundaries we see an increase in calls and visibility.



2. Semantically rich content in GMB Posts and G+ content/engagement has proven to still be effective (editor’s note: G+ shutdown announced). The more you can do to teach Google about your business, the better off you are going to be. We have done case studies that show how these activities can influence ranking: Google Posts Impact Ranking [Case Study] and Local SEO Boost with Mike Blumenthal [Case Study].



3. Native reviews on GMB still have a high impact on ranking. Reviews (along with an owner’s response) show that consumers trust a business, and trust is a foundational factor in ranking.



4. Attacking spam is a great tactic. Not only does it help clean up Google Maps, but the effect on your client’s ranking is almost instantaneous. This does not work in every industry, but for lawyers and service-area-businesses like HVAC, it is highly effective since spam is so prevalent there. Location spam is pretty easy to detect and remove, but business name spam, not so much. Blake Denman, RicketyRoo Inc.: Local brand building: For roughly the last 18 months, we've been shifting the conversation with clients from link building to local brand building. Instead of just focusing on the overall value of a link or link building strategy, we're finding ways of getting a local brand involved with the local community that will also earn links, social shares, and gets the brand in front of potential customers. Reviews: We all know that reviews are critical to any local business. We've found that different strategies work for different clients. Some clients do great with a third-party tool like GatherUp while others do much better with SMS review building. Incentivizing employees is also a tactic that works well in some industries. You can give a bonus to individuals if a review mentions their name or make it a bonus for the entire team

Brian Barwig, AttorneySync: Local link building. Find local links that are relevant to the site you are building links for. Brian Smith, Rio SEO: We have had success in providing relevant real-time material that expands a brand's ability to connect with users beyond NAP. Items that we have focused on this past year include.

- Expanding content to include localized items like landmarks, historical buildings, and popular streets/highways.

- Monitoring and responding to reviews to help influence consumer journey in discovering local businesses.

- Publishing local events to engage consumers and expand content on local landing pages.

- Google Posts and it's ability to showcase promotions and increase local visibility beyond ranking. Carrie Hill, Ignitor Digital Marketing, Inc.: (Depending upon market and niche) Cleaning up GMB listings for competitors by reporting GMB listing spam, review spam, and editing listings that are keyword stuffing is pretty effective for us.

Aligning GMB Category, landing page content/optimization, and making sure addresses/phone numbers are consistent from GMB to all pages/locations on website.

It's really surprising how just the simplest things make a big difference. Casey Meraz, Juris Digital: Working in competitive legal niches where there is a lot of spam we tend to focus a lot of our efforts on link building and earning links to Google My Business landing page URLs. The strategy that has had the biggest impact is getting links from locally relevant and authoritative websites. The best links come from the same niche and domains serving the city our clients are in. Typically the strategies we focus most on are community driven events with promotion and outreach such as free cab ride programs on holidays which is a great PR and link building tactic when executed correctly.



There is a lot of spam and the problem is growing with Google My Business listings. Another competitive tactic is to constantly search for keywords your clients want to rank for. When you see spammy listings you need to report them right away and keep doing so every time you see them. When spammers are beating you or ranking for keywords they shouldn't you can really have a positive impact on local pack rankings just by reporting spam. Colan Nielson, Sterling Sky: Internal linking is still very effective for both local organic and local pack rankings. We have seen several cases where adding an internal link in the right place has boosted rankings almost immediately. Conrad Saam, Mockingbird Marketing: I've been having a lot of success emphasizing Google reviews and removing superfluous content across sites. Cori Graft, Seer Interactive: Good, old-fashioned link building seems to have improved local pack performance even more this year than in recent memory, which supports the theory that Google continues to bring the local and traditional algorithms / ranking signals more closely together. What we're calling "Behavioral" signals in this survey also continue to help results — specifically, driving branded search interest. We've seen a strong correlation between branded search activity and improved rankings in both pack and localized organic rankings. Dan Leibson, Local SEO Guide: Really we are focused on more or less the same stuff as always:



- Is Google properly crawling and indexing your site?

- Is your site relevant and authoritative for your vertical and geo?

- Do you have pages targeting the search queries you want to rank for?

- Do you have a competitively strong backlink profile?

- How does your Google My Business profile(s) look?



Depending on the answers, a technical SEO audit, content strategy/creation/marketing, or link building may be the best bet. Dana DiTomaso, Kick Point: Google Posts! We've seen gains for clients in competitive niches after consistent posting. The posts don't have to link to their site, but it appears that they should be topical and posted consistently.

David Mihm, ThriveHive / Tidings: In the search results I look at regularly, I continue to see reviews playing a larger and larger role. Much as citations became table stakes over the last couple of years, reviews now appear to be on their way to becoming table stakes as well. The local packs for mid-to-large metro areas, and even industries where ranking in the 3-pack used to be possible with just a handful of reviews or no reviews, now feature businesses with dozens of reviews at a minimum — many within the last few months. This speaks to the importance of a steady stream of feedback.



Whether the increased ranking is due to review volume, keywords in review content, or the increased clickthrough rate those gold stars yield, I doubt we'll ever know for sure. I just know that for most businesses, it's the area of local SEO I'd invest the most time and effort into getting right — and done well, should also have a much more important flywheel effect of helping you build a better business, as the guys at GatherUp have been talking about for years. David Wallace, Search Rank: Besides foundational tactics such as having a verified and complete GMB listing with matching NAP across both GMB listings, website and local search data sources (e.g. Yelp, Foursquare, etc.), strategies and tactics that have been working well as of late include making sites secure (https), ensuring that they load quickly (pagespeed), making sure they are responsive for desktop, tablets & mobile, and continuing to develop quality content that is relevant to business and interesting/resourceful enough to generates social shares as well as attract inbound links. Dev Basu, Powered By Search: Because citations are largely commoditized at this point and are therefore table stakes, we've been getting great mileage from focusing on local link building at scale by supporting events, publications, and associations that are the pillars of the local community. Eric Rohrback, RedShift: Local landing/location pages still work very well. If there are searches you're targeting that have local intent, creating a specific page for the office can help battle stronger domains (especially if they do not have any local/office pages).



Writing specific schema markup (JSON is easiest to manage), can give some separation if everything else is equal but won't be something that will move the site from page 2 to top of 1.



Site speed optimization and technical optimization have always worked, and will continue to be an important part of our job. Optimizing internal linking, page content, markup, and reducing problems like broken links or redirect chains each month has been a key part of our client work. Greg Gifford, DealerOn: For us, geo optimization is still killing it. Lots of Local SEOs say it's old school and doesn't matter, but for almost all of our clients, it still makes a massive difference. We concentrate more on geo-relevance of the entire base of content on the site, not just throwing location keywords into titles/h1s/etc. Local links are a huge game changer as well. But, for "new" things that are really killing it, we're having amazing success with Google Posts. Gyi Tsakalakis, AttorneySync: Meh, links. In other words, topically and locally relevant links continue to work particularly well. Not only do these links tend to improve visibility in both local packs and traditional results, they're also particularly effective for improving targeted traffic, leads, and customers. Find ways to earn links on the sites your local audience uses. These typically include local news, community, and blog sites. Joel Headley, Patient Pop: Reviews: soliciting reviews across a diverse number of sites while creating fresh content through reviews/testimonials on-site or via third-party publishers. Joy Hawkins, Sterling Sky: Using a review tool to ask every customer to leave you a review is a necessary element these days. We've also had a ton of success consolidating content and improving the overall quality of content on SMB sites. Of course, eliminating spam is also a high-impact strategy we use a lot. We have also seen some huge wins from setting up better internal linking structures on sites. Lisa Kolb, Acorn Internet Services, Inc.: The travel/lodging industry is so different from other business types. We have been forced to place a high importance on Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) and Google Hotel Finder (GHF) participation for our clients' Local Pack and Maps listings. Without OTA and GHF availability, it is virtually impossible to rank in competitive areas for the 3-pack, and difficult to place higher than competitors in the top 10 results in the Maps listings. Marcus Miller, Bowler Hat: Building domain authority seems to be the area where we have most focus recently. I think this is in part due to a shift towards more traditional signals (in addition to foundational Local SEO signals) but also due to the maturity in the marketplace. Once everyone has their content, technical SEO, and local SEO dialed in, authority building is the next logical step. Mary Bowling, ignitordigital.com: 1. Eliminating thin content by removing or combing pages.

