Learn how to optimize your local SEO strategy to boost visibility in the Google Map Pack and localized organic search results!
Local SEO plays a pivotal role in helping your clinic stand out in competitive search results. However, mastering its complexities requires an understanding of the factors that drive success.
In this episode of The Clinic Marketing Podcast, we break down actionable strategies that clinic owners can implement to strengthen their local presence and build trust within their community.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
- Why local SEO is a game-changer for clinics and small businesses.
- The key differences between Google Map Pack rankings and organic search results.
- Essential factors influencing your visibility in the Google Map Pack.
- How citations, reviews, and quality backlinks impact your rankings.
- The role of personalization and optimizing your website for local search.
- Why consistent business information across directories matters.
- How small, ongoing efforts can lead to lasting local visibility.
Listen to the audio version - Local SEO: What really influences your local visibility online?
Show Notes & Related Resources for Local SEO: What really influences your local visibility online?
- Free Training: How to Create a Winning SEO Plan for 2025
- Local SEO vs. Traditional SEO: Key Differences You Need to Know
- Google Business Profile: The Ultimate Guide to Optimize Your GBP Listing
- Local Search Ranking Factors
- How Many Online Listings Does Your Clinic Need for SEO? [Case Study Included]
- Google Business Profile / Google Maps Audit
- *** Book a Discovery Call ***
What Really Influences Your Local Visibility Online?
Local SEO is a critical tool for businesses aiming to connect with customers in their immediate geographical area. But understanding what influences local search visibility can feel like navigating a maze. While no one outside of Google knows the exact workings of its local search algorithm, years of research and analysis have uncovered the key signals that impact local rankings. This blog post breaks down these signals and explains how you can optimize your local SEO strategy to boost visibility both in the Google Map Pack and localized organic search results.
Understanding the Two Main Local Search Result Areas
Local SEO targets two key areas of search results:
- Google Map Pack: This includes the map display and the top three business listings that appear prominently in local searches. These results are tied directly to your Google Business Profile (GBP) and are crucial for driving local traffic.
- Localized Organic Results: These are traditional organic search results tailored to a user’s location and intent. They appear below the Map Pack and provide additional opportunities to capture local visibility through website content.
While the same optimization signals influence both areas, their weighting differs depending on whether you’re targeting the Map Pack or localized organic rankings. Let’s explore these signals in more detail.
Key Ranking Factors for the Google Map Pack
The Google Map Pack is one of the most visible and valuable assets for local businesses.
Here are the major factors that influence rankings in this section:
- Proximity: How close your business is to the searcher’s physical location plays a significant role. For instance, a person searching for “chiropractor near me” will see businesses closest to them.
- Reviews: Positive reviews and high ratings on your Google Business Profile enhance trust and visibility. Encouraging satisfied clients to leave reviews can make a big difference.
- On-Page Signals: Your website’s optimization affects your GBP’s performance. This includes using local keywords, clear business information, and content that aligns with local search intent.
- Inbound Links: Quality backlinks from reputable, especially local, websites can boost your credibility. For example, partnerships with local organizations or sponsorships of community events can generate valuable backlinks.
- Behavioral Signals: Google tracks user interactions, such as how often people click on your listing or call your business. More engagement often leads to higher rankings.
- Citations: Consistent name, address, and phone number (NAP) information across directories like Yelp and Healthgrades reinforces your credibility. Though Google relies less on citations now than in the past, they remain important.
- Personalization: Google tailors results based on a user’s search history and preferences. While you can’t control personalization, being aware of its impact is helpful.
- Business Hours: Businesses that are open at the time of a search are more likely to appear prominently, especially for urgent searches like “24-hour pharmacy near me.”
Key Ranking Factors for Localized Organic Results
While the Google Map Pack grabs attention, many searchers scroll down to the localized organic results for more detailed information.
Here are the main factors influencing these rankings:
- On-Page Signals: Your website’s content is the backbone of localized organic rankings. Ensure that your site is optimized with:
- Relevant local keywords.
- Clear and comprehensive service pages.
- Easy navigation and booking options for visitors.
- Link Signals: Backlinks remain a key factor. Earning links from reputable sources, especially local organizations and media, can enhance your domain authority and visibility.
- Behavioral Signals: User engagement metrics, such as time spent on your website and bounce rate, are critical. If visitors leave your site quickly, it may signal to Google that your content isn’t meeting their needs.
- Citations: Just as with the Map Pack, consistent NAP information across directories reinforces trust and accuracy for organic rankings.
