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Rank & Rent SEO: 8 Critical Ranking Factors for 2024

June 12, 2023

In this blog post, we'll cover the 8 critical ranking factors for Rank & Rent SEO that I have tested over the last 7 years.

Rank & Rent has allowed me to build a $52K per month passive income on the internet. I have over 50 sites out there generating leads every day for small businesses.

Ranking in local search differs from ranking a blog. It doesn't require endless content marketing but knowing how to create a brand in the eyes of Google.

What is Rank and Rent? 

Rank & Rent is about building & ranking simple small business websites at the top of the local Google search, and renting them out to business owners each month.

Think of these websites as owning real estate in the most busy part of town. Businesses want those locations because that would generate more foot traffic for them.

The higher you're ranked means the more busy part of town you're in. (The more valuable your site will be)

Having a predictable system to rank your Rank & Rent sites is critical.

Below is my tree service rank and rent site that's been paying me $2000 per month since 2015.

Local lead generation

Since then I've ranked countless rank & rent properties that make me $1000 to $2000 per month.

The best thing about this business is that once you master the skills, it becomes so scalable. Just rinse & repeat the process.

For more info on the business, I have an article on 5 steps to starting a rank & rent business.

Is SEO for Rank & Rent, Different from Ranking a Blog or Affiliate Site?

SEO for rank and rent different from ranking a blog or affiliate site because on Google, you just have to do enough to beat the sites on page 1.

With Rank and Rent you're competing with small business websites, not huge authority sites that have thousands of pages.

Local sites might have a homepage and 5-10 service pages.

When trying to rank a blog or big affiliate site, its a completely different ball game with a distinct set of rules.

This means a lot of the SEO tips from a blogger like Neil Patel are meant for a blogger.

If it's Rank & Rent, we have far more efficient ways to get the top rankings.

What Google's Algorithm Values

Google is all about serving the best content, because that's what keeps all of us coming back to use their search engine over Yahoo or Bing. Google makes money from the advertisers that pay for the ad placements.

Traditionally, Google determined the most "trusted" website on the internet by measuring the backlinks. (links from other websites)

However, backlinks can be manipulated or spammed. Hence, the quality of the backlinks matters more and more. Also, Google is putting more weight on user signals.

How long people stay on the page versus other pages (dwell time), would be a good example of Google measuring something other than backlinks.

There are other things that Google is considering, such as brands. Before you try to find the best rank and rent course, look at the following 8 critical ranking factors of 2024.

1. Make Sure Your Website is Titled Correctly

It's amazing how many people mess this up

Site title is the main thing people see when they are in Google search

It needs to apply to what the person is searching for, so in Rank & Rent, having your main keyword plus the city as far left as possible is KEY 

The above company did a good job of making their site title very obvious, it's a roofing company in Chicago.

The only critique I have is that they use the word "Roofing" twice.

Roofing only needs to be used once. Add other keywords so that the site has a better chance to rank for more keywords.

You can use Google related searches to find other keywords.

"affordable," "residential/commercial roofers", "contractors", etc

Or you can use Google Keyword Planner to get more keyword ideas

Here's what I would've done for the above site title.

Allendorfer Roofing: Chicago Roof Repair & Replacements (Commercial or Residential) Affordable Prices

Keep in mind that most of the site titles towards the end will be cut off in desktop, but remember, on mobile it shows two lines, so it will show there.

2. Be as Authoritative as Possible in Your Content

Moz did an interesting study that showed "time on site" as the ranking factor.

In rank and rent SEO, you will not be writing like a blogger, but taking the extra time to analyze other sites on page 1, by reading the content and noting where each site did well.

This goes a long way.

A lot of times I'll even take the niche and search it in huge cities like Chicago, Dallas or LA because those are very competitive cities. If a site is ranked at the top in those cities, most of the time, they did a great job with the content.

You can then come up with your own version by gleaming from the best aspects of various sites you analyzed.

As a rule of thumb, you want to provide useful content that a buyer of that service might want to know.

Here are some examples:

  • Common mistakes people make when buying X
  • What to look for when hiring the company for X
  • FAQ
  • Other services?
  • When is the right time ot buy X?
  • The process of buying / replacing X?
  • How long does it take?

The more helpful your content is, the longer people will stay on your site and read, which increases dwell time, and it lets Google know your site deserves to be at the top of the search results.

Look at a few rank and rent websites for ideas.

3. Create a Digital Footprint

Now that you have your website built properly, let's now tell Google you're a real brand. 

Real brands have social media profiles like: Facebook, Instagram, Yelp, Youtube Channel, Twitter, etc

The more of these you have, the better. My tree care site in Lansing, MI has this Facebook page.