2. Eliminating worthless content by looking at Google Analytics and Search Console for unvisited pages.

3. Beefing up internal links and CTAs on well-visited pages.

4. Cleaning up the technical messes caused by http/https, canonicalization, redirects, robots.txt/NoIndex, inaccurate sitemaps, broken links, etc.

5. Improving internal linking, especially on sites built with a very flat structure.

6. Improving and optimizing WordPress category pages. Mike Blumenthal, GatherUp: Well, I don't use them but a solid name spam is still very useful.... Miriam Ellis, Moz & Solas Web Design: Full management of the GMB listing, including Post, Photos, Q&A, Reviews, etc. Unfortunately, I also see undetected/un-punished spam tactics working well for local businesses.



I would also predict that 2019 is the year in which we will all start exploring unstructured citations/linktations to their fullest. These plum mentions in high authority local/industry publications are rewarding!



And, despite Google's de-emphasis of free, organic website results over time, keep investing in topical content development. It feeds both your local and organic rankings.



Finally, though you will encounter articles saying, "This factor isn't working anymore," don't overlook table stakes, like basic citation accuracy and monitoring. They may not be especially exciting, but they are your ante in. Once you have the basics in place, you can bring your more creative marketing ideas into play. Nick Pierno, Whitespark: - High volume of content on home/landing/service pages (with good page layout and design, so users aren't simply landing on a wall of text)

- Super prominent contact forms and phone numbers (seems obvious, but still so often overlooked)

- Working with businesses that actually have their keywords/locations in their DBA :P

Phil Rozek, Local Visibility System, LLC: On top of the pillars of link-earning, review-rustling, and getting half-decent copy onto clients’ sites, two things:



1. What I call “spam patrol”: submitting user edits on spammy competitors’ GMB listings so that they play by the same rules you do. If your edits (most likely, edits to the business name) get approved, competitors’ rankings won’t go down right away, and they probably won’t go down as much as you’d have liked, but you will have an effect over time. Thin the herd enough and you may see that newcomers and would-be spammers are deterred.



2. In-depth content on your “niche” services. Every year I think I’m about to see the end of ranking for those with relative ease. Every year I’m amazed at how few businesses got the memo. That’s an opportunity for you, especially given that Google seems to return local-pack results for more and weirder search terms every year. Sprinkle some of that niche content on your homepage or other “big” pages, and err on the side of internal linking to it generously. Search Influence Team, Search Influence: I have seen visibility improve when following Google's lead. In other words, they rolled out the Posts feature broadly and I have seen activity on the listings increase as a result. Furthermore, they have added business descriptions, attributes, and other features over the past year or so. It is overwhelmingly obvious advice to use the fields Google rolls out but it is also the most effective in my experience.



The addition of photos and videos seems to have a positive impact as well. With the metrics for photos included in the GMB insights it makes sense to expand the quality and quantity of photos used on listings.



One thing that is hard to quantify, at least in the way this survey is formatted, is that Google wants users and the owners of listings to be active. In other words, using the listings as a business hub, à la Yelp. By managing the listings more proactively (answering questions, utilizing posts, responding to reviews) you are sending some signals locally that you are engaging with customers as well as actively maintaining your listing information. I think this is as relevant as anything since Google is moving to keep us on Google services longer without a site click-through. Tim Capper, Online Ownership: In the travel market, in-depth city / attraction guides with integrated walking maps are working well - attracting visits and links.



For the health market (after medic) tracking down and properly attributing research, conference, and science papers has resulted in a significant increase in positions and traffic.



In the manufacturing sector, published tech specs and guides are still working well.

What are some strategies/tactics that used to work well, but don’t seem to work anymore? Adam Dorfman, Reputation.com: I'm much more interested in building out and optimizing structured content on our client's owned assets than I am on third party sites. They are both important but there is much more opportunity to increase your visibility within Google's search results by focusing on the former. Andrew Shotland, LocalSEOGuide.com: Depending on the strength of the domain, we are also seeing taxonomy expansion (a fancy name for adding more "service+city" pages) either performing well or destroying sites. If you have a weak domain, this could be a quick way to make it even weaker by adding a lot more thin URLs to it. We have seen several post-Medic cases of sites that got obliterated for what appears to be too much "topical overlap." So test, test, test. I am still surprised when I see "insert city name here" boilerplate content on location pages. It can work, but if your location pages aren't ranking well, this is one of the first issues I'd investigate. Andy Kuiper, Andy Kuiper Internet Marketing: Focusing too much on citations being 'perfect' — even close seems to be OK nowadays. Andy Monte, Directive Consulting: Leveraging directories and data aggregators as the sole form of link building just doesn't work anymore as a long-term link building tactic. Fortunately, this is still a great foundational strategy to work on for any company, but even then, it only really moves the needle for low-authority domains. Ben Fisher, Steady Demand: Google is cracking down harder on businesses that consistently employ spammy tactics. I have witnessed companies that have a mixture of real and spammy listings get a wholesale penalty to all their listings based on those tactics. Many companies are spamming the heck out of their GMB listings to gain a short-term ranking boost, and why not, it works for their competitors. But, I have also seen companies get a hard suspension based on this behavior.



Google's algorithm is just not yet savvy enough to detect virtual offices or *gasp* keyword-stuffed GMB listings. However, they are a machine learning first company and I think they may get better at detecting spam over time.