- Google Business Profile Signals: Your GBP influences both Map Pack and organic results. Keep it updated with accurate information, engaging posts, and fresh photos.
- Website Quality: Beyond keywords, the overall quality of your website matters. This includes fast loading speeds, mobile-friendliness, and user-friendly design.
Actionable Steps to Improve Your Local SEO
For clinic owners like chiropractors, acupuncturists, physical therapists, and med spa owners, local SEO is about building trust and visibility within your community.
Here are some practical steps to take:
- Optimize Your Google Business Profile:
- Ensure your profile is complete and accurate.
- Add high-quality photos of your business and services.
- Post updates regularly to engage with potential customers.
- Encourage Customer Reviews:
- Ask satisfied clients to leave positive reviews.
- Respond to all reviews, both positive and negative, to show you value feedback.
- Build Consistent Citations:
- List your business on relevant directories.
- Ensure NAP information is consistent across all platforms.
- Enhance Your Website for Local Search:
- Create detailed, locally optimized service pages.
- Include clear calls to action, such as “Book an Appointment.”
- Add a blog to showcase your expertise and address local concerns.
- Focus on Link Building:
- Partner with local organizations or sponsor community events.
- Submit press releases to local media outlets.
- Monitor and Adjust:
- Regularly review your local SEO performance using tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
- Adapt your strategy based on changes in rankings and user behavior.
- Book a Discover Call to see how we can help you improve your online presence.
Local SEO is a marathon, not a sprint.
By focusing on key ranking factors and consistently optimizing your online presence, you can increase your visibility and attract more local clients. Whether it’s ensuring your Google Business Profile is fully optimized or enhancing your website with high-quality local content, small, consistent efforts can lead to significant results over time. Embrace the journey and watch your local visibility grow.
Hello, welcome to this episode of the Clinic Marketing Podcast. I'm your host, Darcy Sullivan from Propel Marketing and Design. Welcome to episode 98. Today we're talking about what really influences your local visibility online. If you haven't had a chance to listen to episode 96, which was called how Local SEO is Different from Traditional SEO Key Differences, you Need to Know you might want to listen to that either before or after you listen to this episode, as the two really go well together. As we continue to talk about basic SEO strategies, we'll leave a link to that episode in the show notes if you haven't had a chance to listen to it. But today we're taking it to the next level and talking about local SEO and what really influences your local visibility online. We're going to dig into signals that influence your visibility in local searches, because understanding these factors is really the foundation for an effective local SEO strategy.
Before we dive in, I want to give a disclaimer. No one outside of Google knows exactly how the local algorithm works. Not even Google's own engineers fully understand it these days, thanks to the complexity of machine learning. What we do know comes from years of observation, experimentation and research. That said, local SEO is complex and there's no one-size-fits-all solution. The strategies that work, for example, for a chiropractor in Los Angeles won't look the same as those for an acupuncturist in a small town. And even within the same profession, the tactics might vary depending on the level of competition in your specific geographical area. For example, the SEO strategy for a med spot in Miami with dozens of competitors in a tight radius will differ from one in a suburban area with fewer direct competitors.
To make sense of it all, there's a valuable resource you should know about. It's the Local Ranking Factor Survey. Each year, top SEO experts from around the world contribute to the survey, which breaks down the factors that most influence local search rankings. This data proves a fantastic roadmap for understanding some of the signals you need to optimize to increase both your visibility in the Google Map Pack and the localized organic results. Again, if you didn't listen to episode 96, this might be a good time to hit pause and give it a listen so that you understand the difference between traditional SEO and local SEO. Once you understand those differences, it's also important to note that within local SEO, there are also categories of local search results. So let's pause for a minute to clarify the two main areas of local search results that you're aiming to rank in. First, you have the Google Map Pack. That's the Google Maps. That's what's controlled by your Google Business Profile listing, and this is the section that displays the map and the top three business listing. It's highly visible and incredibly valuable for your local business. Below the map pack results, we also have localized organic results. These are the traditional organic listings that appear below the map pack but are still tailored to a searcher's geographical location when the intent is localized. While the same signals influence both areas, they weigh differently depending on where you're trying to rank, and we're going to look at this closer.
I think that this is a good time to make a mention that we keep saying Google, google, google here as we're talking about this, but a couple of episodes ago we talked about how ChatGPT is even changing its localized search results and factors that are going into it. So, even though we're talking about Google here, some of these key elements, some of the key strategies and tactics, matter, no matter where you're trying to rank on search. If you're trying to rank on Bing or Yahoo or ChatGPT, some of these things are still going to go into play. But let's jump back now into Google and talk about the Google Map Pack and Google Map Ranking Factors. I had mentioned earlier about the local search ranking factor survey and that detailed survey will be included in the show notes if you want to do a deeper dive into that. But when it comes to the map pack, here are some key ranking factors that you want to consider proximity this is how close the searcher is to the physical locations that in depth being displayed. I think we all understand the importance of reviews.
