Below is a list of the Top 20 most important local SEO ranking factors for the Orlando Area. This list should be used by any Orlando-based business who desires to rank high on the Google Maps / Local list.
- Make sure your physical address is within the city limits of Orlando. If not, consider establishing a verifiable address there.
- Make sure your local Google listing has proper categories associated with it. Do not place the word “Orlando” into these categories. Only add what you do.
- Understand that Proximity of Address to Centroid of city of Orlando is very important. the closer you are to the city center, the better.
- The domain name of your website has much to do with it. Google wants to know how authoritative it is. In other words, it looks at how old the domain name is, how long you have it registered for, how many quality links point to it, etc.
- Make sure your business is listed on many of the other major directories. In the Orlando area, some of these directories include yp.com, superpages, kudzu, insider pages, Bing, Yahoo and MerchantCircle. Also register with Yelp, even though Google and Yelp don’t play well together.
- You need a page on your website that corresponds to the information on your local Google page. you are looking for exact matches with names, phone and address to all local listing pages.
- Ask your clients to review your services, but not just on Google. ask them to review you on the other local directories as well. also, don’t ask for more than 2-3 reviews per month. Too many reviews all at once could mean that Google disallows some of them. They don’t want you gaming the system. (Which is silly, because all local listings and search results on the first page of Google are gaming the system)
- Make sure all of your names on all of the listing directories match EXACTLY. also make sure it matches with SunBiz.
- you need a local area code for your phone. Don’t use 800 number or 321 area code. You want to have a 407. Event better, you want to have 407, with an Orlando exchange.
- Make sure that your local business page is completely associated with your local google + page.
- Google also looks where else you show up on the web, outside of listings. Thus make sure you are building quality links and contributing content to other websites.
- Build quality links to your website that are diverse. Write articles; get active with social bookmarks and build your social presence.
- If you can, have your service description in your business title, but make sure its registered that way on Sunbiz.
- If you can, have your business location in the business title, but again make sure its registered with Sunbiz.
- take lots of photos. Submit those photo’s socially and upload them to Google.
- The age of your places page does factor into the listing.
- Percentage of Page Place Completeness matters as well, so make sure its done.
- Ask your reviewers to add product and service keywords into the reviews. It helps with the ranking.
- Make videos, simple videos of your services and associate them with your local listing
- Be patient. This process takes time. Google, on purpose, takes its time with it, because they only want established businesses at the top.
Stephan Boehringer is the CEO of Get The Clicks, a web marketing company. Stephan has over 20 years of experience in the field of web marketing, and has been a speaker and consultant for many years. Stephan is passionate about web marketing and helping their clients be the best they can be.
Stephan Boehringer graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Science in Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services.