The big thing I feel is not working anymore is citation building as the only way to build links. Correct NAP across the top citation sources is the foundation, but adding 100's of other structured citations from low-level websites/directories will not cut it. I like to encourage focusing on where your customers are. Facebook Yelp, Bing, Uber, Waze, and Here, along with niche authority directories like Avvo, Apartments.com, etc. Blake Denman, RicketyRoo Inc.: Citations as a sole means of getting into the local pack. Years ago you could build out a few hundred structured citations and rank pretty well. Now, we take care of the primary data aggregators and tier 1 citation sources. From there, we look for hyperlocal and industry-specific citations. That's it. Brian Barwig, AttorneySync: Consistently adding citations. Brian Smith, Rio SEO: No noticeable stoppage with strategies/tactics done from the previous year. Carrie Hill, Ignitor Digital Marketing, Inc.: We're worrying a lot less about the 2nd & 3rd tier citation consistency. It doesn't seem to move the needle or make much of a difference. We worry more about location/category citations that could drive relevant traffic than the more obscure resources. Casey Meraz, Juris Digital: In the past, it seemed that going after "more" citations that were not industry or locally relevant carried some weight. Now we don't waste time on this because it doesn't actually help build the true authority of the entity. Colan Nielson, Sterling Sky: One tactic that I used to see recommended a lot (that I would recommend all the time) was adding the business phone number to the title tag of the home or location page. We ran a test this year to see what kind of an impact adding the phone number has. The conclusion is that having a phone number in the title tag does not drive more calls. In the test we ran it drove one call in 60 days (we tracked the number using Call Tracking Metrics). However, what it did do is increase the CTR from 1.5% to 4.8% compared to the previous period. Conversions also increased (2 vs. 0) over the previous period. So, although I don't think that adding a phone number to a title tag will increase calls or ranking, it can lead to increased CTR and conversions. Conrad Saam, Mockingbird Marketing: Adding content for the sake of adding content. We're seeing more and more that unless content is actually well constructed and helpful, it doesn't add much benefit to the site. A lot of our engagements begin with a content purge/consolidation project, which flies in the face of the "Content is King" mantra. Cori Graft, Seer Interactive: *Keyword stuffing in your GMB business name!* ... psych. I WISH Google would fix this so spam DOESN'T work so well anymore :( Maybe by the time next year's survey rolls around... :) Dan Leibson, Local SEO Guide: Really anything to do with citations, I'd be really interested to test how relevant it is to invest in them in the most basic level. If the listing itself isn't providing you business, then I'm skeptical Google wants to rate them very high at all.

Dana DiTomaso, Kick Point: Title tag changes used to have almost an immediate boost — personally, we thought it was too much of a boost considering the little amount of work put in. I think it's a good change that they don't have the same effect as they used to.

David Mihm, ThriveHive / Tidings: Google seems to have finally mitigated the importance of proximity to centroid (is that the sound of champagne corks popping in SEO agencies across the globe?).



With so many local searches coming from mobile phones, location history, IP address, and Google's surreptitious use of Wi-Fi networks to triangulate desktop location, I see many, many more results where the searcher is the centroid, not some arbitrary location in the civic center. David Wallace, Search Rank: I don't see placing a lot of emphasis on building citations as a useful tactic. Quality inbound links and reviews are much better strategies to focus on. Dev Basu, Powered By Search: Here’s what doesn’t work anymore:

1. Low-authority, third-party unstructured citations

2. Virtual addresses

3. Posting lots of social updates from claimed pages Eric Rohrback, RedShift: Keywords/locations in domain names. Used to work well, but doesn't as much if the competition is too high. This can work in very low competition markets, but I've seen using the brand name as the domain and then adding location/keywords in URLs work just fine. Greg Gifford, DealerOn: We used to blow out citations and make a big difference in visibility, and it really doesn't seem to matter much anymore. Social interaction signals seem to be much less important as well. Gyi Tsakalakis, AttorneySync: The biggest two that come to mind are gaming centroid proximity and citations. It used to be that you could pretty easily manipulate local results by combining a "virtual office" near the centroid and loading up on all the citations from everywhere. If that's still working for you, I'd love to see your examples. Joel Headley, Patient Pop: Citations don't move the needle like they used to. While they seem to be a necessary foundation, they're insufficient to really make differences in search. Joy Hawkins, Sterling Sky: Manipulating which page you send people to in the website field of Google My Business used to have an impact on ranking but rarely does anymore. It used to be fairly easy to submit public edits on a listing to fix incorrect information, but these days, Google places way too much trust on what's in the GMB account. Often the only way to get spammy listings fixed is to report them directly to Google My Business vs. Google Maps. Lisa Kolb, Acorn Internet Services, Inc.: Old-school SEO is no longer effective — you can no longer rely on just your website to do all the work for you. In the lodging industry, direct bookings were easier to obtain in the past than they are today. With competition from the OTAs and Google's persistence to sell those OTA rooms for a fee, a proven, individualized strategy is now imperative to survive. Your website, blogging, and social media, although foundational items in the past, are no longer producing the same ROI. In the past, our clients were able to be found on page 1 organically and in the 3-pack by simply following basic Google guidelines. Such tactics are no longer effective in light of Google's quest to dominate the travel industry. Marcus Miller, Bowler Hat: We focus on the UK market and certainly structured citations seem to be less important, or rather, the volume of structured citations. Certainly getting the key citations in place is still important, but once the general purpose and any vertical listings are in place and optimized there is no need to go after every single listing out there. Mary Bowling, ignitordigital.com: Worrying about keyword density, exact match optimization, building hundreds of citations, optimizing for one search term per page, thin content, duplicated "location" pages.

Miriam Ellis, Moz & Solas Web Design: Things that "ain't like they used to be" include:

- Sheer citation quantity

- Sheer link quantity

- Keyword stuffing websites

- Proximity of address to city centroid

- Marketing SABs for "free" (hello Google LSA!) Nick Pierno, Whitespark: - Industry Canada links

- Citation volume beyond the higher value sites

Phil Rozek, Local Visibility System, LLC: “City pages” seem to take more imagination and finesse than they used to, at least in competitive markets. Be ready to put serious work into them — perhaps on an ongoing basis — to get them off the ground. Also, be prepared to see just enough junk in the search results to make you wonder why you bother at all. Search Influence Team, Search Influence: Anything related to "keywords." This seems to have little, if any, relevance in relation to hyperlocal searching. It might it broader, more national searches, but I see nothing locally to indicate this is helpful. Tim Capper, Online Ownership: Generalized content (content for the sake of "local" content).

If you only had time/budget to invest in ONE area of local search (GMB, citations, reviews, onsite, links, behavioral), which would you choose? And why you would focus on that area over the others? Adam Dorfman, Reputation.com: Assuming you have taken care of the factors that could categorized as a foundational, Reviews has jumped in terms of being able to quickly move the needle in visibility for results powered by Google's Knowledge Graph. Andrew Shotland, LocalSEOGuide.com: The PC thing is to say we would invest in helping our clients generate great reviews. Great reviews can help other areas of the site's SEO including keyword/category association, content creation, link generation, improved CTR, etc. But then again, links seem to work pretty well... Andy Kuiper, Andy Kuiper Internet Marketing: I'd focus on completing everything to the best of my ability on GMB pages. Andy Monte, Directive Consulting: If I only had to focus on ONE area of local search, it would be to focus on reviews. Google seems to be adding more value and authority to factors that aren't in our control such as links, reviews, and user engagement metrics. Of those three areas, reviews are not only a major ranking factor, but can also affect overall user experience, click through rate, and can reflect the company's marketing/customer service strategy as a whole versus just looking at their digital efforts. Ben Fisher, Steady Demand: GMB, hands down. Being a TC may make me skew towards Google My Business. If you look at the investment that Google has put toward GMB in the last year alone, you can tell that Google is the transactional layer of the Internet. More than 70% of users are now making their transactions on a Google search result page versus visiting a clients website. Let's just look at what GMB has added in 2018 alone: Uploading Videos to GMB

Posts moved to the top on Mobile

Product Posts

Offer Posts

Call CTA in Posts

GMB Description Field

Services

GMB Partner Program

GMB Agency Dashboard

Review Reply Email of Owner Responses

Aggregated Posts Insights

Keyword Queries Insights

Subjective Attributes in Insights

And more!



Citations, links, and other foundational tactics are still necessary, but hands down GMB is where is it at. Blake Denman, RicketyRoo Inc.: Reviews.

Reviews vs. GMB: You can have everything filled out, great photos & videos, but if the reviews on the GMB listing are overwhelmingly negative, then you're SOL.

Reviews vs. On-site: In most of the industries we work with (across the board, really), people do research before purchasing a product or service. If your overall review "portfolio" is a dumpster fire, well, your on-site is moot.