On-page signals, again for your Google business profile listing, it matters that your website is optimized, so these include optimizing your web content for local SEO. We have inbound links. These are quality backlinks from reputable sites, especially local ones. For this, for example, if you're a chiropractor, you can think of partnerships with local health organizations or sponsorships for community events. We have behavioral signals. Google tracks users' behavior, like how often people click on your listing, call your business directly from their mobile device. The more people interact with your listing, the better chance you have of ranking.
We have citations. Citations are your listings your name, address and phone number across all directories, like Yelp and Healthgrades. We want to make sure that these remain consistent. It used to be that Google relied more on outside citations than it does these days, but it still is important. We also have personalization. This refers to Google tailoring the results based on the individual user's search history, preferences and other data. While we can control personalization, it's a good thing to know that it's in play. We also have openness, and I think sometimes it's hard for people to understand this, but if my car breaks down and I'm on the side of the road and I go to Google and I search tow truck near me, google's going to want to deliver a tow truck that I can actually have come get me as soon as possible. So if there's eight places but only four of them are open, it's going to be more likely to show me the ones that are open above the ones that are closed during the specific time of my search. So that was great.
We talked about the map pack. Right, we talked about. Those are your Google business profile listing. What controls your Google Maps listing.
Now let's talk about the localized organic ranking factors. So, while the pack is highly visible, we do not want to overlook the localized organic results, especially for your chiropractors, physical therapists and other healthcare professionals. Many searchers scroll past that map section to find a business that has more detailed information, like blog posts, like services, which means that your website needs to be absolutely optimized, and we'll go through and talk about a little bit about those localized organic ranking factors. Again, it's not a one size fits all process when you're optimizing, especially when you're optimizing your website, and we need to make sure that the whole idea isn't just to slap the name of your city all over your website. It's to really make sure that you're providing the correct information in a way that's easy to digest for your website visitors and also easy for them to book an appointment. We have tons of resources for how to optimize your website and, if you are interested, we also do offer optimization services. You can always book a discovery call by visiting propellyourcompanycom. There you'll find a link to book a discovery call.
So we're going to talk about some of these localized organic rankings, but again, it really is the quality of everything that's included in your website that matters. So we have on-page website signals. These take the lead here because they're making your website a critical asset. For example, are you really truly optimizing for the keywords that you want to rank for? We have link signals. Those again are backlinks to your website. We have behavior signals, including the amount of time somebody spends on your website, are tons of people coming to your website and then leaving the second? They get there because they're not finding the information that they're looking for. What happens? How does somebody engage with your website? We also have those citations that we talked about before. We have your Google business profile signals and reviews, but again, all of these items are weighted differently depending on if we're the rankings of your website. Again, talking about local SEO, there are a lot of key elements and overlap between the map pack and ranking on Google Maps and then also ranking your website, but the order that it goes into and the amount of the percentage of the weight Google has for each element is different based on which section you're talking about.
So this is great, but what does this mean for you? Well, for chiropractors, acupuncturists, physical therapists, med spa owners, other clinic owners, local SEO is all about building trust and visibility within your community. You want to start with the basics of making sure your Google business profile is created and optimized. You want to build consistent citations across multiple relevant directories. You want to make sure that your website is optimized for local content. And if this all sounds overwhelming, don't worry, that's why we're here Again. You can contact us at propilyourcompanycom and book a discovery call if you are interested in getting assistance with SEO. Thanks for listening today. Remember, local SEO is a marathon, it's not a spread. Small, consistent efforts can make a really big difference over time.
Darcy’s SEO strategies are easy to implement and effective. She’s the #1 SEO expert I refer to whenever I need help with my rankings.
SEO queen! I can’t thank Propel and Darcy enough for holding my hand through the SEO process! I’m loving the podcast and all the insight! Also loving that my business is now getting the brand awareness and sales I’ve always wanted!
Wow! Clear, concise and impactful. Excellent details and tips - already seeing a return!! Worth the 20 min listen.
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Sponsors
This episode of the Propel Your Practice Podcast is brought to you by Propel Marketing & Design. Propel Marketing & Design helps Chiropractors, Acupuncturists, Physical Therapists, Wellness Practitioners, and other clinic owners improve their website rankings.
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