How Google Ranks Local Businesses: The Complete Guide

Google has explicitly told us how it ranks local businesses. In their own documentation, they identify three primary factors: relevance, distance, and prominence. While Google doesn't reveal the exact weights or formulas behind these factors, understanding all three is essential for any business that wants to improve its local search visibility.

Think of these three pillars as a filtering system. When someone searches "plumber near me," Google first filters for relevance — which businesses are actually plumbers? Then it considers distance — which of those plumbers are near the searcher? Finally, it evaluates prominence — among the relevant, nearby plumbers, which ones are the most well-known, trusted, and authoritative? The businesses that score highest across all three dimensions earn the coveted top positions in the local map pack and organic results.

What makes understanding how Google ranks local businesses so valuable is that two of these three pillars are largely within your control. You can't change your physical distance from every possible searcher, but you can significantly influence your relevance signals and prominence signals through strategic optimization. The businesses that dominate local search aren't doing it by accident — they're systematically strengthening these pillars month after month.

In the sections that follow, we'll break down each pillar in detail, explain the specific signals Google evaluates, and show you exactly what you can do to strengthen your position. Whether you're a plumber, dentist, lawyer, restaurant owner, or any other local business, these principles apply universally. The specifics of implementation vary by industry, but the underlying algorithm is the same for everyone. Let's start with the first pillar.

Relevance is the first filter in how Google ranks local businesses. Before Google considers how close you are or how popular you are, it needs to determine whether your business is actually relevant to what the searcher is looking for. Google evaluates relevance through multiple signals from across your online presence.

Google Business Profile categories: Your primary and secondary categories are the strongest relevance signals. When someone searches "electrician near me," Google first looks for businesses with "Electrician" as a category. Your primary category carries the most weight, followed by your secondary categories. Choosing the wrong primary category — or missing relevant secondary categories — directly limits which searches you appear for.

Google Business Profile description and services: The text in your business description and the services you've listed provide additional keyword signals. If your description mentions "EV charger installation" and a customer searches for that specific service, Google has a stronger relevance signal to show your listing.

Website content: Google crawls and indexes the website linked to your GBP. The content on your website — service pages, blog posts, about page, location pages — all contribute to relevance signals. A plumbing company with dedicated pages for "water heater installation," "drain cleaning," and "sewer line repair" sends stronger relevance signals for those specific searches than a competitor with a single generic "our services" page.

Review content: Keywords that appear naturally in your reviews also contribute to relevance. When customers mention specific services ("great job on our roof replacement") or locations ("best plumber in Scottsdale"), Google uses those mentions as additional relevance signals.

The key takeaway is that relevance isn't determined by any single factor — it's the aggregate signal from your GBP categories, description, services, website content, and reviews. The more comprehensively your online presence aligns with a specific search query, the higher your relevance score. This is why a broad, well-optimized online presence is so much more effective than optimizing just one element. For practical steps to improve your relevance signals, see our Google Business Profile optimization guide.

Distance is the second pillar of how Google ranks local businesses, and it's the one factor that's largely outside your control. Google considers the physical distance between the searcher's location and your business when determining which local results to display.

How Google determines distance: When a user searches with an explicit location ("plumber in Austin, TX"), Google measures distance from the center of that location. When a user searches without a location ("plumber near me"), Google uses the searcher's device GPS location on mobile or estimated IP-based location on desktop. The closer your business is to the searcher, the stronger your distance signal.

The practical impact: Distance creates a natural advantage for businesses located near population centers and high-density areas. A plumbing company located downtown will have a distance advantage for searchers in the urban core, while a competitor in the suburbs will have an advantage for suburban searchers. This is why map pack results can vary dramatically based on where you search from — the same query performed from different locations within the same city often produces completely different top-3 results.

What you can influence: While you can't move your business to be closer to every potential searcher, you can take steps to mitigate distance disadvantage. First, set accurate and comprehensive service areas in your Google Business Profile. This tells Google which geographic areas you serve, which can help you appear in searches from those areas even if you're not physically located there. Second, create location-specific content on your website — dedicated pages for each city, neighborhood, or community you serve. A page optimized for "electrician in Plano, TX" with locally relevant content sends relevance signals that can partially offset distance signals for Plano-based searchers.

Third, if your business is large enough, consider multiple physical locations strategically placed across your service area. Each verified GBP listing has its own proximity advantage, effectively multiplying your geographic coverage. However, this only works with legitimate physical locations — Google strictly prohibits fake addresses and virtual offices.

