Key takeaways
- Google's Business Profile help says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and popularity, and it defines the third factor as prominence.
- Google states there's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking, and that more reviews and positive ratings can help.
- Google bans incentivised reviews and selectively asking for positive ones, and says unnecessary information in a business name can get a profile suspended.
- Service-area businesses should hide their address, and Google says an overall service area shouldn't extend beyond about two hours of driving, though larger areas may suit some businesses.
- Google publishes no weightings: the percentages you see come from practitioner surveys such as Whitespark's 2026 report, where Business Profile signals are 32% for the local pack.
Google says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and popularity, and that you can’t request or pay for a better local ranking. It doesn’t publish how much each factor weighs, so every percentage you see is a practitioner estimate.
That short answer comes from Google’s own Business Profile help, and it’s more useful than it first sounds. You can’t change distance, so the work is in relevance and prominence, plus keeping your profile within the rules.
This guide separates what Google has published from what experts estimate. The estimates come from Whitespark’s 2026 survey, and we label them as opinion throughout.
What Do Relevance, Distance and Prominence Mean?
Per Google’s help page, relevance is how well a Business Profile matches what someone is searching for, distance is how far each business is from the searcher, and prominence is how well-known a business is.
| Factor | Google’s description | What you can influence |
|---|---|---|
| Relevance | How well a profile matches the search | A lot: category, hours, attributes, detailed information |
| Distance | How far each business is from the person searching | Nothing about the searcher; only where you genuinely operate |
| Prominence | How well-known a business is, based on info such as links and reviews | Partly, through reviews and the sites that link to you |
Google’s local ranking tips say in the summary line that results are mainly based on relevance, distance and “popularity”. The section that defines the third factor is headed Prominence, so we use that word.
Relevance
Google defines relevance as how well a Business Profile matches what someone is searching for. It asks for complete and detailed business info to help it match your business to relevant searches.
A profile that doesn’t describe what you do can’t match what people ask for. That’s why category, hours and attributes sit at the top of Google’s checklist.
Distance
Distance refers to how far each business is from the customer who is searching. If the customer doesn’t share where they are, Google uses what it knows about their location.
You can’t change where your customers search from, only where your business genuinely operates. Chasing a closer address through a fake location is how profiles get suspended.
Prominence
Google says prominent places are more likely to show up in search results. It adds that this factor is also based on info like how many websites link to your business and how many reviews you have.
More reviews and positive ratings can help your local ranking, in Google’s words. Our guide on whether backlinks are still important covers the link side.
What Does Google Say You Can Do to Improve Local Ranking?
Google’s advice is to verify your business, keep its information complete and accurate, reply to reviews and add photos and videos. It says businesses with complete and accurate info are more likely to show up in local search results.
Google’s checklist
The list in the documentation is short:
- Verify your business, so Google knows you’re authorised to represent it.
- Keep your address, hours, category and attributes up to date.
- Respond to customer reviews.
- Add photos and videos.
- For eligible retailers, list in-store products.
Choosing your categories
Google’s representation guidelines say to choose the fewest categories it takes to describe your overall core business. Pick categories that are as specific as possible, and don’t use them just as keywords.
Its test is to choose categories that complete the sentence “this business is a”, not “this business has a”. Whitespark’s survey puts the primary category first among its local pack factors, which fits.
The one thing you can’t do
Google is blunt that there’s no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. Anyone selling a guaranteed “map pack position” is promising something Google says isn’t for sale.
Want local visibility that follows Google’s rules? See how our SEO work helps Cheltenham businesses rank where it counts.
How Do Reviews Affect Local Ranking?
Google says more reviews and positive ratings can help your local ranking, and it sets strict rules on how you ask for them.
Breaking those rules risks having reviews removed and action taken against accounts.
| What you do | Allowed under Google’s policy? |
|---|---|
| Ask customers to share a genuine experience, with no incentive | Yes |
| Reply to the reviews you receive | Yes, and Google encourages it |
| Offer a discount, payment or freebie for a review | No |
| Offer an incentive to change or remove a negative review | No |
| Discourage negative reviews or ask only happy customers | No |
| Pressure customers to review while they are on your premises | No |
| Ask for specific content, such as naming a staff member | No |
| Set staff a target number of reviews to solicit | No |
What Google allows
Under Google’s content policy, merchants may solicit or encourage content that represents a genuine experience, without offering incentives or trying to influence the rating or contents. When you reply to reviews, Google says, it shows you value feedback.
What Google prohibits
Google also lists reviews that have been paid for, reviews posted from multiple accounts at one person’s request, and reviews based on a conflict of interest, such as current or former employment. It describes unusual volumes or patterns of reviews as a sign of manipulation.
The “discourage negative reviews or selectively solicit positive ones” rule is what the industry calls review gating. That term is not Google’s own.
What happens if you break the rules
Incentivised and biased reviews are removed from Maps. For user behaviour that harms the community, Google says it may take actions that range from suspending account privileges to account termination.
What Do the Guidelines Say About Names and Addresses?
Your Business Profile name must be your real-world name, and your address must be precise and genuine. Google says unnecessary information in a name isn’t permitted and could result in suspension.
