Google decides which local businesses to recommend by how well each one matches the search, how far it is from the person searching, and how well known it is. Google calls those three relevance, distance and prominence.
Relevance and prominence both respond to work, and distance only needs Google to have your location right. Knowing which of the three is letting you down tells you where to start.
Relevance, distance and prominence: Google’s three local ranking factors
Google’s own guidance names its three local ranking factors relevance, distance and prominence, and uses them in combination. It also says there’s no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. In Google’s words, relevance is how well a Business Profile matches what someone is searching for. Distance is how far each business is from the customer who’s searching, and prominence is how well known a business is.
Google’s Business Profile help page now calls the third factor popularity in its one-line summary, while its heading and definition still say prominence.
What Local SEO covers, in plain language gives the wider picture first.
Distance: how far your business is from the person searching
How far your business is from the person searching is what Google calls distance, and what the industry usually calls proximity. You can’t change it, so the work is making sure Google has your location exactly right. For a shopfront, that means an accurate street address and a map pin sitting on the right building.
When a searcher hasn’t shared their location, Google says it uses whatever it does know about where they are.
For a business that travels to customers, I treat the service area as the distance work, and I’d set it to cover the whole area you actually work in. Take a mobile dog groomer in Cronulla whose service area stops two suburbs from home, though the van reaches Kogarah weekly. I’d expect those Kogarah searches to go to groomers Google knows work there.
- Search your business in Google Maps and check the pin sits on your premises.
- If you travel to customers, compare your service area with the suburbs you worked in last year, add any that are missing and trim any you don’t serve.
- Name those suburbs in the ordinary text of your website.
Relevance: how closely your Business Profile matches the search
Google judges relevance by how closely your Business Profile, your service descriptions and your website match the words in the search. In my experience, one field carries most of that load, and it’s the primary category on the profile. You choose it when you set up the profile, from a list Google supplies, and it tells Google what kind of business you are.
My bet is that a mechanic who mostly fixes brakes but is listed as “Auto repair shop” matches fewer brake searches than a rival who chose “Brake shop”.
Pick the category for the work you most want more of, and the Google Business Profile guide for local businesses covers the fields around it.
Service descriptions and the website carry the rest of the matching, and they work best in the words customers type. A homepage promising “complete vehicle care solutions” gives Google nothing to match against “brake pads replaced”. Structured data helps too, as code on your website that tags details such as your business type and services, so search engines needn’t work them out.
- Type your main service into your profile’s category field and see whether a closer match than your current primary category appears.
- Rewrite each service description in the words a customer would type.
- Ask someone who doesn’t know the business to read your homepage for 10 seconds and say what you do and where.
- Ask your web developer whether the site carries structured data, and what business type it declares.
Prominence: how well known Google judges your business to be
Prominence is how well known Google judges your business to be, read from your reviews, links, wider presence across the web and citations, meaning listings of your name, address and phone number elsewhere online. It’s also the slowest of the three factors to build.
Every one of those sources sits outside your direct control, so you can’t hurry any of it.
On reviews, Google is unusually direct, saying more reviews and positive ratings can help your local ranking.
Citations count for more when they agree with each other. An out-of-date address or phone number on one listing contradicts the rest, and the industry shortens name, address and phone number to NAP. Getting NAP consistency right covers how to find the stragglers.
In the audits I’ve run, prominence is usually the untouched factor, because nothing looks broken without it. Building citations and reviews properly takes months, so it pays to start early.
- Check the date of your most recent review, and if it’s more than a couple of months old, start asking every customer.
- Look up your business in three or four directories and check the details match your website exactly.
- Judge prominence work over quarters, because a fortnight shows you almost nothing.
How Google weighs the three local ranking factors
Google weighs the three in combination and doesn’t publish how much each one counts. In my experience distance usually counts most, and a closer business can still lose to one further away that’s stronger on relevance and prominence. That reading comes from 20+ years of watching local results, and Google doesn’t confirm any weighting.
Someone in Coogee searches for a physio, and two clinics are in the running. The Coogee clinic is a few hundred metres away, listed under a general medical category, with 11 reviews and none this year. The Randwick clinic, a couple of kilometres further, is listed as a physiotherapist, with services written out and a review most weeks.
Coogee wins on distance easily. On relevance and prominence, Randwick is far enough ahead that I’d expect it to win a good share of those searches.
I can’t give you the exchange rate between a kilometre and a review, and nobody outside Google can either.
- Search your main service on your phone from your customers’ suburbs, and note who appears above you.
- Where a business further away sits above you, put its category, services and reviews next to yours and note the gaps.
- Treat any report or tool claiming to know Google’s exact weightings with suspicion.
Using the three factors to find what’s holding your ranking back
Each weak factor points to its own work, so scoring your business on all three shows you where to start.
Weak distance sends you to the address, the pin and, if you travel to customers, the service area. Weak relevance sends you to the category, the descriptions and the website. Weak prominence means reviews and citations.
Fix the quick relevance and location details first, meaning the category, the description, the address and the service area. Get reviews and citations moving in that same week too, since prominence is the factor that needs the longest run-up. In my experience the relevance fixes show first.
If your business isn’t on the map at all, why your business isn’t showing up on Google Maps is the better place to begin. Scoring the three honestly is hard from the inside, and it’s the first step in every Local SEO engagement at Belmore Digital.
- Mark each factor strong, weak or unknown, and treat unknown as weak until you’ve checked.
- Put the category, the description, the address, the pin and the service area at the top of the list.
- Before the week is out, send your first review requests and put right the first directory listing you find with wrong details.
- Note where you rank today, and check again in three months.
FAQ
What are Google’s local ranking factors? Google’s local ranking factors are relevance, distance and prominence. Relevance is how well a business’s profile matches the search, distance is how far it is from the searcher, and prominence is how well known it is. Google uses the three in combination.
Which local ranking factor matters most? Google doesn’t publish how much each factor counts. In my experience distance usually counts most, though a business further away can outrank a closer one that’s weaker on relevance and prominence.
Which local ranking factors can a business improve? A business can improve relevance and prominence. Relevance responds to a sharper primary category, clearer descriptions and a website in customers’ words, and prominence to reviews, citations and links. Distance stays fixed, although the address, map pin and service area can all be made accurate.
What is prominence in Local SEO? Prominence is how well known Google judges a business to be. Google builds that picture from reviews, links, citations and wider presence across the web, and it’s the slowest of the three factors to improve.
Can I pay Google for a better local ranking? No, and Google says so plainly. There’s no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. The ranking comes mainly from relevance, distance and prominence.
TL;DR
- Google recommends local businesses on relevance, distance and prominence, and nobody can pay for a better local ranking.
- Distance can’t be changed, so the work is an accurate address, pin and, for businesses that travel, service area.
- Relevance is how well your profile and website match the search, led by the primary category.
- Prominence is how well known Google judges you to be, and it’s the slowest to build.
- Google doesn’t publish the weights. In my experience distance usually counts most, though a closer business that’s weak on relevance and prominence can be outranked.
- Score all three, fix the quick details first and start on prominence the same week.
If you’d like to understand how your business stacks up across these factors, get in touch with JB.
