Think you're up on the latest developments in local SEO?
One year ago we asked you to test your local SEO knowledge with the Local Search Expert Quiz. Because the SERPs are changing so fast and (according to our latest Industry Survey) over 42% of online marketers report spending more time on local search in the past 12 months, we've created an updated version.
Written by local search expert Miriam Ellis, the quiz contains 40 questions designed to test both your general local SEO knowledge and your industry awareness. Bonus? The quiz takes less than 10 minutes to complete.
Ready to get started? When you are finished, we'll automatically score your quiz.
Rating your score
Although the Local Search Expert Quiz is just for fun, we've established the following guidelines for bragging rights:
- 0–14 Newbie: Time to study up on your citation data!
- 15–23 Beginner: Good job, but you're not quite in the 3-pack yet.
- 24–29 Intermediate: You're getting close to the centroid!
- 30–34 Pro: Let's tackle multi-location!
- 35–40 Guru: We all bow down to your local awesomeness.
Resources to improve your performance
Didn't get the score you hoped for? We've included all the correct answers and references here. Or, brush up on your local SEO knowledge with this collection of free learning resources:
- The Moz Local Learning Center
- Glossary of Local Search Terms and Definitions
- Guidelines for Representing Your Business on Google
- Local Search Ranking Factors
- Blumenthal's Blog
- Local SEO Guide
- Whitespark Blog
You can also learn the latest local search tips and tricks by signing up for the MozCon Local one-day conference, subscribing to the Moz Local Top 7 newsletter, or reading local SEO posts on the Moz Blog.
Don't forget to brag about your local search expertise in the comments below!
This post has been edited to include a link to the answer sheet.
Hi, thanks for the quiz. It says that I'm a newbie, which is spot on :)
It would be really really awesome if it showed correct answers with explanations each time. That way people like myself could learn a lot of useful stuff, business owners would definitely be interested.
Excellent point about the answers, Igor! I've edited the post to include them and you can find the sheet here.
Great quiz and covers good amount of local search factors. I scored 31.
Thanks!
Nice quiz, it was so fun eventhough I only had 23 points!
This quiz was fun, but I'm from Spain so I guess my score may not be the exact one (I'm saying this to comfort myself hahaha). You guys are always doing such an entertaining stuff! :)
30/40. Not bad considering I am not a local SEO expert.
That's great! Thanks for taking the quiz!
Same here!
I am cool with being a Guru no biggie, and thanks for the test it is nice to have the skills put to the test.
Rock on, Tim!
38/40! Loved that practicioner question.
Well done!
27 i am a Intermediate. Thats good! Tnks
Very good test, I loved the experience.
So glad you enjoyed it!
Nothing like a Moz quiz to brighten the up the day!
Great idea Igor : the correct answer with the explanation will be really useful to improve ourselve. Hope that Moz could change that. :)
Hi Jonathan! Thanks for asking! We've made the answers available here.
Thank you Isla, you're wonderful at Moz: always listening your customers. :)
I take it quick and got score of 28. Not bad, because most of questions there are US oriented. I'm not local expert but for first time i heard about Amazon local service (not Prime!).
A lot harder for europeans than the last one.
A lot of things I heard about and "saved for later" because it's simply not used here :)
I - like you - never heard something about Amazon Local Service. With so many european based SEOs in your community you guys @moz should ask some european-specific questions. Where gets google the local-data from in sweden?
Ok I am also not an local SEO expert and don't work in an local SEO field - but 30 Points hurt my feelings :)
Hi Andreas, thanks for your comment. I, myself, want to learn more about local SEO in Europe. In case you want the answers, they are here.
Thanks 4 the answers - I have to admit - it was easy to answer the Nokia Question for me :)
In the test of 2015 have been a few more bing questions - I googled what bing is and cant believe it :) Ok thats a joke.
Of course you need a us-based test, but doordash? Never heard it bevore... How should I
Great quiz and a great way to start a Tuesday morning - brushing up on local SEO.
