The help page named ‘Improve your local ranking on Google’ has recently been updated. This google page had formerly been around five paragraphs long, dealing with distance and relevance for local ranking results. The new update sees the formerly short document, greatly expanded by Google.
This new Google document covers how Google rankings are done within the local pack, how to be included within the local pack and more.
Within the document, Google outlines that you should try and get as much information as possible regarding your local business in Google My Business. You will need to verify your business, include up-to-date store hours, include photos, and ensure that your respond to reviews – proper overall management of your account. All of these will make it easier for people to find your local business in the local results; this should by connection also improve your sales and reputation of your business!
For rankings, while relevance, prominence, and distance are all still very important, Google has expanded on each of these further. The following is an excerpt of Google’s updated content:
Relevance
Relevance refers to how well a local listing matches what someone is searching for. Adding complete and detailed business information can help Google better understand your business and match your listing to relevant searches.
Distance
Just like it sounds: How far is each potential search result from the location term used in a search? If a user doesn’t specify a location in their search, Google will calculate distance based on what’s known about their location.
Prominence
Prominence refers to how well-known a business is. Some places are more prominent in the offline world, and search results try to reflect this in local ranking. For example, famous museums, landmark hotels or well-known store brands that are familiar to many people are also likely to be prominent in local search results.
Prominence is also based on information that Google has about a business from across the web (like links, articles and directories). Google review count and score are factored into local search ranking: More reviews and positive ratings will probably improve a business’s local ranking. Your position in web results is also a factor, so SEO best practices also apply to local search optimization.
There’s no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google. We do our best to keep the details of the search algorithm confidential to make the ranking system as fair as possible for everyone.
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