How local results are actually decided

Two sets of results

For a search with local intent you usually get a map block with a few businesses, then ordinary results underneath.

The map block is driven mainly by your business profile: the categories, the address or service area, the reviews, the hours.

The results underneath are driven by your website in the usual way. Two different systems, two different kinds of work.

The map block and the results beneath it are driven by different things, which is why work on one does not move the other.

The three influences

Relevance, meaning how well your business matches what was searched. Categories and description do most of this.

Distance, meaning how close you are to the searcher or to the place they named. This is the one you cannot change.

Prominence, meaning how well known and well regarded the business appears, from reviews, mentions and the strength of your site.

Only two of the three are yours to change, which is worth accepting early. A business on the edge of a city will not outrank one in the middle of it for a search naming that city.

Only two of the three are yours to change. A business on the edge of a city will not outrank one in the middle for a search naming that city.

What to do first

Claim and complete your business profile properly. Correct categories, accurate hours, a real description, photographs, and the service area if you travel to customers.

Make your name, address and phone number consistent everywhere they appear, starting with your own website.

Ask satisfied customers for reviews, routinely and without incentives, and reply to all of them.

• Claim and complete your business profile
• Choose the most precise primary category
• Set a service area if you travel to customers
• Make your name, address and phone identical everywhere
• Ask satisfied customers for reviews, routinely
• Reply to every review
• Write location pages only where you have real local detail

What the website contributes

Pages that name the places you serve with real local detail, service pages that match what people search, and clear contact information.

Structured data describing the business, its address or area, and its hours, so machines can read what humans see.

And ordinary quality. A fast, clear, useful site supports the profile rather than replacing it.

The two reinforce each other. A strong site helps the listing look prominent, and a complete listing sends people to a site that then has to convert them.

Service area businesses

If you travel to customers rather than receiving them, set your profile as a service area business and hide the address.

Do not invent premises in towns you do not occupy. It is against platform rules, it is discoverable, and removal takes the listing with it.

Name the area honestly on your site, and write pages only for places you can say something real about.

Do not invent premises in towns you do not occupy. It is discoverable, and removal takes the listing with it.

What does not work any more

Keyword stuffing the business name, which is against the rules and is reported by competitors more often than people expect.

Building a page for every town within an hour, with nothing specific on any of them.

Buying reviews, which platforms detect and which customers spot faster than the platforms do.

And creating listings at addresses you do not occupy, which competitors report more reliably than any automated system catches.

Keyword stuffing the business name is against the rules and is reported by competitors more often than people expect — see business profile.

How ours supports it

Sites built here carry structured data describing the business and its area, and location pages are written from a conversation about your business rather than generated from a list of towns.

The planner refuses depth it cannot ground, so a place you cannot say anything specific about does not get a page.

Every page passes a check that runs before anything publishes, validated against Google Search Essentials and modern web standards.