Reviews vs. Links: You can't build enough quality links to outrank a shitty reputation.

Reviews vs. Behavioral: If your review "portfolio" is inherently negative, the behavior is already set. Brian Barwig, AttorneySync: Links. They have the biggest bang right now. It's hard to get links, but when you do, it is worth it. Brian Smith, Rio SEO: Google My Business would be de facto area to focus on, based on receiving the highest share of search visibility and impressions when you look at search discoverability and how consumers find local businesses. Carrie Hill, Ignitor Digital Marketing, Inc.: Oh wow, this is a hard one because there are so many moving pieces. I think I'd worry about reviews if I had to pick only ONE thing - because the byproduct of a really great review profile is happy return customers, WOM traffic, unstructured and structured citations/mentions on 3rd party review sites that usually have pretty high domain authority, and getting a complete GMB listing is a one-off that I'd hope would be done anyway — even if it's not sticking to your ONE area requirement. Casey Meraz, Juris Digital: Links — this is also because it will have a positive effect on organic rankings as well. Colan Nielson, Sterling Sky: I'd have to go with reviews. Reviews have become so much more important over the last few years and this trend is not going to change any time soon. Google knows this and although their review filter is not great at catching spam reviews they are going to continue to improve this and make reviews an increasingly larger component of the local algorithm. Conrad Saam, Mockingbird Marketing: Links. One thing we see across the board is websites with a strong backlink profile picking up traction and taking off. Cori Graft, Seer Interactive: This is tough to answer because I think the trends are moving toward a place where you CAN'T just pick one to focus on. If I HAD to pick one I would aim to improve behavioral signals... see response below re: future of Google. Dan Leibson, Local SEO Guide: I would prioritize winning budget as this seems like a huge missed opportunity. Only focusing on one of these would be a poor decision for most clients. Search is client/market specific. Investing in citations for a search-mature, 500-location business is likely a giant waste of money, but might actually be a cost-effective strategy for an SMB. On the flip side, on-page site optimizations and complicated feature deployment may be easy for a large brand (please point me in that prospect’s direction). While an SMB might not even have any resource to engage in website development. Both examples above have weaknesses that need to be addressed, and likely strengths that need to be supported. Dana DiTomaso, Kick Point: Reviews. Good reviews bring more business, which then affects everything else. (Except GMB I guess, but you'll get Q&A etc. from that!)

David Mihm, ThriveHive / Tidings: Oof. This question totally depends on the competitiveness of the market and what a business has already done to date. For businesses that are just getting started with SEO, I'd 100% start with GMB. Google has released so many rich features in the last 18 months that there's a ton you can do in Google My Business alone, even if all that ends up doing is increasing your conversion rate from branded searches.



For more competitive markets it'd be a combination of reviews and behavioral signals.



No question that links still matter today, but as we see fewer and fewer website results and more and more Knowledge Panels, I think they're a shorter-term tactic in terms of the timespan of ROI. David Wallace, Search Rank: The most important thing for local search in my opinion is a verified and complete GMB listing, which of course is needed in the first place and this followed by making sure business is represented across all major data sources with complete and matching information (NAP, categories, etc.). Everything else such as reviews, citations, inbound links, and the like are complementary to these foundational strategies. Dev Basu, Powered By Search: We've always believed that review velocity is a defensible moat for any of the enterprise clients we work with. It's very hard for competitors to catch up to a brand that has made getting reviews in an above-board manner a top priority. Eric Rohrback, RedShift: That's a hard question. It's tough to get links without good content, but you can't get great traffic without links. If you have great content but no one knows about it, does it even matter?



If I had to pick only one (and follow the rules of this question), then I would focus more effort on links. Greg Gifford, DealerOn: Onsite - in most cases, really awesome localized content makes more of a difference. Links might make a site rank higher (as a silver bullet tactic), but without awesome content, the site won't convert as well. For our clients, the biggest move we make is creating really useful and locally relevant content. Gyi Tsakalakis, AttorneySync: Assuming you have your table stakes locked down (i.e. GMB, reviews, citations, etc), I'd focus on links, but not just any links. Focus on topically and locally relevant links. Joel Headley, Patient Pop: GMB, but I'd include reviews in that. It is cheap, easy, and gives the highest return for its investment. Joy Hawkins, Sterling Sky: If it’s an industry that struggles with spam (lawyers, locksmiths, garage door, glass repair, etc.), my first strategy is always to go in and wipe out all the listings for competitors that shouldn't be there. It's always amazing to see how many people have fake duplicate listings, fake reviews, listings using virtual offices, etc. that will vanish once you report them. It's an instant win. Lisa Kolb, Acorn Internet Services, Inc.: For the lodging industry specifically, investment in revenue/yield management to optimize your OTA inventory is what is producing the best results in the 3-pack/Maps placement. Marcus Miller, Bowler Hat: Hard to provide a generalized answer here. Where budget is super tight we would always conduct an audit and SWOT analysis to determine where to best direct our efforts. Certainly, getting GMB sorted is so foundationally important that it would always be high on our list. But for the majority of businesses, this again comes back to getting the basics dialed in and then working on authority as the competitive difference maker. Mary Bowling, ignitordigital.com: Links, links, links. IMO nothing is as powerful for ranking as good, relevant links from Google-trusted sites. Mike Blumenthal, GatherUp: This is largely a false choice as the processes take place over time and space that is often not competitive for scarce resources. And the other issue is that every business has different needs and is likely to be in a different location on a continuum. So depending on that I would go in this order:



GMB

Citations

Review plan

Onsite

Links

Behavioral Miriam Ellis, Moz & Solas Web Design: Google has forced us to focus largely on their own local product instead of on local business client websites. I include reviews when referencing GMB, because they are part-and-parcel of that consumer experience. So, for me, if there was only one factor to focus on, it would be full GMB management, including the whole ecosystem of review management. Nick Pierno, Whitespark: On-site. I think it still provides the most potential for attracting, informing, and converting customers to most local businesses. Nyagoslav Zhekov, Whitespark: With sufficient time and budget I would focus predominantly on content strategy. The problem with content strategy is that it is best executed when done in a team together with the business. The business manager knows best what his business can and cannot do, what their clients want or don't want, what the most common questions are and what the best answers to these questions are. With high-quality content, and most importantly relevant content, many other factors come into place naturally — social media mentions, links, and brand mentions. Phil Rozek, Local Visibility System, LLC: Reviews. Reviews are the one part of local SEO you can never exhaust or see diminishing returns on. They’re the one part of your marketing you can always improve, and where you’re never “good enough.” Your GMB, citation, and on-site work taper off after a while. Strictly in terms of big dumb rankings, links matter more than reviews do. However, with links you only need to do better than your competitors — links won’t pay your bills. No customer ever picked a business because of its links.



If I had to pick one goal for you in your review-gathering effort, it would be: how much detail can you get your customers / clients / patients to go into? Search Influence Team, Search Influence: I am teetering between GMB and on-page factors. If forced to choose, I would go with GMB since you can generate a "website" within GMB, although you have minimal impact over the on-page factors.



Reasons:

- In terms of local search, Google is obviously king. I would use their tools to best position my business.

- If the goal is to keep you on Google, using GMB to convert customers makes sense.

- On-page work can help you across a lot of SEO, but if the long term focus is on local search, then you must be providing effective listing information.