This becomes a digital footprint that lets Google know that you're not a spammer, it goes a long way in preventing automatic GMB suspensions.

It also influences your rankings because Google trusts brands.

There's a few more brand signals out there so we created a quick infographic guide for you guys.

There is nothing illegal about doing this. If you're a bit skeptical about this business model, read my article, Is Rank and Rent legal?

4. Build High Quality Citations

Citations are like digital Yellowpages. It has a minor effect on your site's rankings but it has even more effect for your GMB's.

It's so easy to do, you might as well do it.

My tip is, just make sure you get quality ones.

Some places sell hundreds of citations. I think having 40 quality citations will do a lot more than 200 low quality ones.

The main thing I'm looking for is for my citations to index in Google.

Here is an example of a citation (https://www.showmelocal.com/profile.aspx?bid=18711406) for my Grand Rapids Tree Service rank & rent.

I check if it's indexed by searching the URL after I removed the "https://www."

If that citation shows up in the search, then it indexed and congrats, you got yourself a quality citation.

Common Question: What's the difference between a citation & a backlink?

Citations and backlinks are different because a citation link is considered no-follow, which is a link that doesn't pass any Google bots (link juice) so it doesn't count for rankings.

So why do citations at all?

  • Citations still have what's called NAP (name, address, phone number). This helps your GMB rankings.
  • Citations give your website more credibility because even if the link is no-follow, Google can still see that directories like a regular company cite the site (so it gives you some ranking factors)
  • Citations also increase the health of your backlink profile because you don't want to have just one kind of backlink to your site like blog comments, you want variety, and having citations even if its no-follow, gives you variety. (boom! I bet you've never thought of that!)

Pro tip: Some citations are do-follow links and they are the best of the best citations out there. In our rank & rent program, we've got a running list going.

5. Build Relevant Backlinks

Great content & backlinks, a cornerstone to ranking.

With rank and rent SEO, you want to go after backlinks that are as relevant as possible.

Can you get a blog comment link from a blog about landscaping instead of video games, if you're trying to rank a lawn mowing site?

Yes blog comments work, just don't overdo it.

One of the best way is to do what I like to call the "copy-cat method"

You can use tools like Ahrefs to analyze where your competition is getting backlinks

Try to get backlinks from those same places.

You can even pull up sites from other cities and find even more backlink opportunities.

Sometimes it's a simple backlink from a directory type of site. You just have to create a profile, maybe pay a fee and get a backlink created.

Other times, it's a link that's inside a blog article in which case you have to contact the site owner.

For example:

For the above backlink, it shows us the anchor text is "Matthews Roofing".

We simply go to the page and do a Ctrl+F for that anchor text.

As you can see, this is real backlink inside an article (which Google values even more than directory links or blog comments)

Now your job is to find as many of these opportunities as you can and begin contacting the site owner.

Some people offer infographics like this tree service one I made for my rank & rent: grandrapidstree.com

You allow them to use your infographic on their article for a backlink.

You can also just a straight up offer to pay them some $$$ as well.

Or do both.

The point is, getting backlinks is a contact sport, requires being able to email outreach, build relationships & doing it consistently.

In our rank & rent program, we have another way to get backlinks. We call it link circles. 

Because we have 7000 students, if you're trying to rank a plumbing site, you can post in our private FB group and gather 5 more students that also have plumbing sites in other cities and form a backlink between each other's sites.

Team work makes the dream work. This is a high-quality backlink because it's known as a highly relevant backlink, a link for your plumbing site coming from another plumbing site. These types of links hold more weight.

6. Updating Content

Google loves great content, but they also love content that's being updated.

In local, most companies don't update content for years, so when you're updating your homepage every couple months, you stand out.

Sometimes if my site is stuck on page 2, I'll go back to the homepage and add some content to it, change out pictures, revise / improve existing content.

I'll also add a few more service pages, or even an authoritative blog type of content about the niche. This shows Google I'm more of an authority than my competition.

HubSpot saw a 106% increase in organic traffic of old pages by updating the content.

Do you have to keep updating the content forever? Not really, I have plenty of rank & rent sites I haven't touched in years. Because my competition isn't updating content either.

However, if you're struggling to land on page 1, or you're stuck on page 2, going back and updating content can put you over the hump.

7. Site Design & Fast Loading Site

Make sure your website loads fast and is mobile-friendly.

Also your site should look good in mobile & desktop with a clear call to action.

No Google "can't see" how pretty or ugly your site is, but Google can see how long people stick around on your site (dwell time)

Put yourself in customer's shoes, if you are checking out local companies, you're automatically comparing & contrasting each site against other sites on page 1.

If a site looks significantly worse than others, you're most likely gonna click off the site instantly judging by the first impression of how the site looks, you won't even read the content.