Business names
Google’s representation guidelines say your name should reflect your real-world name, as used consistently on your storefront, website and stationery. Put other details in the address, hours, service area and category fields.
The table shows what Google says a name must not include, with our own made-up examples.
| Must not include | Our example (not Google’s) |
|---|---|
| Marketing taglines | “Hartley Plumbing, Cheltenham’s Best Plumber” |
| Store codes | “Hartley Plumbing - Branch 04” |
| Trademark signs | “Hartley Plumbing (R)” |
| Business hours | “Hartley Plumbing Open 24 Hours” |
| Phone numbers or website URLs | “Hartley Plumbing 01242 000000” |
| Service or product information | “Hartley Emergency Boiler Repair Services” |
| Location information | “Hartley Plumbing Near Montpellier” |
| Legal terms or special characters, unless you can prove they are part of the name | “Hartley Plumbing Ltd” |
Addresses
Google says to use a precise, accurate address or service area, and that P.O. boxes or mailboxes at remote locations aren’t acceptable.
A virtual office, where you rent an address but don’t operate from it, isn’t eligible.
Co-working spaces are allowed only if the office has clear signage, receives customers during business hours and is staffed by your own people. Don’t put URLs or keywords in address lines.
Phone and website
Provide a phone number that connects to your individual business location, or a website that represents it. Google prefers a local number over a central call centre helpline where possible.
Related: What Is Schema Markup and Which Types Matter?
How Do Service-Area Businesses Fit In?
If you travel to customers, Google says you should hide your address and set a service area instead. You keep one profile for your central office or location.
Hide your address
Google’s example is a plumber running a business from a home address, who should clear the address from the Business Profile. If you have no storefront with clear signage but travel to customers, you’re allowed one service-area profile.
A service-area business can’t list a virtual office unless it’s staffed during business hours.
Hybrid businesses
Some businesses are hybrids, such as an auto repair shop that has a garage and also offers roadside service. These can show their storefront address and set a service area.
Google’s condition is that the location is staffed by your team and able to receive customers during its stated hours.
How wide can the service area be?
Google says that if you have different locations with separate service areas and separate staff, you’re allowed one profile per location.
The overall service area shouldn’t extend farther than about two hours of driving time from where you’re based, though it adds that larger areas may be appropriate for some businesses.
A wider area on paper isn’t a way to rank in towns you can’t realistically serve. A boiler engineer based in Cheltenham can reasonably list Gloucester, Tewkesbury and Stroud, but listing every city within a day’s drive goes beyond the guide.
Where Does Your Website Fit In?
Google’s local ranking help is about your Business Profile, not your website. But prominence includes links, so your site and the sites that mention you still matter.
Google says prominence is partly based on how many websites link to your business. That makes your website and wider reputation part of the picture, even though the help page gives no website checklist.
Local pack versus local organic
The help page we read doesn’t split local pack results from organic results. Whitespark’s survey does, and the weightings differ sharply: on-page signals are 15% for the pack and Maps, but 33% for local organic results.
Link signals follow the same pattern, at 8% for the pack and Maps and 24% for local organic. That is opinion, not a Google statement, but it points to the same place: your profile drives the map, and your website drives the blue links.
Keep everything consistent
Google’s name guideline refers to the name used consistently across storefront, website and stationery. So use the same business name, address and phone number everywhere, and make sure your website says what your profile says.
Page speed also shapes how people experience a local site, and our guide to Core Web Vitals explains the thresholds. If you’re a Cheltenham business, our Cheltenham SEO page sets out how we approach local visibility.
What Does the Whitespark Survey Say Matters Most?
Whitespark’s 2026 report is the best-known public estimate. 47 local search experts scored 187 factors, and it puts Business Profile signals first for the local pack at 32%, with review signals next at 20%.
About the survey
Whitespark’s report, written by Darren Shaw and published on 6 November 2025, is the 2026 edition, and it says it had been just over two years since the previous one. We found no newer edition as of 3 October 2026.
It states that none of the experts have special access to Google’s local algorithm. It is a survey of opinion based on testing and experience, and not Google data.
The group weightings
Whitespark asked its experts to estimate the weight Google gives each group of signals. The 2026 report also added a column for AI search visibility.
| Signal group | Local pack and Maps | Local organic | AI search visibility |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business Profile | 32% | 7% | 12% |
| Review | 20% | 6% | 16% |
| On-page | 15% | 33% | 24% |
| Behavioural | 9% | 10% | 4% |
| Link | 8% | 24% | 13% |
| Citation | 6% | 7% | 13% |
| Personalisation | 6% | 8% | 9% |
| Social | 4% | 5% | 9% |
Each column adds to 100%. Whitespark says reviews and behavioural signals gained importance this year, and that on-page and link signals dipped, partly because it added social signals back in.