- The rest of these factors are only a small part of getting people in front of your listing / site. It makes sense to start here since it has the most visibility in terms of local searchers. Tim Capper, Online Ownership: Onsite, because I could influence behavior, reviews, and attract links.

What are some methods you’re using to try to influence behavioral factors, if any? Andrew Shotland, LocalSEOGuide.com: We have lately been asking our clients to post stuff about the Supreme Court Justice selection process, but that doesn't seem to be flying, so we are pretty much stuck with optimizing title tags, meta descriptions, images and video, adding structured markup, etc. Andy Kuiper, Andy Kuiper Internet Marketing: Trying to get my clients to use GMB Posts, respond appropriately to GMB reviews, and to pay attention to GMB Q&As. Andy Monte, Directive Consulting: We have run some A/B tests that involved tweaking and adjusting GMB titles to improve rankings in the local pack and CTR. While we found that this still works to an extent, in the tests that we ran, we saw an average of a 12-position increase in the local pack, which led to an increase in impressions and page views. However, at the end of the day, manipulating the SERP like this still doesn't work quite as well as quality link building and generating positive reviews. Ben Fisher, Steady Demand: The best thing you can do to influence behavioral factors is simply this: run a great business! If you are amazing at what you do and how you treat your customers, they will leave you a glowing review. If you sponsor things locally, you will get press coverage and links. If you create awesome content, people will link to you and stay on your site longer. Blake Denman, RicketyRoo Inc.: See local brand building above. We're also encouraging clients to host local events. These local events can be educational, fun, partnered events with a local non-profit, etc. Brian Barwig, AttorneySync: CTR, changing titles/meta descriptions if possible. Google likes to write their own for you anyway, though. Brian Smith, Rio SEO: - SERP optimization with further JSON-LD refinements to improve rich results and increase CTRs.

- Adding local events and consumer reviews to decrease dwell time and improve user experience on the GMB landing page. Carrie Hill, Ignitor Digital Marketing, Inc.: Trying to improve the on-site conversion funnel to stop those click backs to the search results. Simplifying the calls to action to get that potential customer into the buying process more clearly and efficiently. Casey Meraz, Juris Digital: With behavioral factors we have tried different things to increase CTR. We take advantage of things like Google Posts. Colan Nielson, Sterling Sky: Anything that influences the way that a business is presented in the SERPs is something that we are focused on. Mainly optimizing page title tags and meta descriptions for CTR. Also, any type of schema that influences the SERPs such as marking up reviews and price range. Conrad Saam, Mockingbird Marketing: Our main strategy towards influencing behavioral factors is providing legitimate, thought-out, well-researched content. When users sense what they're reading is genuine, they tend to stick around. Cori Graft, Seer Interactive: "Behavioral factors" can be positively and negatively influenced by your decision/ability to do one of two things: you can either create a frustrating in-SERP experience for your customers, or you can enhance their browsing experience and encourage them to want to do business with you.



Examples of creating a frustrating in-SERP experience include: listing incomplete or incorrect business information (like not filling in hours of operation), failing to optimize photos, and ignoring important customer questions on Q&A.



Examples of enhancing the experience would be optimizing your photos, taking time to thoughtfully respond to reviews and Q&As, and making a point to actively communicate with your customers through Posts or Messages. All of these relatively small actions send the signal that you actually care about your customers' experience.



We've been utilizing Google Posts regularly, testing messaging there and in Ads to get data around what people engage with most. Also, we mine reviews for common themes and update title tags / landing pages using those insights to improve click-through rate and on-site dwell time. Dan Leibson, Local SEO Guide: We are really focused on targeting content to particular parts of the funnel. So for various pages, we are pretty concerned about the meta information, not just for traditional SEO purposes, but to influence the click as well.



Also, in terms of general content strategy, I'm a big believer in making sure the topics that pages are ranking for are discussed there in a meaningful way. Bounce rate may not be a "ranking factor" but it can tell you if you have a page/user fit. If you don't, odds are that eventually Google won't want you to be ranking there either. Dana DiTomaso, Kick Point: Asking people to Google the business instead of giving the website name. Asking for reviews. Sending out appointment invites with the proper business address in the location field which (we think) queries the Maps API and may be a positive behavioral signal.

David Mihm, ThriveHive / Tidings: The one that's potentially easiest to influence is CTR. Making my Knowledge Panel as rich as possible — with amazing photos, menu links, Posts, and anything Google is making available to me via Google My Business to increase searcher engagement with my Knowledge Panel — seems like a no-brainer.



Another method that’s less easy to implement would be review-related. Those gold stars really draw eyeballs and index fingers. Acquiring more Google reviews and marking up first party reviews with Schema on my own website to increase CTR would also be at the top of my list.



I'd also think about things like embedding links to get directions on my business's Knowledge Panel in Google Maps on communications like appointment reminders or order notifications, or encouraging prospective customers to "search for our reviews on Google" as a means of earning more branded searches. David Wallace, Search Rank: We have experimented with offering "incentives" within title tags of web pages to increase CTR as well as consulting clients on various ways to generate more positive reviews across Yelp, Google, Facebook, and other sites that accept consumer reviews. Dev Basu, Powered By Search: We’ve seen that anything we can do to increase the volume of business name searches for the business name has yielded great results. This includes tests such as offline advertising and asking the user to Google the business name (via radio or print), which engineered CTR increases. Eric Rohrback, RedShift: Review GSC and GA to identify opportunity pages that are under-performing. Look for high impressions, low clicks, but good time on page and/or conversions. Change the title tag & description to try and drive a better click-through rate. Greg Gifford, DealerOn: Definitely Google Posts and Q&A. We're seeing tons of user engagement with both, and it seems that either the additional dwell time on the GMB features or the extra interaction is really making a difference for our clients. Gyi Tsakalakis, AttorneySync: Anything that helps listings stand out or screams “click on me.” Here's a short list: structured data that generates snippets (i.e. reviews), GMB enhancements (i.e. maximizing hours, reviews, posts, emoji), and compelling page titles and meta descriptions (i.e. putting offers in descriptions). Joel Headley, Patient Pop: Check-in offers via Yelp. Joy Hawkins, Sterling Sky: Reviews and schema. Adding schema to the website that actually influences the way the website appears in the search results (review stars, price range fields, etc.) is a great way to increase CTR. I'm also obsessed with redoing title tags to optimize for CTR. Lisa Kolb, Acorn Internet Services, Inc.: We are working with our industry to educate the traveling public so they understand the difference between a direct booking and one made using an OTA. Our clients are consistently reporting that travelers are confused about where they are making their bookings. Travelers often believe they have booked directly with the property, when indeed they have booked through an OTA. Cancellation policies, refunds, and modifications become quite difficult and frustrating for both parties when the traveler believes it is the property's responsibility to make these changes, when in reality they have no control and the traveler must go back to the OTA for resolution. Our clients are beginning to share information when they run into these types of issues with their traveling public. Marcus Miller, Bowler Hat: Just doing good marketing. As SEOs, we are really just delivering advertising on search engines. So understanding the business and ensuring we are doing good marketing and not just good SEO is important. Don't just optimize your page titles and meta descriptions for SEO. Optimize them for the wants and needs of the target audience and that drives clicks (and almost certainly helps your SEO as well). I am also big on ensuring the SEO is aligned with other marketing. I find using more traditional advertising to drive those first clicks and then utilizing low-cost tactics like remarketing can work well in building a brand. This all helps with your organic in a roundabout way. Mary Bowling, ignitordigital.com: 1. Tell people to search for a business on Google to get a coupon/discount/add-on that you're offering via Google Posts on your Local Knowledge Panel.