This is why in our program we use pre-built site templates & web builder called Snapps, which also has blazing fast loading speeds.

One of the common mistakes I see people make is using wordpress for a rank & rent site, it's just so much harder & time consuming to create a beautifully designed small business site even when using popular wordpress themes like Divi.

Plus wordpress sites come with other issues such as getting hacked & slow loading speeds because of using shared hosting companies. 

8. Avoid Obvious Stock Photos

Pro tip: Images

Using a bunch of stock photos can make the site look bad. Try to find more authentic images that you can use. If you already have a client, ask them to take photos for you of their work / their crew. Or sometimes if you just dig a little further online, you'll find better photos.

Vs.

The first photo looks a lot more of a standard stock photo, I try to avoid photos like those.

Pixabay is a place where you can find royalty free images.

Conclusion

Hope you learned a thing or two about the 8 critical ranking factors of Rank & Rent sites. 

When done correctly, these sites can stay ranking & making money for you for years to come.

Rank & Rent is much different from ranking a blog because you're going up against Joe the plumber instead of experienced bloggers that's been blogging for years with thousands of pages.

We have a coaching program you can check out where we take students step-by-step through how to start the Rank & Rent business from scratch with tons of support, we also go much more in-depth about different strategies & tools/software to make it more streamlined. 

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Ippei Kanehara
Founder/CEO

$52K per month providing lead generation services to small businesses

Ippei.com is for digital hustlers, industry leaders and online business owners.

His #1 online business recommendation in 2024, is to build your own lead generation business.

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    1. Hey Corey! When Dan created our coaching program, the training was based on building sites on Weebly. Since then, we have made numerous updates to the course material, tools, and software we offer our students. Snapps was created by our team of developers specifically for our lead gen coaching students. Now we encourage all new students and new builds to be made on Snapps. Not only is it far superior to Weebly. But you get 24/7 support from members of our coaching team who are experts at lead generation and are, therefore, in a better position to help students achieve their goals faster. Snapps is as easy to use as Weeble-the drag and drop method, and has various pre-made templates. Plus, it has faster load speeds, more widgets, connectivity options, and other perks. If you’d like more info or have any further questions, you can use this link: https://ippei.com/best/ to schedule a call with one of our team coaches.

  1. Is this still a profitable business model? I'm committing the next few months of free time to building a rank and rent business and just want to know that I'm not going to waste my time.

    1. Hey Renaldo-great question. And yes local lead generation is still super profitable. In fact, now more than ever small business owners need leads. If you’d like to talk to one of our coaches or have other questions you can book a call here: ippei.com/best Look forward to connecting!

  2. It seems to me that much of the value comes from the group, backlink circles and support.

    Thinking that building backlinks could be the “less easy” thing for me. There are opportunities for backlink circles out of US? In italy in my case. Linking a local site to overseas similar sites doesn’t make much sense in my brain.

    Just trying to get it all together.

    1. Hey Luca! We have students in Italy, France, the UK, and all of Europe. If you’re interested in jumping on a call, we’d be more than happy to answer any questions you have about the lead generation model or our training program. You can schedule a time with this link: https://ippei.com/best. Look forward to connecting.

  3. Hi,

    What should be the name of the lead generation company, since this method is suitable for any type of business.

    Is the client call you or do they call directly the parent company

    1. You can call your business anything you want to. The names of the lead generation sites are generic names. In the lead generation coaching program, you’re taught how to best go about naming your sites. If a customer calls your site, your client can just say that we work together. It’s nothing to get too worked up over, people that call your sites are in need of a service, that is their main focus.

  4. Thank you for your outline above!
    I have a question regarding GMBs (or now GBPs): Do you create manufactured Google accounts to create a Google Business Profile for your fake NAP? I heard Google is coming down hard on virtual office addresses and phone numbers…

    1. We cover GMBs extensively in our training program. Why not hop on a call and see if we can answer your questions around lead generation? You can book through this link if you’re interested. https://ippei.com/best I appreciate you taking the time to read the article and glad it was helpful.

    1. Glad you enjoyed it. I love teaching people about our lead generation business model so hit me up if you have any questions and thanks for reading.

    1. Love it-congrats! Lead gen will pay you back in spades if you’re willing to show up. Thanks for sharing your success and for reading.

    1. BOOM! Awesome and congratulations! Love hearing about lead gen success stories. Family time is so important and the freedom to not have to punch the clock is next level. Keep up the great work.

    1. This is awesome! Thanks for sharing. I love hearing how lead generation changes people’s lives. There really is nothing like this program and I’m reminded of this every day by students like yourself sharing their success. Congratulations and keep fishing for trout!

