When someone starts a Google search on a topic or business relating to your website, there are many factors that play a role into how your website measures up.
Since Google is constantly changing its search algorithm, we’ve always paid attention to certain search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to help your site prosper.
But, now there’s a new king of the castle when it comes to areas that factor into where your site ranks with Google. Research has found that the proximity to search is now the number one most important factor when it comes to local search ranking factors.
This will play a role into SEO techniques used to increase your Google ranking factor…that is until Google revamps its algorithm again!
How do we know proximity to search is so important?
You can easily tell that proximity to search has more weight in a Google search by simply doing a search yourself.
Go to Google and type in mechanic. Look at the search results. More than likely all of the top search results are extremely close by to where you live. Some may even be in walking distance. Do they have the best ratings and reviews? Not necessarily. This goes to show the importance proximity to search now has.
Unfortunately, it puts businesses that are not as close by at a disadvantage. They may be better at what they do but because they are not as close to the searcher, they won’t appear at the top of the list.
How do you still compete with other companies who have proximity to search in their favor?
Yes, proximity to search is king right now. But that doesn’t mean that all of the other factors are benchwarmers.
There are many things you can do to keep your business in the game when it comes to Google ranking factors. The professionals at Portside Marketing are experts in the field and can devise an SEO plan that will still get you noticed.
Here are some of the areas to consider:
Set-up your business as a “service-based business” rather than one with a physical address. This will give you access to those customers who are still seeing the businesses that are near their search location. Service-based businesses are those that don’t perform all of their business at their physical address. While you may not be at the top of the list, you’ll be much more visible than you would be if you limited your location to an address.
Look at your Google My Business Associations. This Google service lets you choose certain categories to match your company’s products and services. Make sure they specifically match what your company does so that your site gets picked up when it needs to.
Add more quality inbound links to your site. This will boost your Google ranking as well. Having links to sites that are considered high authority in your field gives your content a higher ranking on Google. This Google ranking factor should be given a lot of attention because positioning low-quality backlinks will hurt you.
Add quality content. The content where those quality inbound links live needs to be top-notch. This means using relevant key words and making sure that each sentence in your content has meaning and value. Don’t fluff up a piece just to get a higher word count. This will not help your Google ranking.
Taking Advantage of Proximity to Search
There are ways to take advantage of proximity to search. If someone Googles your business and it happens to come up first, what’s the next thing that person will learn about your business after clicking into your site?
Will they find stellar reviews? Will they find a site that’s easy to navigate with great content?
While proximity to search is a great thing to have on your side, you can’t neglect other SEO tactics. As we mentioned above, you still need to include quality content and keep the types of links you use in mind.
You also need to pay attention to your reviews and the information you have on your site. If potential customers see little in the way of both, they will be less likely to contact you, no matter how close you may be.
With that said you want your online reviews to be authentic. Encourage customers who have had a positive experience to share their thoughts online. This will carry a lot of weight with potential customers. If your reviews are not authentic people will soon realize that and leave you authentic negative reviews in return.
While proximity to search can be your best friend, it can also prove to be worthless if you don’t have the credibility and experience to go along with it.
If you’re looking to maximize proximity to search in your area while still remaining visible to those outside your immediate area, let Portside Marketing help. We can further explain all of the ins and outs and how to get you seen by the most potential customers.