Distance is the most democratic of the three pillars — it ensures that local businesses have a natural advantage in their immediate area. But don't let distance discourage you. Businesses with strong relevance and exceptional prominence regularly outrank closer competitors. Distance is a factor, not a destiny.

Prominence is the third pillar — and for most businesses, it's the pillar that determines whether you rank in the top 3 or languish on page 2. While relevance ensures you're in the running and distance provides geographic context, prominence is where the competitive battle is won. Understanding prominence is critical to understanding how Google ranks local businesses in competitive markets.

Google defines prominence as how well-known a business is. Some businesses are more prominent in the offline world — a famous restaurant, a well-known law firm, a long-established plumbing company — and Google tries to reflect that offline prominence in local rankings. But since Google can't walk down your city's Main Street, it measures prominence through online signals.

Reviews: The number of reviews, your average star rating, how frequently you receive new reviews, and the content of those reviews all contribute to prominence. A business with 500 reviews at 4.7 stars is clearly more prominent in Google's eyes than a competitor with 20 reviews at 4.9 stars.

Backlinks: Links from other websites to yours signal authority and prominence. The quality of those links matters enormously — a link from your local newspaper or Chamber of Commerce is far more valuable than a link from a random directory. The total number of unique domains linking to your website is a strong prominence signal.

Citations: Consistent mentions of your business name, address, and phone number across the web — in directories, social platforms, and industry sites — validate your business's existence and establish prominence.

Brand searches: When people search for your business by name, Google interprets this as a prominence signal. Established businesses with high brand search volume rank better than unknown businesses with no brand searches.

Online mentions: Even unlinked mentions of your business name in news articles, blog posts, and social media contribute to prominence. Google's algorithms can associate these mentions with your business entity.

The encouraging reality is that prominence is entirely within your control over time. Every review you earn, every quality link you build, every directory listing you create, and every piece of content you publish strengthens your prominence signals. Unlike distance, which is fixed, prominence is a muscle you can build. For a complete local ranking factors strategy, this is where your investment pays the highest returns.

Your Google Business Profile is the single most important property for how Google ranks local businesses in the map pack. While your website and off-site factors matter, your GBP is the data source Google relies on most heavily for local results. Here are the specific GBP signals that influence your ranking.

Primary category: Arguably the single most impactful ranking signal for the map pack. Your primary category tells Google your core business identity. Getting this wrong means missing out on your highest-volume search terms entirely. An HVAC company with "Heating Contractor" as the primary instead of "HVAC Contractor" will be invisible for "HVAC" searches — a costly mistake.

Secondary categories: These expand your visibility to additional search terms. Each secondary category provides a relevance signal for related queries. Use all 9 available slots with legitimately applicable categories.

Completeness: Google has stated that complete and detailed business information helps improve your ranking. Every empty field is a missed signal. Fill out your description, hours, services, products, attributes, and Q&A comprehensively.

Photos and media: Businesses with more photos receive more engagement, and engagement signals (clicks, calls, direction requests) feed back into rankings. Google has confirmed that photo quantity and quality are signals. Aim for 100+ photos uploaded over time.

Google Posts: Regularly publishing Google Posts signals that your business is active and engaged. While Google Posts aren't a top-tier ranking signal, they contribute to freshness signals and provide additional keyword-rich content that Google can associate with your listing.

Reviews: As discussed in the prominence section, review signals from your GBP are critical: total count, average rating, velocity, content, and owner responses all matter.

Q&A section: Questions and answers on your GBP provide additional content signals. Proactively seed common questions with detailed answers that include relevant service and location keywords.

The cumulative effect of optimizing all these GBP elements is substantial. A fully optimized profile sends dramatically stronger signals than a bare-bones listing. For a step-by-step walkthrough, our Google Business Profile guide for home services covers every field and setting in detail.

While your Google Business Profile dominates the map pack, your website plays a supporting role in map pack rankings and a primary role in organic local rankings (the traditional blue link results below the map). Understanding website signals is essential to the full picture of how Google ranks local businesses.

Domain authority: The overall authority of your website — measured by the quality and quantity of backlinks pointing to it — is a significant ranking factor. A website with links from local news sites, industry publications, and community organizations will outrank a website with no external links, all other factors being equal. Tools like Moz (Domain Authority), Ahrefs (Domain Rating), and Semrush (Authority Score) provide estimates of your website's authority.

On-page optimization: Title tags, meta descriptions, header tags (H1, H2), and body content should include your target keywords and location terms naturally. A plumbing company's homepage should have a title like "Expert Plumber in Dallas, TX | Johnson Plumbing" rather than just "Home | Johnson Plumbing." Each service page should target a specific keyword-location combination.

