Google PageRank

According to HigherVisibility.com, 93% of all users start their internet journey at a search engine typing keywords into the search box and clicking the search button. This type of search is known as organic searching and the link that appears first, second, and third positions has a click through rate of over 30%, 15% and 10% respectively. Click through rate (CTR) of 30% means for every 100 searches where your link appears first, 30 people will click on the link to your website. By the time you reach ninth postion the CTR is 2%. Digital marketers try really hard to improve the PageRank of your company’s link.

Besides paying money to make your links appear at the top of search results, ever wonder how Google decides the order of search results. A closely guarded algorithm determines PageRank (importance) of a web page. Every couple of years, Moz, a SEO firm, publishes results from a survey sent to leading search marketers on several ranking factors.

Local Pack/Finder Ranking Factors

Local Pack/Finder search results show the businesses that are physically closest to the person performing the search and appear on the search results map. The quick wins in improving PageRank is to ensure Google My Business is updated, having name, address, and phone on all web pages, and ensuring customers rank your business. These three items contributes to over 54% of your PageRank while posting links on social media accounts for under 3% of your page rank. Optimizing for Local Pack/Finder is ideal for businesses with a physical location.

1. Google My Business Signals – Proximity, categories, keyword in business title, etc. (25.12%)
2. Link Signals – Inbound anchor text, linking domain authority, linking domain quantity, etc. (16.53%)
3. Review Signals – Review quantity, review velocity, review diversity, etc. (15.44%)
4. On-Page Signals – Presence of name, address, and phone (NAP), keywords in titles, domain authority, etc. (13.82%)
5. Citation Signals – Internet Yellow Pages(IYP)/aggregator NAP consistency, citation volume, etc. (10.82%)
6. Behavioral Signals – Click-through rate, mobile clicks to call, check-ins, etc (9.56%)
7. Personalization (5.88%) – User’s previous search, demographics, etc.
8. Social Signals – Google engagement, Facebook engagement, Twitter engagement, etc. (2.82%)

Localized Organic Ranking Factors

The PageRank for localized organic search results uses a different algorithm. Less emphasis is placed on physical location. Updating the same three items above contributes to only 41% of PageRank. Links from external websites and linking domain authority and # external links contribute the most. This means link building is an important activity. Optimizing for Localized Organic search is ideal for blogs where you want to reach out.

1. Link Signals – Inbound anchor text, linking domain authority, linking domain quantity, etc. (27.94%)
2. On-Page Signals – Presence of NAP, keywords in titles, domain authority, etc. (26.03%)
3. Behavioral Signals – Click-through rate, mobile clicks to call, check-ins, etc. (11.5%)
4. Google My Business Signals – Proximity, categories, keyword in business title, etc. (8.85%)
5. Citation Signals – IYP/aggregator NAP consistency, citation volume, etc. (8.41%)
6. Personalization  (7.32%) – User’s previous search, demographics, etc.
7. Review Signals – Review quantity, review velocity, review diversity, etc. (6.47%)
8. Social Signals – Google engagement, Facebook engagement, Twitter engagement, etc. (3.47%)