    1. Congrats and thanks so much. Glad to hear you’re doing well with your local lead gen biz. Keep leaning in-what are your goals for 2022?

    1. Hey-thanks! How long have you been in our program? How are you doing? I love hearing from students that read my blog too-gives me that feel good feeling knowing what I write helps people. Keep up the great work.

    2. Hey! Thanks for your kind words. How long have you been in our program? Got any specific goals you’re looking to crush in 2022? Always curious to hear how our students are doing with their lead gen biz. Keep hustlin’.

    1. Love this! When did you join our program? What’s the best thing about your lead gen business? Congrats on making the decision to take control of your financial freedom. Wishing you all the success.

    1. This is so great-congratulations! Have you managed to ditch your 9-5? What are your next steps for your lead gen business? Keep doing great work and thanks for taking the time to comment on my blog-appreciate you.

  5. I was having a hard time finding a business model that actually works when I found this program. What Ippei teaches has changed my life. Thanks for all the help.

    1. Thanks for the comment and congrats on your success. How long have you been in our program? Keep grinding and winning my friend.

  6. I tried other programs before but none of them are helpful, but when I found out Ippei Kaneharas program, now I've got $5,000 coming in each month.

    1. It’s really amazing to see the success that goes on within the lead gen program. Keep going Victor, you have what it takes to double that!

  7. Ippei's program so different from other rank and rent models. Joining the program was so worth it for me. From the private group to what you’re taught and all of the live coaching calls. I’m blown away by it all. Thanks Ippei!

  8. Ippei, you and this group are a godsend. Thanks for teaching what you know, it has been a life changer for me and my family. Cheers and all the best to you in this new year

  9. Ippei has the best coaching program and it’s not even close. It’s crazy to me that anyone would invest in another course or business model. This is it for me, so glad I’m part of the family. Thank you Ippei for the help.

    1. We’re glad to have you! Anyone can choose what they want to do but we’re happy knowing you and 7000 other students have taken the leap of faith with us.

  10. I am also doing lead gen for a while now. But because of Ippei Kanehara's program, now I've got $8,000 coming in each month with my 11 sites, my best performing site is a contractor site in colorado springs, doing about $1,700 each month. A big thanks to Ippei.

  11. I had experience with other programs in different business models but none of them gave me a clear path to success like the lead gen coaching program does. Today, I’m a little over $6500 per month and that’s all in one year. This works!

    1. Congrats on your success with lead generation! I love getting updates from students about their business. Keep crushing your goals in 2022 and thanks for reading.

    2. Boom! Now I can only imagine what you’ll be able to accomplish in the next year, two years, five years. Stay focused and keep grinding

  12. This is so informative! Appreciate this blog! You are right the higher your rank in google the more valuable you are to any leads. More leads more sales!

    1. You got it! There’s no secret to lead gen if you’re willing to do the work. Thanks for reading and keep landing those deals.

    2. That’s right Kelly. It’s all about providing value. Not only to local businesses but also to the leads that are looking for a specific service.

    1. Hey thanks for reading! We have a couple of payment options. If you want to jump on a call with me or one of my colleagues we’d be happy to discuss options and answer any questions you might have about our program. You can book a call with this link: https://www.ippei.com/best. Look forward to connecting!

    2. There are different packages offered but that all depends on what your needs are. Set up a call with the team and they’ll help you out.

  13. I've been doing Amazon FBA business months ago but didn't work and guess nor for me. Glad I found this local lead gen and for the first time I gain back the loss I have from my previous business! So happy indeed.

    1. Amazon FBA wasn’t for me either because there are so many variables you need to be on top of and it gets expensive quick. Glad that you found the coaching program!

  14. Heya!

    My fascination with the local lead gen business grows even more! Thanks to your program my business has grown and I was able to quit my job. There’s nothing like this business model and what you teach is next level. Thanks Ippei!

  15. Very interesting blog article! Increasing the monthly sales of your clients is gold-especially during these uncertain economic times. Love that this business model not only helps others but can generate a passive income for me. Thanks for sharing so much value in your blog!

    1. Exactly Tanya, so many business owners don’t know how to market themselves. That’s where we come in and change their lives

  16. I've been part of Ippei Kanehara's program for more than a year, and his program teaches me a lot of things specially when it comes to business strategies. You should check him out.

  17. Awesome! This business model is brilliant! Creating websites to be rented by other businesses. Trust the process-great program and really helpful blog. Thank you.

  18. Impressive Ippei! Thanks for sharing these very informative and useful resources. So excited to venture into your coaching program!

  19. Amazing! One of the methods where a business can maximize sales each month. On the other hand, this is less hassle for any customers who need specific services because the business is visible and easy to connect with via Google!

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