The Basics on Google Local Algorithm

15 August 2017

Being at the top of Google search results page has been one of the goals of various businesses ever since the advent of the search engine giant. Landing the top ranking spot can help draw traffic to your page and increase the effectiveness of your website.

Many have tried to breakdown the factors that affect Google ranking and a study in 2016 has made an analysis of the various factors that Google use in its rankings. The study determined which of the different factors correlate either positively or negatively with local rankings in the Google search results page. This study is very helpful in guiding businesses when prioritizing for their local SEO plans.

Contents

1 The Factors that Affect Google Rankings
2 Going Forward With Google & amp; The Search Engines

The Factors that Affect Google Rankings

1. Website

The use of keywords and the number of words on a page actually have a huge impact on the rankings. Location pages with a lot of information written have a tendency to fare better than those with less content. Put quality information on your website on different broad topics to help draw traffic towards your site. Crafting a quality small business website design is crucial from the start and best to hire a professional.

2. Links

Backlinks affect your local rankings. In fact, it has the most positive correlation with good rankings. The infamous Toolbar PageRank is no longer a current tool but there are many other tools similar to the toolbar that can gauge the quality of a site. The study has shown that sites with older links are doing better than the newer ones.

3. Google My Business

Having good reviews and verified information about your business, as well as photos of your location and products, all contributed to stronger rankings. It can be due to the reliable information that these sites have attracted more interaction with the searchers. Therefore, make sure that in every channel you have, you put in their the basic information about your business. Lastly, revamp your Google My Business pages because it also helps immensely in supplying information.

4. Citations

One of the surprising findings of the study is that citations did not seem to correlate with positive local rankings. However, the researchers have pointed out that citations do help if the business or website is at its foundation stage. But once the groundwork has been laid down and all the citations have been made, further citing will not make any difference.

5. Surprises

The study had a huge surprise when the researchers found out that the “City & State” information in the Google My Business page does not have any correlation with positive ranking. Therefore, geotargeting should not be all the craze. Keywords, however, do help.

Going Forward With Google & amp; The Search Engines

Knowing what are the factors when Google ranks pages and which factor to prioritize will help you be more efficient and effective. In sum, if you are a new player in the business, lay down your citations as fast and as effectively as you can and then move on to getting backlinks, especially in competitive markets.

Having your business have a solid SEO mechanism will help you entice a larger audience, promote your products effectively, and open your business to new opportunities.

Read also:

Avoid These 5 Mistakes Before Starting An SEO

Ariana Smith

I enjoy writing and I write quality guest posts on topics of my interest and passion. I have been doing this since my college days. My special interests are in health, fitness, food and following the latest trends in these areas. I am an editor at Content Rally.