2. Use all the links that are available in the Local Knowledge Panel. Then, make sure the landing pages for those links really shine and encourage conversions.

3. Really step up the game on photos and videos in your Local Knowledge Panel. A cover photo needs to convey as much information as possible in an engaging way. Mike Blumenthal, GatherUp: As you know, I have spent the last year thinking about how improvements to the visual aspects of the search results — rich snippets and images — can improve conversions. From where I sit, getting one more person to engage with your listing because your listing "looks best" creates a virtuous cycle with Google's behavioral signals. Miriam Ellis, Moz & Solas Web Design: I would cite review management as most critical to influencing both on-and-offline consumer behavior. Searchers dwell for minutes (hours?) at a time on both positive and negative reviews. They click on them. They even share them socially. They definitely utilize reviews to inform their buyer's journey. So, reviews remain front-and-center for me this year, as they have for several years. Nick Pierno, Whitespark: - Punchy/descriptive/enticing (non-target) words in title tags (e.g. San Francisco's Reputable Roofers)

- Emojis in GMB name :)

- Using GMB features (Posts, descriptions, services, appointment URLs, etc.)

- Enticing landing pages that users don't immediately ditch because they don't see answers, compelling information, or path forward.

Phil Rozek, Local Visibility System, LLC: 1. Writing effective stuff, in as many areas of my clients’ sites as possible. See my 2017 post called “Secret Weapon of Effective Local SEO: Wordsmithing.”

2. Piling on the reviews, on a variety of sites, over the long haul.

3. Mouseflow, Hotjar, or CrazyEgg.

4. Embedding Google Maps (of the business, not of the generic address) on clients’ sites, where appropriate, to encourage lookups of driving directions.

5. Spam patrol. If competitors rank well artificially, you don’t want them also to get extra click-through artificially. Neutralizing that advantage can make your stock rise a little. Search Influence Team, Search Influence: - Constant evaluation of landing page effectiveness.

- Understanding the impact of mobile-first indexing and mobile search (voice search as well) as a whole. It is less about trying to influence behavioral factors, but rather trying to understand them.



Comments about where you see Google headed in the future: Adam Dorfman, Reputation.com: Oh boy. No comment for this local survey but I just wrote a blog post for the Reputation.com website that should go up next week on Google's 20th anniversary announcement. In short, it's the same story of Google trying to control all information people require whether they are actively looking for it or not. Andrew Shotland, LocalSEOGuide.com: It's pretty clear that Google is going to continue to increase the time searchers spend within Google's systems at the expense of sending them to your site. The good news for you is that Google is really great at building incredibly complex systems that tend to break. So on the one hand, you've got SkyNet seemingly going sentient. On the other hand, SkyNet seems less intent on destroying humanity than it is on replacing our client's GMB photos with cat pictures. In SEO, we are all John Connors. Andy Kuiper, Andy Kuiper Internet Marketing: I think Google is trying to get SMBs comfortable with using the GMB backend. I see a future where SMBs will be using a GMB app every day — for dealing with leads, handling appointments, responding to reviews and Q&As... and in the not-so-distant future, perhaps even handling financial transactions via the app. Andy Monte, Directive Consulting: Overall, Google seems to be adding more value and authority to factors that aren't in our control such as links, reviews, and user engagement metrics. I'm sure this stems from cracking down on spammy SEO tactics, but nevertheless, this is going to affect the SERP and in turn, change the way that we approach clients with on-page tactics.



Aside from that, Ads and Featured Snippets are becoming more and more prevalent in the local search landscape, so as SEOs, we can no longer silo our efforts into "SEO" and "PPC," but need to do a better job of creating a cohesive digital marketing strategy for our clients that leverage both the organic and paid channels to achieve our goals. Ben Fisher, Steady Demand: Becoming not as link-dependent:

Google has been transitioning away from links being a key determining factor since 2013 to a more semantic/trust/KP approach. Since they are a mobile-first company and moving more toward the single-answer solution, Google has been developing ranking factors that are not so link dependent. Semantic content, in-store visits/transactions, and third-party validation are much more important. Even the website I feel in time will become less important as it is one of the weaker trustworthy sources.



Emphasis on Google My Business:

I would not be surprised if we see the evolution of GMB accelerating. It is feasible that we will see more options come to businesses that continue to enhance the transactional layer that Google has become. Will we see more booking/appointment options come to service-based businesses? Tighter integrations into other Google products? Posts will continue to grow with new features. User-generated content like Q&A will become more frequent.



Greater focus on local:

Google's focus has always been answering a user’s question directly on the SERP. With the continued rise of mobile and even digital assistants (which is still wonky and young), we are moving closer to a place where there will be little-to-no friction for a user to find an answer and make a transaction. Local plays a major role in this. Get a ticket for movies, make an appointment, purchase a product for retail, book a table for restaurants, and get a quote for home services, see a local business inventory. Blake Denman, RicketyRoo Inc.: More features rolled out to Google My Business. More importance on the sentiment, reviewer authority, and words associated inside of reviews to influence ranking. Links are still going to be important, but businesses should focus on topical or locally relevant websites. Businesses should also focus more and more on structured data. Brian Barwig, AttorneySync: Trying to get away from links but that is going to be a while. Brian Smith, Rio SEO: Google continues to minimize the user's time spent on a brand's/company's website. In general, Google seeks to provide all aspects of what a consumer needs to know about a local business by adding an array of information into its Knowledge Panel for users to consume.



These moves are all great for user experience, but it presents new challenges to the modern day brand marketer on how you set yourself apart from the stable of competition that operates within your local market.



Personalization factors on a business's website become even more critical moving forward, as Google My Business becomes a new homepage for your business. Items like business events, appointment bookings, 1st party customer reviews, and ordering become more of a mainstay instead of leading edge within the business vertical you serve. Carrie Hill, Ignitor Digital Marketing, Inc.: I think Google is going to continue to push things they can monetize. LSAs will become more widespread and prominent, taking over the GMB like they do for hotels and a few other niches is going to happen in more and more categories. Casey Meraz, Juris Digital: I hope Google starts really putting more effort into combating spam in local results and specifically starts being more strict with businesses that continually keyword stuff.



I don't think there is any doubt that we will see more monetization of local results over the next few years. Colan Nielson, Sterling Sky: Google will continue to add features to the SERPs that will eventually make it pointless to leave Google to learn more about a business and contact a business via their website. In other words, business owners will need to invest a significant amount of effort optimizing their "Google Homepage" and less emphasis on their actual website. Conrad Saam, Mockingbird Marketing: If the trend continues, Google will keep making way for ads and push down organic results. Although this can only go so far, since Google must on some level appreciate the importance of balancing organic and paid search results to keep user trust. Cori Graft, Seer Interactive: Nearly all of Google's recent updates to Maps and GMB features are focused on getting people to interact more and communicate better with businesses through listings and Search. Q&A, updates to their Reviews guidelines, Messaging, User-Submitted Attributes, Posts, "Popular Times"... all of these features aim to accomplish the same general goal: to give consumers a more direct way to make informed decisions about where to visit through Search. I'm not convinced that the algorithm is as advanced as we SEOs like to think it is with regard to actually processing these behavioral signals, but I believe that based on Google's recent feature releases, it will be soon enough.



