7 Effective Strategies for Ranking in the Local Pack

Increasingly, consumers are using the Internet to find local businesses. This is particularly true when it comes to people searching for things on their mobile devices. If you own or manage a business, this is a positive trend because local SEO can help you make your website stand out in search engine results pages.

When it comes to search engine optimization on a local, regional, national or global basis, it’s important for you to optimize with the factors Google uses to rank your position in SERPs in mind. Similarly, it’s vital to pay attention to these factors if you’re trying to use SEO to rank in Google’s local pack. According to Moz, the leading local pack ranking factors are:

• Business signals
• Link signals
• On-page signals
• Citation signals
• Review signals
• Behavioral signals
• Personalization
• Social signals

While being aware of the factors Google uses to rank search results is certainly one strategy you can use to rank in the 3-pack, it’s far from the only thing you should do. It’s vital that you do everything possible to rank in the local pack. Why? Because the 3-pack earns the top spot for local searches 93 percent of the time and 46 percent of the searches performed on Google are local.

If those statistics aren’t enough to convince you that ranking in the 3-pack is vital, consider the following. ThinkWithGoogle reports that 50 percent of people who perform a local search on a smartphone visit a retailer within 24 hours and 18 percent of them make a purchase within the same time period. Search queries that include the words “near me” have increased 3,400 percent since 2011.

Now that you understand why it’s so important to be in the 3-pack, it’s time for you to learn some additional things you can do to earn an enviable spot in the local pack.

1. Fix Your Listings

If you want to have a chance of making it into the 3-pack, you need to make sure your name, address and phone number are consistent wherever your business is listed. Start with your website and blog and then branch out to review sites, directories and anywhere else your business is listed to ensure your information is accurate in every location.

2. Build High-Quality Links

While you may think any link back to your website is good, that’s simply not the case. Google may penalize you if you have poor quality links from questionable websites. Go through your existing links to ensure they’re working and of the highest quality. When you’re done, solicit links from websites that are directly related to your industry, goods or services and that have a respectable domain authority exclusively.

3. Build an Audience with Content

An additional local SEO trick to improve your chances of landing in the 3-pack is to use your content to build a loyal following organically. Figure out your audience’s wants and needs and create content that addresses these topics in the formats your target market prefers.

4. Solicit Reviews

Online reviews are incredibly powerful in the context of SEO. With that in mind, it’s essential for you to solicit reviews from your customers.

5. Respond to Your Reviews

Google is now sending notifications to people who post reviews to alert them when their review has been responded to. This means it’s no longer enough to just get reviews. It’s also important for you to respond to them – both good and bad – in a timely manner.

6. Use the Right Keywords

Keywords are still very relevant to where your website ends up in SERPs so be sure you use the right ones in your content. In some cases, it may be beneficial to avoid using generic keywords that are highly competitive in favor of more specific ones that will position your business as an industry authority.

7. Contact GoingClear 

Whether you need help choosing keywords, editing your business listings or developing a local SEO strategy, our SEO company can help. We offer a full suite of SEO services that includes local SEO. To learn what we can do to help your website rank in the local pack, contact GoingClear now.