View all posts

The Top 3 Benefits Of Using A White Label Link Building Service

If you're unfamiliar with white label services, they are a turnkey solution that allows you to outsource and rebrand services as your own. In the case of link building, a white-label service means that you can have someone else do the heavy lifting while you focus on other parts of your business. When you outsource link building to a white-label service, you can save significant money. The cost of hiring in-house link builders can be high, and it can be challenging to find quality link builders. Link building can be time-consuming, but when you outsource it to a white-label service, you can free up your time to focus on other parts of your business. Keep reading to learn more about white label link building. What Are The Top Benefits Of White-Label Link Building? When you're looking to get your website the links it needs to rank higher, there are a few options available to you. You can do all the link-building yourself, hire an individual freelancer, or use a white-label link-building service. If you're looking for the best possible results, using a white-label link-building service is the way to go. Here are three benefits of doing so: Quality links: One of the most significant benefits of using a white-label link-building solution is that you'll get access to high-quality links. These links come from reputable websites with high domain authority, which will help your website rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs). Not only will this increase traffic to your website, but it will also help improve your brand's reputation and credibility online. Increased efficiency Using a white-label link-building service saves time and energy. Rather than spending hours researching potential links and contacting web admins individually to request them, white-label link-building services will take care of all of that for you. This leaves you free to focus on other aspects of your business, such as content creation or marketing, while still seeing improved search engine rankings and more website traffic. Cost-effective solution Using a white-label link-building service is often more cost-effective than hiring an individual freelancer or doing all the work yourself. This is because most quality services offer packages that include various links, as well as regular tracking and reporting so that you can see how your website's SEO is progressing over time. This allows you to get better results for less money than if you were to try and do everything yourself. What Are Backlinks? White-label services offer high-quality links because they have access to a large pool of websites and domains that they can use to create links. This increases the diversity of your backlinks, which can help you rank higher in search engines. Backlinks are links from other websites that lead to your website. They are essential because they are one of the main ways search engines determine a website's rank. The more backlinks a website has, the higher it will rank on SERPs. Why Are Backlinks Important? There are a few reasons why backlinks are so important. Backlinks are a direct measure of a website's popularity. The more backlinks a website has, the more popular it is. They are also a significant factor in how a website is ranked. The higher a website ranks, the more likely it is to be found by potential customers. Finally, backlinks are a source of referral traffic. This traffic can be valuable because it often comes from people who are already interested in a website's products or services. When you outsource your link building to a professional service, they will be able to help you build links more quickly and consistently than if you were to attempt to do it yourself. This increased velocity will result in better rankings and more stable SERPs as your links continue to grow in strength. Additionally, outsourcing your link-building will give your website an immediate boost in authority which can help improve all other aspects of your online marketing efforts. Read Also: Best Monthly SEO package for 2020How to Monitor the SEO Health of Your Website?The Importance of SEO Based Digital Marketing Services

SEO Consulting Price: The Average Cost of SEO Services in 2021

As more and more people purchase online for safety and convenience, it's no wonder why search engine optimization or SEO is becoming popular. The internet is growing fast, and ranking high on search engines like Google is now more important than ever. If you're searching for an SEO agency to trust with your website optimization, you must first get familiar with what is an SEO consultant or specialist. Before you delve into the price, check what SEO services you can get from your investment. What Is an SEO Consultant? A "consultant" is an expert in optimizing websites for search engines. They're paid to give advice on how you can get higher rankings, more targeted traffic, and more profits for your business. If it's your first time and you just want to try things out, try to look for an SEO consulting price with a "no strings attached" monthly agreement. SEO Costs and Pricing SEO pricing is messy and all over the place. How much SEO packages cost depends on their payment model. But on average, the cost in 2021 ranges from $5,000 to 30,000 for every project, $750 to $2,000 monthly, or $80 to $200 hourly. According to Ahrefs' SEO Industry Statistics, the most popular pricing tear for monthly retainers is $501 to $1,000 per month. A retainer package is a recurring pricing agreement that makes it easier for an agency to target long-term digital marketing goals. It's ideal pricing to make consistent progress towards your marketing goals while optimizing your marketing budget. Pricing Models Whether you avail of an affordable monthly retainer SEO from another country or a local SEO agency, there are different SEO pricing models you can choose from. Here are the most common: a. Packages If you simply want a specific number of links or a one-time SEO audit, getting a package may work. For business people who don't have any background in search engine marketing, SEO agencies charge and offer packages like Bronze, Silver, and Gold for clients to choose from and pass all the work to them. Packages are a convenient way for SEO agencies to get into a process and work out a client's profit margins. However, remember that not all packages are tailor-fit to improve your website's online visibility. you may also like: Best Monthly SEO package for 2020 b. Monthly Plans Many agencies and consultants offer monthly retainer contracts to have enough time to develop the best SEO campaign for your business without being constrained. SEO is a long-term process that impacts your website's performance, so you can't expect to see significant changes overnight. A monthly retainer lets an SEO specialist strategize several months in advance, reflect on the work done and the results, then progress at least monthly. This type of SEO pricing focuses on producing results rather than delivering a certain amount of work each month. You can ensure that your partner SEO company always works on what will provide the greatest return on investment than on a mere number of backlinks. c. Hourly Rates If you are looking to pay per hour, it may be wise to hire a consultant instead to perform the SEO audit. Then, you can pay hourly rates for specific SEO services needed by your website. However, if you need immediate results with a website with little existing exposure, you can supplement your SEO efforts with paid advertising, like a Google Ads campaign. Don't fret. If your budget allows you only to employ SEO services per hour, try to talk to a consultant first and see if they can work around your budget. How Much Should You Pay? As you may have noticed, SEO services cost runs on different ranges. To help you find the number of what to expect to pay, ask yourself these questions. 1. What's your goal? A small business website won't need as much work as one from a big corporation. If you have a small business and just want to start an ongoing SEO in-house, an hourly consultant or per project price may be all you need. However, if you want a more effective, ongoing strategy, a monthly or yearly plan is more cost-effective. 2. What's your budget? For a starting business, you probably don't have room in your budget for full-service digital marketing. But still, if you want to grow your business, SEO is one of the important things to consider. You can start working with a part-time expert, per project, or a basic package from an agency for the first few years. And once your business grows, so will your SEO needs and budget. 3. Does any of your staff know SEO? One of the reasons why SEO consultants are valuable is because of their years of experience growing online businesses. However, if your organization is tech-related, chances are, you have people who know how to optimize your website, so you can save on the SEO cost and do it in-house. But if your business isn't SEO-related, then it's best to leave it to SEO professionals. Are You Ready To Be Found? Building a good website isn't enough. You also need a strong SEO plan to position your business higher on search results. Doing so helps you attract the attention of your target customers and bring them into the sales funnel. On average, SEO pricing can be expensive, but it's because the process involves plenty of channels. Link building, keyword research, and other services — require consistent effort applied over time and skill set honed over years of experience to get good results. Read Also: The Challenges of E-Commerce SEO 8 Reasons Your SEO Campaigns Aren’t Showing the Desired Results

