In short: Google ranks local results on relevance, distance and prominence. You can’t move your shop, so work on the right categories, reviews, photos, posts and consistent listings.
The map pack, the three businesses Google shows with a map at the top of local searches, is where much of the action is: 42% of people searching with local intent click on it (Backlinko). This guide explains how Google chooses those three, and what you can do about it.
Google’s three factors
Google says local results are based mainly on three things:
- Relevance: how well your profile matches what someone searched for.
- Distance: how far your business is from the searcher, or from the location in their search.
- Prominence: how well known and trusted your business is, online and off.
You can’t move your shop, so distance is mostly fixed. Almost all the work goes into relevance and prominence.
Improving relevance
- Primary category. The single biggest relevance lever. Choose the most specific one for your core business.
- Secondary categories, services and products. Everything you genuinely sell, described in the words customers use.
- Description and posts. Natural mentions of what you do and where, without stuffing keywords.
- Your website. A page for each main service, with the same name, address and phone as your profile, strengthens the connection.
Improving prominence
- Reviews. More genuine reviews, a good average, recent activity, and replies to every one.
- Citations. Consistent listings of your name, address and phone on directories and local sites.
- Links and mentions. Local press, associations, suppliers and partners linking to your website.
- Activity. Regular posts and fresh photos show Google the business is open and engaged.
The truth about distance
Rankings change depending on where the searcher is standing. You might be first for someone on your street and seventh for someone three kilometres away. That’s normal. It’s why we measure visibility across an area rather than from one spot, and why “we’ll get you to number one” is a meaningless promise without saying for whom.
Myths that get profiles suspended
- Keyword-stuffing the business name. Against Google’s guidelines and a common reason for suspension.
- Buying reviews. Removed reviews, public warnings and suspensions, and illegal in the UK and US.
- Fake addresses or virtual offices. Profiles must reflect a real location where you serve customers, or be set up as a service-area business.
- Several profiles for one business. Duplicates split your signals and break the guidelines.
- Guaranteed rankings. No agency controls Google’s results. Anyone who guarantees a position is either misleading you or planning to break the rules.
A 90-day plan
Month 1: fix the foundation
Ownership, name, categories, address or service area, hours, description, services, products and attributes. Work through our Google Business Profile checklist.
Month 2: build activity and trust
Start weekly posts, upload real photos, put a review QR code in place and reply to every review. Fix your top citations so your details match everywhere.
Month 3: widen and measure
Add more citations and local links, tighten your website’s service pages, and compare this month’s calls, direction requests and searches with month one. Double down on whatever is growing.
When to add SEO and ads
Once your profile is converting, a local SEO plan helps you win the searches people make while they’re still comparing, and Google Ads can put you at the top of searches where you don’t yet rank organically. Both work far better on top of a strong profile than instead of one.