Scored 28 which is about right considering a few of the questions were very American orientated :)
I would definitely like to see more of these quizzes in the future on Moz!
Thanks, Danny! If you want to score even higher on the next one, you can see where we pulled our info from here. Beware, this sheet also contains the answers :)
I scored 24. Thanks Isla McKetta for sharing this quiz. This also provides me the new things to learn more.
I have scored 26, and they said "You're getting close to the centroid!"..I was expected much more but ok with the result.
37 : Not bad, but which 3 did I get wrong ?
Hi Tim,
Well done! You can now see the answers and the references here.
Great Post !!
Our client not ready for on page optimization, But they want to increase sales and local visitors.
Can we target local areas without on page changes???
Great job.. keep it up my friend
Woohoo,,, Scored 25 - Local Search Expert Quiz Score Card
Sorry, I am just a beginner. Need to do more review on MGB.
Great quiz! This is good for everybody trying to figure out where they stand on knowledge on their local listings!
Wow interesting quiz, well i am not so good in local seo. Also you given us chance to learn something new.
I am a lover of the local seo, it is very important to my business and still 60% of our customers are local.
Woohoo,,, Local Seo Expert - Scored 25 - https://plus.google.com/+PremNathVishwakarma/posts/54RckhDJQkK
This was great guys. As someone who's just started a new career in SEO, I'm rather happy with my 25. Now, time to address those wrong answers.
i got 22. Not bad i guess with only a few months of learning SEO through blogs and email newsletters.
32 ack! - I'm not all that familiar with some of the US based stuff (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it lol) Thanks for the quiz Miriam/Isla :-)
I got a 38 but would love to know which 2 I missed!
37/40 - I'm pretty happy with that. Thanks for the quiz guys :)
I really enjoy some of these interactive posts that give SEOs a chance to be tested. This would be awesome if it was updated quarterly to help keep people on their toes about recent changes.
Glad to hear it, Dave! I can't promise quarterly updates, but we're definitely hoping to get a new version up at the start of next year. Thanks for the feedback!
Great quiz!
I take it quick and got score of 28. Not bad, because most of questions there are US oriented. I'm not local expert but for first time i heard about Amazon local service (not Prime!).
What a well written and put together quiz! Very impressive. Thanks for the link to the answers too. Very helpful to know the correct answers. Are there similar quizzes for other specialties?
Glad you liked it! We have one for SEO and have been encouraged to create more for other industries. Keep your eye on the blog for those :)
Got 32, Happy with that.
Good indepth quiz
This stuff is all pretty new to me, but somehow I managed to bag 28/40 - mostly by just choosing the most reasonable/feasible sounding option. Maybe Google has somehow infiltrated my brain algorithm?
I didn't do bad, but I definitely have room to improve. Gonna go study the answer sheet now. Ha! :)
This was interesting and informative - searching for the answer sheet - I only scored 27, so I have some learning to do! Ha!
(linked removed by editor)
Thank you
Hey Isla,
It was really a great quiz and guess what I got 32 scrore. Enjoyed a lot!
I was wondring, if you can please share some of your insights about local searches optimisation in 2016. It would be appreciated!
Thanks
Sorry Isla but that quiz was TL:DF and you should provide the answers at the end to add value to peoples' day!
I scored 30!
Thanks
33/40. Some of the new local services questions gave me trouble. Thanks for the quiz!
It was fun to take the quiz part. But for me there are many questions related to USA. therefore, was not sure about few. However, got good score. :) :P
What is the point of this without showing me what answers I got wrong? A frustrating waste of time.
Sorry to hear you had a bad experience. We've since posted the answer sheet and related references here if you want to learn more.
38/40 which I'm really happy with considering the number of US-centric questions that are in the quiz.
Awesome!