Local content signals: Content that demonstrates local expertise — city-specific service pages, blog posts about local topics, references to local landmarks or events — sends strong local relevance signals. A website with 15 city-specific landing pages covering your entire service area will rank for more geographic variations than a website with no location-specific content.

Schema markup: Structured data (schema.org markup) helps Google understand your business information programmatically. LocalBusiness schema, Service schema, and Review schema are especially valuable for local businesses. Properly implemented schema can also enable rich snippets in search results — star ratings, price ranges, and service information displayed directly in the listing.

Technical health: Site speed, mobile responsiveness, security (HTTPS), and crawlability all affect your ability to rank. Google uses Core Web Vitals as ranking signals — these measure loading performance, interactivity, and visual stability. A slow, broken, or insecure website undermines everything else you do for local SEO. Ensure your site loads in under 3 seconds, works flawlessly on mobile devices, and has no critical technical errors. For help understanding these metrics, our guide on how to read an SEO report explains what to look for.

Reviews deserve their own dedicated section because they are simultaneously one of the most powerful local ranking factors and one of the most actionable. Google has repeatedly confirmed that reviews influence local rankings, and every study of how Google ranks local businesses places reviews among the top factors.

Review count: More reviews generally correlate with higher rankings. This isn't a direct "more reviews = higher rank" formula — Google considers reviews alongside all other signals — but review count is a strong proxy for business activity and customer trust. Across industries, businesses in the local 3-pack average 2x to 5x more reviews than businesses ranked 4th through 10th.

Star rating: Your average star rating affects both rankings and click-through rates. A rating below 4.0 can significantly harm your visibility. The ideal range is 4.5 to 4.9 stars. Interestingly, a perfect 5.0 can sometimes seem less trustworthy than a 4.7 or 4.8 — some imperfection appears authentic.

Review velocity: Google pays attention to how consistently you receive reviews. A steady stream of 3 to 5 reviews per week signals an active, healthy business. A cluster of 50 reviews in one week followed by months of silence looks suspicious and can trigger review filtering. Consistency is more valuable than volume spikes.

Review content and keywords: When customers naturally mention your services and location in their reviews — "excellent roof repair in Mesa" or "best dental cleaning I've ever had" — those keywords strengthen your relevance signals. You can't ask customers to include specific keywords (Google prohibits incentivized or scripted reviews), but you can guide the conversation by asking about their specific experience: "How was your panel upgrade?" rather than just "Please leave us a review."

Owner responses: Responding to reviews signals engagement and can include additional relevant context. A thoughtful response that naturally mentions the service performed and your service area adds value for both Google and prospective customers reading your reviews. Our detailed guide on how service companies get more reviews provides templates and systems for building your review profile. Reviews are arguably the most controllable high-impact local ranking factor — every business can improve their review profile with a systematic approach.

Citations are online mentions of your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) across the web. They play a specific and important role in how Google ranks local businesses by validating that your business exists, is located where you say it is, and has a consistent identity across the internet.

What counts as a citation: Citations exist in two forms. Structured citations are listings on business directories and platforms where your information appears in a standardized format — think Yelp, BBB, Yellow Pages, Angi, Thumbtack, and industry-specific directories. Unstructured citations are mentions of your business in blog posts, news articles, social media, and other content where your NAP appears in running text.

Why consistency matters: Google cross-references your business information across the web to verify accuracy. If your GBP shows "123 Main Street" but Yelp shows "123 Main St." and the BBB shows "123 Main Steet" (a typo), Google's confidence in your information decreases. Significant inconsistencies — different phone numbers, different addresses, different business names — can substantially harm your local rankings. NAP consistency means your business name, address, and phone number are identical across every online listing, down to the abbreviations and formatting.

How many citations do you need? There's no magic number, but research suggests that the top-ranking local businesses typically have 50 to 100+ accurate citations across a mix of major directories, local directories, and industry-specific sites. Quality matters more than quantity — a citation on Yelp or your local Chamber of Commerce website is worth more than one on an obscure directory no one has heard of.

Citation audit process: Use tools like BrightLocal, Moz Local, or Whitespark to audit your existing citations. Identify inconsistencies, duplicate listings, and missing platforms. Correct errors, merge duplicates, and create new listings where appropriate. This is typically a one-time cleanup followed by ongoing monitoring.