At the end of the day, Google wants to help its users have the best possible experience. I believe businesses who take advantage of these opportunities to connect with customers, answer their questions, and truly build a connection will be rewarded in Search and IRL. Dan Leibson, Local SEO Guide: As Google held their 20th anniversary event, they made it clear that they are “all in” on the Knowledge Graph. More and more, Google wants to be able to provide the answer to questions. While that may not have the most direct impact on local businesses and traditional local search just yet, I'm sure it will. Successful businesses can tailor their content strategy to how Google is thinking about search. For instance, if Google isn't showing local sites for the top-of-funnel informational searches, it might not be worth it to invest in that type of content to fuel your search traffic growth. Dana DiTomaso, Kick Point: More behavior signals, less focus on on-page optimization. GMB will become the entity for the business with the website a secondary, supplemental piece.

David Mihm, ThriveHive / Tidings: I continue to see engagement as the driving factor of rankings moving forward, and entity authority as the concept that Google is trying to mirror in its rankings.



With more than 50% of all mobile searches not resulting in a website click-through (and a huge chunk of those being local searches) Google simply has to rely on signals outside of traditional websites and links to form the basis of an effective algorithm. It knows more and more about so many of us — the brands we search for, whose newsletters we read, videos we watch on YouTube, whose locations we call for reservations, and visit in person with our location-enabled phones.



Whether or not those brands are being rewarded on an individual search basis via personalization (beyond the obvious proximity factor) I'm not so sure. But in aggregate, if I'm Google, I'm looking for any signal that indicates the popularity of a given entity — combined with content semantically related to what someone is searching for — and shooting the entities that win those signals up to the top of my SERP. David Wallace, Search Rank: Unfortunately, the one thing I see Google continuing to try to do is to keep users on their site by providing searchers answers to their queries without ever leaving Google. This is done of course by Google scraping content from other websites and displaying search results so that the searcher does not need to visit the website the content is pulled from. This presents a continuous challenge for online marketers who are looking for ways to drive traffic to their websites. Dev Basu, Powered By Search: Paid Search taking up more virtual real estate than ever before, it's high time for brands to integrate their Organic and Paid Local Search. A lot of our clients are coming to us for a holistic approach to end-to-end enterprise local search. One of the areas we're focusing on is doing all we can to speed up the customer experience on mobile. Eric Rohrback, RedShift: Better understanding of our content and context of our content (see: Google Duplex). Greg Gifford, DealerOn: I think we're going to see more of the "GMB is your new home page" direction. I think Google is going to put more and more value on showing as much as they can in the Knowledge Panel and SERP to keep users on Google. I think many small local businesses will end up with more conversions from their KP than from their website. Gyi Tsakalakis, AttorneySync: Where I hope Google is headed: The most basic spam is less and less effective (particularly keyword-stuffing the business name field). Where I see Google headed: Ads. More ads in local packs. More types of local / SMB ad types. I'm with Blumenthal and Mihm — Google wants to be the transaction layer of the web. Joel Headley, Patient Pop: Google wants the online marketing experience to be end-to-end performed on their platform where awareness, discovery, and ultimately conversion can all happen via Google products. Joy Hawkins, Sterling Sky: I expect Google to continue launching more features for Google Posts and would predict that they will start playing more into ranking in the future than they do currently. I also expect that 3-pack ads are here to stay and would be surprised if Google doesn't continue to launch Local Services ads in more countries and industries in 2019. Lisa Kolb, Acorn Internet Services, Inc.: Google continues to institute options, products and services that over time have incrementally reduced the ability for an individual lodging property to sell rooms directly via Google’s Search products. For years, we have seen Google continue to make efforts to keep users on their platform for longer and longer periods of time. The longer a potential guest stays on a Google-controlled display, the more likely they will book with a Google affiliate or Google Hotel Ads directly, and in return, Google will receive a fee from that third party. Google wants to be the end-all for any online sales. Marcus Miller, Bowler Hat: In the small business space, my belief is that Google will continue to try and give users what they need without having to move on to a business’s website: information, messaging, and contact details. This works well for users in a hurry and ensures Google keeps the user in their ecosystem as long as possible. Mary Bowling, ignitordigital.com: Google has figured out many ways to algorithmically reward what it understands to be the best businesses of their type within any given market area. Going forward, the most powerful ranking strategy will be to actually become one of those best businesses and to ensure Google knows about it. Mike Blumenthal, GatherUp: From where I sit, with the advent of mobile first indexing, Google is moving more and more into gathering information for their Knowledge Graph. Local is the leading edge of that effort. The KG is considerably more flexible and looks further afield for information about a local entity. More and more results will include various aspect of the Knowledge Graph and the differences between local ranking and organic ranking will increase. Miriam Ellis, Moz & Solas Web Design: Savvy local businesses will stop viewing Google as their benefactor and rightly view them as their top competitor. It's a competitor that sometimes does you favors (sends you phone calls, leads, traffic, makes your good reputation highly visible to the consumer public, etc.), but it's also a competitor that wants to position itself between your business and every dollar it earns, while often failing to meet basic standards of protecting your brand from illegal/irresponsible damage. What other entity, apart from Amazon, has this economic power?



So, yes, you have to play in Google's ballpark, but anything you can do to diversify beyond the game this matchless competitor is playing is a win for your business. Focus on your real-world relationships as a community resource and benefactor. Build reputation via WOMM. Build that email list. Join an independent local business alliance and strengthen your local economy. Investigate co-ops, unions, and other opportunities that actually have your community's welfare at heart. Participate as much as possible at a local level, off the web, while you continue to devote the necessary resources to digital marketing. You can have it both ways, and that's good news! Nick Pierno, Whitespark: Obviously Google continues to increasingly satisfy users' needs without their needing to leave the SERPs. I expect this effort to continue. They'll also continue trying to make Google Ads more accessible (and appealing) for small/local businesses. Nyagoslav Zhekov, Whitespark: Google seems to be headed (and has been headed for a while now) towards monetization of as much search results real estate as possible. The latest algorithm update, for instance, appears to have made videos (especially videos on YouTube) a lot more prominent in local search results, and probably in general organic search results, too. The direct implication is that Google gets one more of its properties very high and very visibly in the organic (non-paid) search results. Phil Rozek, Local Visibility System, LLC: Court. Search Influence Team, Search Influence: As I mentioned above, since selling ads is their game, it follows that they want to keep you on the page as long as possible. The impacts felt on GMB are all actions to aim for this goal, in my opinion. Tim Capper, Online Ownership: Hyperlocal, trying to keep users within Google.

Comments about anything else you’d like the readers of this survey to know: Andrew Shotland, LocalSEOGuide.com:

At our company, we like to say "SEO is always the lowest priority, until it's not." The amazing thing is that we find over and over again that "Local SEO" is often an even lower priority than its non-local versions. That means there is incredible opportunity for everyone — large and mid-sized brands are likely underinvesting in Local SEO — go ask any corporate digital manager about the "local stores, offices, etc." and you'll likely get a "what a hassle" eyeroll — meaning they have a lot of upside if they ever can actually focus on this stuff, while smaller, truly local businesses can run rings around these bigger players if they focus on it. Andy Kuiper, Andy Kuiper Internet Marketing: Buckle up and get familiar with the GMB page — change is the new normal. Andy Monte, Directive Consulting: GMB Posts are definitely something to look into for your local clients if you haven't already! They can be a great way to not only increase user engagement with your GMB listing, but you can even leverage them as a great call-to-action to increase conversions! Ben Fisher, Steady Demand: Focus on the BIG picture.