What Makes a Web Hosting Good?

Deciding on a good web host is as important as setting up other business essentials, perhaps more. Be it a small set-up or initiation of a big venture, failure is guaranteed if you make an ordinary choice. So how do we make a smart choice for a good host? Every individual or a business would want to go with one which provides optimum performance with maximum benefits in all respects. Pricing, ease of support, complimentary features, etc. to mention a few. PERFORMANCE - Uptime is a great measure of how good a hosting provider is at keeping its systems up and running. A high uptime percentage close to 100% means they are putting in substantial effort towards superior performance. Disk space is the amount of space allotted to your website. Don't let it be limited if you’re planning to maintain cumbersome blogs, an e-commerce site, visual content & videos for your business. If a hosting company has difficulty accommodating that, it would reflect in your conversions. You sure need pure unlimited space for your website. Bandwidth is nothing but the amount of data your website will pass to the customer. Videos and graphics take more bandwidth than plain HTML. Ensure that you’ve got enough to support your website traffic. Page speed makes a difference when browsing through a website. It can lead to frustration and one might lose on prospects and clients if the speed is below expectation. Ensure that your website has good speed. Read More: Why Server Colocation Hosting in India is becoming more popular than Dedicated Servers? PRICING - You don't have to overpay. All your essentials can easily be met at $5 per month. If you are going with a free provider, be ready for limited usage (free hosts have their own usage restrictions). Before going in for a purchase, understand the pricing structure clearly. Down payment, recurring subscription fee and any other payment for add-ons. There could be instances when things might go wrong, in which case, you may want to cancel the host. It's important to know how your web hosting provider handles this. Does it offer any retention packages or has a well-defined refund policy. To get a discount on web hosting, you can visit the Shared Hosting Coupon site. When starting a website, you need to find a good domain name that represents your brand or business. It is typically sold for a price. Now if you are deciding on a hosting provider too, you might get it for free. SUPPORT - The internet is always ON. Ensure that you get an excellent and preferably a 24x7 customer support. If possible, test the response of the hosting provider before you indulge in any long term contract. Online chat service provides an instant resolution, unlike emails or tickets. Opt for a hosting provider that has a user-friendly and a functional control panel. You would need this, at least for some basic changes that you can do on your own. Also, get your business name and address displayed on the hosting provider website for appropriate visibility. Let’s make our choice easier by looking at the infographic below -

The Basics on Google Local Algorithm