How does Google rank local businesses?

Google ranks local businesses based on a combination of relevance, distance, and prominence to give the most trusted results to searchers.

Growing your relevance means you’ve got to fill out your Google Business Profile (GBP) with every piece of information about your business. Everything from your business categories, services, hours, website, products, and anything else the platform gives you the option to input. You have to take advantage of every opportunity Google allows to actually show up in search.

Distance is determined by how close your physical business address is to the person searching for your services. It’s harder to boost this part using your main GBP. Interestingly enough, testing has shown that the service area category in your Google Business Profile has no effect on ranking your business in that area. The most effective way to expand the area your business ranks is through setting up a new GBP in that location with a dedicated business address.

Your business’ prominence comes from local trust signals, specifically a steady stream of 5-star Google reviews and consistent mentions across local directories (Yelp, Facebook, etc.). Combining these three pillars can be a technical headache for busy contractors. We handle this entire optimization process, getting your business ranking at the top of the map pack to capture exclusive leads.