Try to not think about ranking in one-dimensional terms. The local algorithm is constantly changing based on data received from multiple sources, most of which are user-generated. You cannot manipulate how many calls are generated, how many engagements a GMB listing will get, how a user will rate their experience, or if that user will make a purchase. There are so many invisible signals that Google collects, and once in a while, we get to see what they are, like with subjective attributes.



By focusing on the bigger picture if an entity has a great site, great local content, an amazing customer experience, an engaged social presence, with a focus on the pre and post-sale experience a business can find local success.



Try to not be so dependent on SaaS apps to do all your work.

Growing a business is not an easy task. For most agencies you are working in your business and not on your business, so trying to automate tasks is one way to grow. But, this is not always the best approach to your client's success. Take the time to write a great GMB Post, find a good partner for citations that will look at things manually, try to manually update social media posts and create a real sense of authority /community. Build a manual link building campaign or partner with someone you trust that specializes. Even with reviews, while apps like GatherUp are fantastic, encouraging your clients to ask for reviews at the time of service cannot be beat.



Avoid the "may as well join them" mentality.

I know this part is hard, especially with spam being so prevalent. As a Google My Business Expert (TC) I see it every day where someone is frustrated because they are sticking to the guidelines and the competition is outranking them. Don't buy fake reviews, don't keyword stuff your listing, and report spammy competitors via the support channel that Google has! Remember when, back in the early 2000s, everyone was buying links and the industry had a herd mentality of "if you can’t beat them, may as well join them"? Look what happened there... manual actions! History will repeat itself. It may not be this year or even a few years from now, but you can bet that it will happen again, and remember, Google never discards any data

Blake Denman, RicketyRoo Inc.: Focus on building a great local brand.

Brian Smith, Rio SEO: User-generated content from customer reviews are critical for long-tailed search rankings and providing additional visibility throughout the consumer search discovery process.



More importantly, reviews have become more mainstream for consumers to use to evaluate a prospective business and determine if they want to visit that establishment.



Businesses need to actively manage, respond, and cultivate their customer reviews now more than ever because people use them as a trusted source and may even decide not to transact with your business based on something they read online. Carrie Hill, Ignitor Digital Marketing, Inc.: I always encourage our clients to move the needle with things that make money, and to stop chasing the algorithm. Use your email lists for email marketing, clean up your NAP and improve your on-site content and optimization. Mark things up that make sense and make sure you're improving your review profile. These are all things that make money and ALSO help with rankings. Casey Meraz, Juris Digital: In the legal field, spam is running wild. We now have seen a huge influx of law firms changing their legal business names to locally relevant keywords like "Florida Personal Injury Lawyer.” Sadly, this tactic works all too well right now and it's important to report these as spam as you come across them.

Conrad Saam, Mockingbird Marketing: The biggest change in the local game in the legal vertical where we play is the gross abundance of local spam: fake locations, fake companies, fake marketing, fake addresses, and fake law firms. For a highly regulated industry that tries to self-police its own marketing to counter the ambulance-chasing stereotype, I continue to find this amazing. We spend roughly 15% of our clients' collective budgets counteracting map spam. One example was a "law firm" with one lawyer I found who had 60 offices spread across the entire northeastern seaboard. Cori Graft, Seer Interactive: Answers to this survey are our observations and opinions of the local search industry as a whole. The best and only reliable way for YOU to figure out what works best for your own business / your clients / your industry is to test things out yourselves (and please publish your findings so we can all learn together)! Dan Leibson, Local SEO Guide: Best practices often aren't. Since local search is highly fragmented, make sure you focus on your vertical and market. Dana DiTomaso, Kick Point: We find that improvements come in slow, gradual increments and then one day you'll have a big jump. We're not sure how widespread this is but it seems confined to local pack results — we don't see the same jumps in organic results. We're also seeing companies with frankly terrible websites (at a Weebly subdomain, for example) ranking in competitive local packs because they have great reviews, posts, and a generally active listing.

David Mihm, ThriveHive / Tidings: Perhaps counterintuitively, I rated citations as holding substantial value for organic search this year. This shouldn't be taken to mean citations provided by typical listing services, though. Here I mean organic brand mentions (unstructured citations) which I see holding increased value. I see Google getting better and better at associating semantic themes with entities in the Knowledge Graph, outside of the link graph. So if you're a recognizable brand (as opposed to just "keyword in city") I do believe you'll see some lift from these mentions even within organic results. David Wallace, Search Rank: If you have a local business, focus on those strategies and tactics that will help to rank well in the local pack. Ranking organically is getting more difficult all the time with Google's Knowledge Graph and their willingness to scrap and display content from other sites directly in the SERPs. For localized organic listings, think more along the lines of developing content or optimizing existing content in a way that answers searcher’s queries. It is possible that you just might show up in the Knowledge Graph. Dev Basu, Powered By Search: Google is largely crawling local attributes on brand landing pages so that they can surface them natively in the search results pages. They want to control the entire process, from discovery to transaction. It's their walled-garden, so competitive brands should evolve to play the game where the puck is headed. Eric Rohrback, RedShift: Build a brand, not just a website. Branded searches result from being well known in the local community, and being known as a great business to work with. Greg Gifford, DealerOn: Posts and Q&A are really amazing, and the vast majority of businesses don't even know they exist. Everyone should start using both, become familiar, and start kicking ass with them. Gyi Tsakalakis, AttorneySync: I'm proud to contribute to this survey and think it's very valuable. However, I encourage you to experiment with various factors for yourself. Different factors tend to work better and worse for a variety of businesses and locations. Think of the ways that we distinguish local businesses from one another in real-life. Find ways to send signals to search engines that reflect that decision-making. Do what your competitors can't! Joel Headley, Patient Pop: Despite the interface changes, the same things will continue to determine rank and relevance. Whether it is a 'story' or a response from voice search, onsite and link/citation signals will determine the relevance and prominence of a site's content to be returned in those surfaces. Joy Hawkins, Sterling Sky: I laughed when "Keyword Stuffing in GMB Business Name" came up as a negative factor option. In my experience, nothing has been further from the truth. People who keyword stuff in their business name have a [stupid] ranking advantage and there is no real ranking penalty even if they get caught. Lisa Kolb, Acorn Internet Services, Inc.: Google does not treat lodging businesses as it does other types of businesses when it comes to local placement. Lodging properties are not provided the same opportunities in their GMB (Google My Business) accounts. Non-lodging businesses are provided a direct link to their website from the Local 3-pack and maps results. Lodging properties are denied that opportunity. In addition, lodging businesses are restrained from many of the GMB features such as sharing posts, adding a business description (Google provides it for them), and a link to book directly with their property. Instead, when searching for a lodging property, Google displays their OTA options along with any of the Google Hotel Finder participants. On April 1, 2016, our industry went from being able to follow the standard Google Local Guidelines for local placement to having to pay-to-play in order to be seen in a similar ranking position. This puts local SEOs in the travel space in a unique position, as we cannot rely on the traditional techniques used in the past. Marcus Miller, Bowler Hat: In the UK, local search has become more competitive in the last few years. The traditional ranking factors have caught up -- where we could get great results without authority-building tactics a few years ago, we now need to look at a well-rounded approach to generate results. Mary Bowling, ignitordigital.com: Local SEO has changed drastically over the past 3 years and much of the advice given prior to 2015 has as much potential to harm as to help rankings. Make sure you are following the move to quality-over-quantity in all things involving local search: links, citations, content, reviews, etc.

Miriam Ellis, Moz & Solas Web Design: I love Local Search Ranking Factors and have been a participant since its inception. One thin