The data aggregator shortcut: Submit your business information to the four major data aggregators — Data Axle (formerly Infogroup), Neustar Localeze, Foursquare, and Factual — and your data will propagate to hundreds of smaller directories automatically. This is the most efficient way to build broad citation coverage. Citations are one of the local ranking factors that once built correctly, require minimal ongoing maintenance — making them a high-efficiency investment in your local visibility.

Beyond the traditional factors, Google increasingly uses behavioral signals — how real searchers interact with your listing and website — to refine how Google ranks local businesses. These signals are harder to directly control but critically important to understand.

Click-through rate (CTR): When your business appears in search results, what percentage of people click on your listing versus a competitor's? A higher CTR signals to Google that your listing is more relevant or appealing for that query. Factors that influence CTR include your star rating, review count, business name, and any rich snippets displayed. If you consistently get more clicks than the listing above you, Google may swap your positions over time.

Phone calls and direction requests: For GBP listings, Google tracks how many users click "Call" or "Directions." Higher engagement rates signal that your listing is satisfying user intent, which can positively influence rankings. This is why a fully optimized GBP with compelling photos, good reviews, and detailed service information generates more clicks — and those clicks, in turn, strengthen your ranking.

Dwell time and bounce rate: When someone clicks through to your website from search results, Google monitors what happens next. If the user spends several minutes on your site, visits multiple pages, and eventually calls or fills out a form — that's a positive behavioral signal. If they hit the back button within seconds (a "bounce"), that signals your page didn't satisfy their intent. Creating engaging, helpful, well-designed content keeps visitors on your site longer and sends positive signals back to Google.

Brand searches: When people search for your business by name — "Johnson Plumbing Dallas" — Google interprets this as a prominence signal. High-volume brand searches indicate that your business is well-known, which contributes to higher rankings for non-branded queries too. This is one way offline marketing (truck wraps, yard signs, radio ads, community sponsorships) can indirectly boost your local SEO performance.

Engagement with GBP features: Google tracks how users interact with your Google Posts, Q&A, products, services, and photos. Higher engagement across these features signals a vibrant, active business listing. This is another reason to maintain all GBP features — not just your core profile information. The takeaway is that user behavior creates a feedback loop: better optimization leads to more engagement, which leads to better rankings, which leads to even more engagement. This is why the businesses that invest in comprehensive local SEO pull further and further ahead over time. As we discuss in our article on whether SEO is worth it, this compounding effect is one of the most powerful aspects of organic search marketing.

Understanding how Google ranks local businesses isn't just about knowing what to do — it's equally about knowing what not to do. These are the most damaging mistakes we see businesses make, any one of which can sabotage an otherwise solid local SEO strategy.

Mistake 1: Keyword-stuffed GBP business name. Adding service keywords, city names, or promotional phrases to your Google Business Profile name when they're not part of your registered business name violates Google's guidelines. While some businesses see a temporary ranking boost from this tactic, Google is increasingly detecting and penalizing it. Suspension of your listing — which can take weeks to resolve — is the ultimate risk. Use your real business name, period.

Mistake 2: Fake reviews. Purchasing reviews, incentivizing customers with discounts for reviews, having employees write reviews, or using review exchange services are all violations of Google's policies. Google's AI systems are increasingly sophisticated at detecting fake reviews. Penalties range from review removal to complete listing suspension. Build reviews organically through excellent service and systematic asking.

Mistake 3: Duplicate listings. Multiple GBP listings for the same business at the same address (or fake addresses) confuse Google and dilute your ranking signals. If you've moved, changed names, or created multiple listings over the years, find and merge or remove the duplicates. One strong, unified listing always outperforms two or three fragmented ones.

Mistake 4: Ignoring your website. Some businesses focus exclusively on GBP optimization and neglect their website. Your website directly supports your GBP rankings — Google evaluates the authority, relevance, and quality of the linked website as part of local ranking factors. A thin, outdated, or slow website holds back your entire local SEO performance.

Mistake 5: Inconsistent NAP. As discussed in the citations section, inconsistencies in your business name, address, or phone number across the web undermine Google's confidence in your data. Audit and correct all inconsistencies.

Mistake 6: No ongoing effort. Treating local SEO as a one-time project rather than an ongoing practice is the most common strategic mistake. Your competitors are continuously optimizing, collecting reviews, and publishing content. Standing still means falling behind. Commit to consistent monthly effort — the businesses that rank at the top got there through sustained, disciplined optimization over time. If you're unsure whether your current strategy is working, our guide on how to tell if your SEO company is working provides the key indicators to evaluate.