On ranking factors in Google’s local search algorithm at the end of 2021.

The firm Whitespark has revealed the results of a survey on which site sorting factors in Google’s search engine rankings have become determinants over the past year. The firm annually questions the West’s leading local search engine optimisation experts to determine what influences a site’s position and conversion rate.

The study cited 132 possible factors that experts believe could be used by Google to rank organisations in LocalPack (local search results), LocalFinder (Google Maps search results) and LocalOrganic (local organic search results). This list is based on a decade of analysis and research into the factors that can influence the sorting of sites.

Categories of factors

Within the survey each factor fell into one of the categories. These are:

1. Links – anchor text backlinks, authority and the number of referring sites and the like.
2. Google My Business service – geographic proximity, category, keywords in the organization name, etc.
3. Behavioral factors – click-through rate, click-to-call from smartphones and tablets, time spent on the site, etc.
4. reviews – their number, variety, etc.
5. Personalization – search history, location of the user, device, etc.
6. Internal optimization factors – the presence of NAP (names, addresses, phone numbers), the authority of the domain, the keys in the headings.
7. Mentions – location information, directories/aggregators, consistency, frequency of mentions.

Study participants were asked to rate how significant Google considers each category of ranking aspects. Based on the results of processing the responses, Whitespark got this picture.

The seven most important aspects in LocalPack/LocalFinder:

• Google My Business, 36 per cent;
• Reviews – 17 percent;
• Internal optimization – 16 percent;
• Backlinks – 13 percent;
• Mentions – 7 percent;
• Behavioral factors – 7 percent;
• Personalisation – 4 per cent.

The top seven aspects of LocalOrganic:

• Aspects of internal optimisation – 34 per cent;
• References – 31 per cent;
• Behavioral factors – 11 percent;
• Mentions – 7 per cent;
• Google My Business – 6 percent;
• Personalization – 6 percent;
• Availability of reviews – 5 per cent.

Negative factors

Five aspects have also been identified as having a negative impact on a company’s position in the local distribution. These are:

• Incorrectly defined category of the organisation’s activities.
• Hacking of a web resource, presence of malware on it.
• Reports of irregularities on the organisation’s website in the My Business service.
• Inaccurate or invalid address.
• A page identified as a fake address.

When it comes to general changes recently, SEOs need to keep the following in mind. 1:

1. reviews have become perceived as a less important factor.
2. the same situation with mentions. However, a number of other studies suggest that this aspect is still very significant.
3. My Business citations have started to be perceived as more significant.