Local SEO Ranking Factors: What Actually Matters
Relevance, distance and prominence — how Google ranks local results and what you can influence.
Key Points
- Google says local results are based mainly on relevance, distance and prominence.
- A complete, accurate Google Business Profile — right categories, hours, services — is the foundation.
- Reviews matter: how many you have, how recent they are and how you respond.
- A consistent name, address and phone number across directories helps Google trust your details.
How Google Ranks Local Results
Google's own documentation says local results are based mainly on three things: relevance (how well a listing matches the search), distance (how far it is from the searcher) and prominence (how well known the business is).
You can't move your business closer to every searcher, so the work is in relevance and prominence.
What You Can Influence
Fill in your Google Business Profile completely — the right primary category, services, hours, photos and attributes — and keep it accurate.
Ask happy customers for reviews regularly and reply to them; SEB Reply can draft the replies. Check your listings across directories with SEB Citations, and see where you rank across your area with SEB HeatGrid.
Methodology
This is a guide drawing on Google's Business Profile documentation and common local SEO practice — not a survey or a GrowSEB data study.
Put It Into Practice
Run the same checks on your own site with GrowSEB's tools — start on the free plan.
Start Free