Whats the best way to get good ranking on local searches?

[Gary1111]

Hi this is my first post, I used to get ranked for local search terms , I am now not getting any traffic at all. The site is around 10 years old. Google lists it if I do a site: search.

It's a large site with a page for many locations.

I also used to have a different site with my nearest city keywords in the domain.I believe this is not good practice now?

I am wondering what's the best and quickest way of ranking high and getting traffic again?

Maybe I should just start again with a new domain?

Thanks

 

[helloworld]

Your question is to vague.

Quality content and backlinks are still the main contributors to high rankings.

Since the site is 10 years old, it could be any number of reasons including out dated content, outdated code, broken links, poor quality content etcetc

 

[rbradf]

The question is indeed vague, however there are some things I would recommend doing giving the information you shared.

First, about the domain with city keywords (exact match domains or EMDs) — yes, Google has largely devalued EMDs for broad local search ranking boosts over the last several years. The domain itself rarely carries weight unless paired with strong content relevance and authoritative signals. That said, switching domains is a major undertaking with significant risk, especially for a site with 10 years of history and indexed pages. You can easily lose accumulated trust and rankings, so before switching to a new website I'd recommend conducting a full audit on your website that goes beyond superficial factors.

It is VERY important to conduct a deep technical SEO Audit. Crawl the entire site with advanced tools (Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, DeepCrawl) for crawl issues, duplicate or thin location pages, slow speed, and mobile problems. These often cause ranking drops on large sites.

Review your location page strategy - are all location pages unique and genuinely valuable, or are they thin, templated pages with minor differences? Google’s algorithms increasingly prioritize high-quality, user-focused content. Merge underperforming pages, enrich content with local signals (reviews, user-generated content, unique local landmarks/events), and make each page a truly useful resource for that specific location.

Of course evaluate your backlinks, not just quantity but quality and relevance. Are your links coming from authoritative local sources (local chambers, business directories, regional news)? Generic or spammy links won’t help. GMB profile should be optimized and regularly updated.

With Google Search Console and analytics analyze user interaction metric - bounce rate, time on page, and click-through rates. Poor engagement can signal to Google that your pages are less relevant.

Local search is very dynamic. What worked years ago may no longer suffice. Google has shifted towards favoring “near me” and intent-based queries with a stronger emphasis on Google Business Profiles and localized maps results. Review competitors’ strategies to identify gaps or new opportunities (like featured snippets, FAQs, or schema enhancements). Good luck with getting back on track with your website, please share your results and if any of the advice really helped, would love to know that!