Top SEO Ranking Factors
by SEO Expert on 08/24/09 at 5:37 pm
This year, two amazing things happened in the Search Marketing industry, which opened the doors to knowledge webmasters and website owners have had to pay thousands of dollars to SEO Experts for. These two studies, created by icons in Search, can be called the Fundamentals of Local and Organic Search for 2009 and should be shared by anyone seeking to get higher ranking in the immediate version of the search engine results.
Local SEO Ranking Factors
The first study was by Local Search Expert David Mihm, appropriately entitled Local Search Ranking Factors. 26 Search Engine Optimization Experts participated in this study.
For those who aren’t familiar with the fastest-moving phenomenon in Search, we’re referring to the local/maps section of the search results; typically A-J. In 2009, Google not only put this local/regional feature into non-geographical searches, but they also allowed business owners to view statistics about their listings, including impressions and clicks. Below is a review of Mihm’s study:
Top Local SEO Ranking Factors
- LBL Address in City of Search
- Citations from Major Data Providers
- Association of Proper LBL Categories
- General Importance of Claiming LBL
- Product/Service Keywords in LBL Title
- General Importance of Off-Page Criteria
- Volume of Customer Reviews
- General Importance of Customer Reviews
- General Importance of On-Page Criteria
- Full Address on Contact Page
- Proximity to Centroid
- Quality of Inbound Links
- HyperLocal/Web Crawl Citations
- Product/Service Keywords in LBL Description
- Location Keywords in Inbound Anchor Text
- Customer Reviews at Search Engine
- Location Keywords in LBL Title
- Product/Service Keywords in Inbound Anchor Text
- Inclusion of City, State in Title Tags
- Customer Reviews at 3rd-Party Websites
- Location Keywords in LBL Description
- Quantity of Inbound Links
- City, State in Contact Page Title Tags
- Product/Service Keywords in URL
- Product/Service Keywords in LBL Custom Fields
- Association of Marginal LBL Categories
- Location Keywords in URL
- LBL Phone Number with Local Area Code
- Association of LBL Videos
- Local Phone Number on Contact Page
- MyMaps/User Generated Content
- High PageRank Homepage
- Association of LBL Photos
- Creation of KML File
- Positive Customer Ratings
- Location Keywords in LBL Custom Fields
- Address in hCard Microformat on Website
- High PageRank LBC Landing Page
- Age of LBL
- Association of Coupon with LBL
- Participation in Local PPC
Negative Local SEO Factors
- Use of (800) # in LBL (most benign)
- Multiple Addresses on Contact Page
- Negative Customer Ratings
- Exclusive Use of (800) # on Contact Page
- Multiple LBLs with Same Business Name
- Exclusive Use of PO Box
- Multiple LBLs with Same Phone Number
- Multiple LBLs with Same Address (most harmful)
Organic SEO Ranking Factors
The second study, released 8/24/2009 by SEOMoz.org was simply entitled Search Engine Ranking Factors. 72 Search Engine Optimization Experts participated in this study, which also produced positive and negative factors for webmasters and site owners to pay attention to. Below are the results:
Top 5 SEO Ranking Factors
- Anchor Text from External Links
- Keyword Use in Title Tag
- Raw Link Popularity
- Diversity of Linking Domains
- Keyword Use in Root Domain
Top 5 Negative Ranking Factors
- Cloaking with Malicious Intent
- Link Acquisition from Link Brokers
- Cloaking by User Agent
- Frequent Server Downtime
- Linking Out to Spam
Number One SEO Ranking Factor
Now you have what all the industry experts believe to be the top SEO ranking factors. What are you going to do about it? You can hire myself or my team at Local Splash, a local SEO services company, we’d be happy to help. Or you can study and implement all of these fundamental SEO best practices yourself. Or better yet, both. Either way, there is no doubt in my mind that the number one SEO ranking factor is taking action. That being said, how will you spend the rest of your week?
One Comment
du lich
Apr 4th, 2011
useful information for individuals to do SEO
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