Key Local SEO Ranking Factors for 2024

Navigating the local SEO landscape in 2024 requires more than just basic strategies—it demands a deep understanding of what truly impacts your visibility and conversions.

From the intricate details of your Google Business Profile to leveraging customer behavior insights, search engine optimization measures play a pivotal role in helping your business stand out locally. Let’s explore the most important ranking factors that can propel your business to the forefront of local searches.

Top 7 Local Ranking Factors

Boosting your local visibility involves understanding the factors that significantly impact local search rankings and conversions. While the well-known Whitespark report 2023 has provided valuable insights, the following factors remain essential for improving your local search visibility in 2024.

1. Google Business Profile

GBP signals encompass everything within your Google Business Profile (GBP), from your NAP data (name, address, phone number) to the images you upload and your Google posts. With all that information, GBP is the most significant ranking factor, crucial for enhancing your business’s visibility—not only on Google, by the way.

To maximize its effectiveness, ensure your GBP is complete and accurate. Engage with customers by responding to reviews and regularly updating your profile to build trust and credibility. Integrate direct links to your website and choose appropriate categories, attributes and services to improve your relevance in Google searches; including the Local Pack and Google Maps.

Attributes as a New Ranking Factor

While not the most critical factors, attributes play a significant role depending on search intent and query phrasing. Attributes such as ownership status (e.g., woman-led, veteran-owned, minority-owned) and practical features (e.g., wheelchair accessibility, free Wi-Fi, on-site parking, credit card acceptance) cater to diverse customer needs and preferences, increasing the likelihood of a conversion.

Services as a New Ranking Factor

Predefined services, a new feature on GBP, allow businesses to list services specific to their category. For example, a hair salon might include predefined services like perms, men’s cuts, and highlights. Utilizing these predefined options can help improve your local ranking for relevant services that attract customers.

Google is introducing new predefined and custom services, which can positively affect your ranking. Highlighting these services (with emojis) can further enhance your visibility and appeal—even if detailed descriptions or prices are not provided.

• Predefined Services are standardized options that Google offers based on your business category. For example, if you run a hair salon, predefined services might include "Men’s Haircuts," "Women’s Haircuts," "Perms," and "Highlights."

• Custom Services allow you to list unique services that are specific to your business but not covered by Google’s predefined options. For instance, a hair salon might offer custom services such as "Bridal Hair Styling" or "Special Event Makeup".

2. On-Page Optimization

On-page signals are crucial for local SEO, too, underscoring the importance of high-quality, relevant website content. Your website should clearly demonstrate your expertise and what sets you apart from competitors.

On-page optimization includes optimizing title tags, meta descriptions, headers, and images with relevant local keywords, as well as ensuring fast loading times and mobile-friendliness. Also, ensure your core pages and location landing pages are optimized with detailed information about your services and unique selling points.

3. Online Reviews

Honest customer reviews across platforms like Google, Yelp, and Trustpilot can significantly impact your local search engine rankings—because bothsearch engines and customers will trust you more. Responding to both positive reviews and negative reviews shows engagement and can further enhance your reputation.

Encouraging satisfied customers to leave genuine feedback will help improve your overall review profile and local SEO performance. Also, try to combat fake reviews as early as possible as they can harm your credibility and ranking. Using a review management tool can streamline the process of monitoring reviews, increase your response rate, and help you effectively manage your online reputation.

4. Links

A well-developed link profile can significantly improve your local SEO performance, though their relative significance has definitely declined. Yet, building a robust link profile through relevant backlinks from reputable sources can enhance your local search visibility.

Focus on both internal and external link strategies to boost your website's authority. This includes creating high-quality content that attracts links naturally and ensuring your internal linking structure is optimized for user navigation and search engine indexing.

5. User Behavior

Engaging content with a positive user experience are essential for maintaining a strong ranking—which is why behavioral signals such as click-through rate, bounce rate, and time spent on a webpage, reflecting user interaction, are crucial for your search traffic.

Optimize your site to ensure it loads quickly, is easy to navigate, and meets users' needs effectively. Encouraging meaningful engagement with your content (and calls-to-action) helps improve relevant marketing KPIs and enhances your local SEO performance.

6. Citations

Although their importance has declined, accurate citations remain fundamental for local SEO—so better make sure that your location information is consistent across the most important online directories.

Ensure your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) are identical across all platforms. Regularly update your information to avoid discrepancies that could harm your credibility. And if managing this data becomes overwhelming, consider using a listings management tool to streamline and automate the process.

7. Personalization

Personalization signals—with a modest increase in relevance—refer to individual user preferences and browsing history, affecting the search results users see. While you cannot directly influence these personalized results, understanding their role is crucial for developing a comprehensive SEO strategy.

Tailoring your content to address a wide range of user needs and preferences can improve your overall search visibility and engagement. As always, user-centricity remains the key to success, ensuring your content resonates with your audience and meets their expectations.

Local Ranking Factors to Watch

While we've covered the most crucial local ranking factors above, there are several emerging elements that savvy businesses can leverage to stay ahead of the curve.

1. Opening Hours as a New Ranking Factor

Since the November 2023 core update, businesses' operating hours have become increasingly influential on their visibility in local searches—probably because searches for terms like ‘open near me’ have risen by a lot.

Consequently, closed or temporarily closed businesses may struggle with visibility while rankings can drop significantly, sometimes by up to 11 spots, as closing time approaches.

2. Higher Traffic During Peak Times as a New Ranking Factor

Higher traffic during peak times is also becoming a crucial factor in local rankings. Leveraging tools like the Popular Times graph can help you understand when your business is most visited and optimize accordingly. By maximizing visibility during these peak times by for example publishing Google Posts, you can significantly improve your local search performance and attract more customers.

3. On-Page FAQs as a New Ranking Factor

Including frequently asked questions from your GBP on your website can boost your site’s visibility. This integration ensures that vital information is easily accessible and helps search engines prioritize your content.

We always say: the more, the merrier with information, as a comprehensive FAQ section can address a wider array of customer queries and improve overall user experience. Investing time in enhancing your on-page FAQs (with keywords) can improve impressions, keep users engaged longer, and ultimately enhance your local search rankings.

4. Calls-to-Action as a New Ranking Factor

Google now allows the addition of booking, reservation, and order CTA buttons directly on your GBP. These CTAs are valued for the behavioral insights they provide and their potential to increase Google’s revenue from transactions.

Including these buttons not only enhances user convenience but also boosts engagement, as customers can take immediate action directly from your profile. For restaurants, as an example, integrating with third-party delivery services can facilitate food orders.

5. Menu Descriptions as a New Ranking Factor

Recent developments suggest that accurate menu descriptions are emerging as important local ranking factors. Optimizing your menu items on your Google Business Profile ensures that potential customers have detailed and precise information about what you offer. This not only helps in attracting more customers but also enhances your visibility and search performance.

In the evolving world of local SEO, the key to success lies in the details. By looking at—and optimizing—for the above listed top-ranking factors, you can create a powerful local presence that not only attracts but also retains customers.