Managed to get 30! Not too bad, would like to know which ones I got wrong though and learn more :)
Hi there! 30 is pretty good. You can now find the answers and related references here if you want to learn more :)
39/40 :) A very good and useful test! Thank you very much! :)
Hey Dilyan - that's great to hear you found the test useful. Cool :)
very good thinking I have ever seen.. well done
Loved it. Got a 36. Nice way to start the day :) It would be good if it showed the correct answers though after. I am curious what 4 I got wrong. Also wished it posted my score when I submitted it to social media.
Hi David,
Thanks for the feedback! You can now find the correct answers here. And sorry about the social media bit. We're working on it.
Was able to get a 31. Not bad considering I do not do much with local SEO. Would love to get increase my knowledge and skillset for local SEO.
Hi Ryan, to learn more about the questions we asked here, check out the reference links on our answer sheet.
Thanks for The Answer sheet, now i know where i was wrong. learn a lot about local business, you were very helpful :-)
27 , Most of the questions are US oriented, But good learning experience
A beginner. Right on.
33 compared to 73/100 last time in 2015.
Thanks Isla & Miriam to come up with such a test and thanks to Moz to continue the quiz. Honestly this time the questions are more difficult than last year. More local SEO industry news included.
So glad you took the quiz, and you're right, I did try to throw more industry-awareness questions in there this time. Good catch!
Got some good ideas off here, thanks!
Interesting test. Do you think that geopositioning the photos that you uploaded to Google My Business is useful for local SEO?
34, Not Bad. Great Experience :-)
Way to go, Peter, and I'm so glad you enjoyed the experience.
33...Feels good to be in the 3-pack., but I'm still going to dig into the resources so I can up my game even further and stay fresh on everything. You can never know enough about this stuff anyhow! Thanks for the awesome quiz! =)
33 is a very fine score, Maximillian. Well done!
I scored 38, which is pretty good for someone who doesn't normally run Quiz type questions online,
38 is a terrific score. Well done!
Thanks for such a knowledgeable post.
29 Points not too bad for not doing any local SEO right now anymore.
Thanks Isla for making that quiz. The answer sheet helped a lot to see what could have been my mistakes.
Loved this quiz - I scored 27 and did so much better than I thought!
35/40 Good quiz and helpful for those just starting off. I like the guides at the end of the quiz, but why doesnt it show the correct/incorrect answers?
Helpful anyway. Thanks for creating and sharing!
35/40 Good quiz and helpful for those just starting off. I like the guides at the end of the quiz, but why doesnt it show the correct/incorrect answers?
Helpful anyway. Thanks for creating and sharing!
We will use all learned from this post to improve our local positioning
Thanks Isla I attend the quiz and score good marks but by this quiz i learn new things regarding Google+ for the SEO. This quiz was so helpful.
So glad if you picked up a few new tips! Thanks for taking the quiz.
Very nice test for Local SEOs, I have scored 24!
Hi there, rather happy with my 71% score, because I am not that comfortable reading english as a Frenchman, and because it looks there some differences between the US and the french local seo. I take the opportuniy of this first post for asking a local-SEO question. As a In-House SEO, I am in charge of a large amount of Google My Business pages (2600) for my compagny and would appreciate any though about Insights for local businesses : how much there are significant? And has anyone find a way to consolidate all datas. It is a shame that Google does not propose yet a kind of Local Search Analytics Report where we could get insights like in which area there are many Phone calls....I suspect it is something Google will sell in the future..What is your opinion?
Hi There!
Kudos to you for scoring so well in a second language. That's impressive. You're right - Google's Insights is rather limited and, some say, not always accurate. Call tracking can be done separately, but you have to be sure you're doing it in a way that doesn't dilute the clarity of your NAP. See: https://blumenthals.com/blog/2014/11/25/guide-to-using-call-tracking-for-local-search/
Hi Miriam,
Thank for your answer and for your additional insight about call tracking. It will be helpful when I will deal with tan accurate and deep way of tracking results of my local SEO performances! Best, Géraud
The quiz just gave me a much needed reality check!1.. Thanks :
Awese quiz Isla. Got 40/40 score. Was wondering if moz will come up with harder test for seo seniors. Thank you