Local SEO: Moz’s 2018 Local Search Ranking Factors

Every year or so, Moz publishes its Local Search Ranking Factors survey, which asks local SEO experts what drives rankings in Google’s local results. The 2018 edition is out. Let’s see where to focus your efforts to gain visibility in local search.

The 8 Main Factor Groups for Local Organic Rankings

Moz groups ranking factors into 8 categories. For localized organic results (the regular “blue link” results for local searches), here’s how the experts weighted their impact on local SEO:

1. Link signals: 27.94%. Moz includes inbound anchor text, linking domain authority, and the number of linking domains.
2. On-page signals: 26.03%. These include domain authority, the right use of keywords, and the presence of your name, address, and phone number (NAP).
3. Behavioral signals: 11.50%. Click-through rate and similar engagement signals remain a good indicator of a website’s quality.
4. Google My Business signals: 8.85%. If the business has a Google My Business listing, it’s also reviewed to assess the legitimacy of the website.
5. Citation signals: 8.41%. This covers, for example, consistency between your website and directory listings, plus the quality and number of those directories.
6. Personalization signals: 7.32%. Logically, how well the content matches what the searcher wants also matters.
7. Review signals: 6.47%. That means the number of reviews and their diversity. A Google review QR code is a simple way to collect more.
8. Social signals: 3.47%. Engagement on social platforms is also taken into account.

The picture is different for the local pack (the map results). There, Moz’s 2018 survey put Google My Business signals first, at about 25%, ahead of links (16%), reviews (15%), and on-page signals (14%).

Of course, these aren’t the only factors that affect how a website ranks. There are plenty of others, such as the amount of content on the site, its security (HTTP or HTTPS? Chrome now flags HTTP sites as “Not secure”), and the quality of its content.

Local SEO: The Top Negative Factors to Avoid

Moz also listed the top negative factors that can hurt local rankings.

Here are five of the most damaging:

• Fake address: the business lists an address where it isn’t really located.
• P.O. box: the business uses a P.O. box as its address.
• Wrong category: the listing uses a business category that doesn’t match the business.
• Hacked site: the website has been hacked or contains malware. (Our article on the signs your WordPress site has been hacked can help, and our hacked WordPress site repair service can clean it up.)
• Closed: the business is marked as “permanently closed.”

The full survey is available on the Moz website.

Want to Improve Your Local SEO?

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Where Things Stand in 2026

Google My Business has since been renamed Google Business Profile (in November 2021), and it remains central to local search, now alongside AI-generated answers, where your website feeds local AI search. For a current, step-by-step approach, see our Google local SEO guide.