The top local pack factors
The report ranks individual factors by total expert score. These are the top ten for the local pack and Maps.
| Rank | Factor |
|---|---|
| 1 | Primary Google Business Profile category |
| 2 | Proximity of address to the point of search |
| 3 | Keywords in the Business Profile business title |
| 4 | Physical address in the city of search |
| 5 | Business is open at the time of search |
| 6 | High numerical Google ratings |
| 7 | Address showing on the profile (not a service-area business) |
| 8 | Additional Business Profile categories |
| 9 | Quantity of native Google reviews with text |
| 10 | Proper placement of the map pin |
Whitespark’s AI search column is new for 2026. If you want to know how local factors carry into AI answers, our AI search service looks at that side.
Where Do the Survey and Google’s Rules Differ?
They mostly agree, with one clear conflict: the experts rank keywords in the business title third, while Google says unnecessary information in a name could get a profile suspended.
The same survey also lists keyword stuffing in the business name as a suspension risk.
| Topic | What Whitespark’s experts say | What Google’s pages say |
|---|---|---|
| Keywords in the business name | Ranked third for the local pack, and also a suspension risk | Unnecessary information in a name isn’t permitted and could lead to suspension |
| Showing your address | Ranked seventh for businesses that aren’t service-area businesses; showing it as a service-area business is a suspension risk | Service-area businesses should hide their address |
| Virtual offices and P.O. boxes | Top suspension-risk factor | Not eligible or not acceptable |
| Service area over two hours’ driving | Listed as a suspension-risk factor | About two hours is the guide, with room for larger areas for some businesses |
| Reviews help ranking | Review signals are the second biggest group for the pack | More reviews and positive ratings can help |
| Behavioural signals, citation counts | Estimated at 9% and 6% for the pack | Not mentioned on the ranking help page we read |
Treat the survey as hypotheses
Use it to prioritise, not to predict. Where it agrees with Google, as on reviews and categories, act with confidence.
Where it goes beyond Google, as on behavioural signals, citation weight or any percentage, treat it as an idea to test. Google hasn’t confirmed those percentages.
What Should a Local Business Do First?
Get the basics right in the order Google lists them: verify, complete, review, then add media.
Doing the unglamorous work properly beats chasing tactics.
A sensible order
Start by checking your name, address and categories against the guidelines, and fix anything that breaks them. Then verify the profile, fill in hours and attributes, and add real photos.
Next, set up a routine for asking happy customers for genuine reviews without incentives, and reply to the ones you get. Finally, look at who links to you and who mentions you, because that is the prominence side.
Two examples
A Cheltenham café with a shopfront can show its address, since it receives customers during stated hours. It should choose one specific primary category, keep its name to the real name on the sign and ask customers for reviews at the till without rewards.
A Cheltenham plumber who works from home should clear the address, set a service area that is realistic to drive, and keep the same name on the van, the website and the profile. These are illustrations of Google’s rules, not client results.
What to avoid
Skip anything that breaks a policy for a short-term gain. Unnecessary information in a business name risks suspension under Google’s guidelines, and its review policy covers incentivised and gated reviews.
Need a hand with the website side of local visibility? Talk to us about local SEO in Cheltenham, or start with a custom SEO audit.
How long will it take?
Google gives no timescale for local ranking changes. Our guide on how long SEO takes explains why to plan in months.
- 1RelevanceHow well a Business Profile matches what someone is searching for.
- 2DistanceHow far each business is from the person searching.
- 3ProminenceHow well-known a business is, including links and reviews.
- 4No paid routeGoogle says you can't request or pay for a better local ranking.
FAQs
Can one business have more than one profile?
Google says there should only be one profile per business, because duplicates can cause problems with how your information displays on Maps and Search. Separate locations with their own staff can each have a profile, and individual practitioners and departments within larger organisations may have separate pages.
Does my business description affect ranking?
Google's guidelines say the description should explain your services, products, mission and history, honestly and usefully. It must not include links, promotions or prices. The ranking help page we read doesn't list the description as a ranking input.
Should every business list opening hours?
Google says to provide your regular customer-facing hours, but that some businesses shouldn't, including those with varied schedules and those that operate only by appointment. Whitespark's survey rates having no hours as a negative ranking factor, so check which group you fall into.
How long does it take to improve local rankings?
Google's local ranking help gives no timescale. Nobody publishes a figure, so judge progress over months and not days.
Why do local results change depending on where I search from?
Distance is one of Google's three factors, so results are measured from the searcher's location. If the searcher doesn't share where they are, Google uses what it knows about their location. Whitespark's survey also lists personalisation signals such as search history and device.
What can I put in the phone and website fields?
Google says to use a phone number that connects to your individual business and is under its direct control, and a local number in preference to a central call centre. It doesn't allow numbers or URLs that redirect users to other businesses' pages or numbers, and it rejects premium-rate numbers.
Can I include Ltd or special characters in my business name?
Only with real-world proof. Google says legal terms and special characters are allowed in the name if your signage, business cards or invoices consistently show them as part of the name. Without that proof, leave them out.
Sources
- Tips to improve your local ranking on Google, Google Business Profile Help
- Guidelines for representing your business on Google, Google Business Profile Help
- Prohibited & restricted content, Maps User Generated Content Policy Help
- Whitespark's Official 2026 Local Search Ranking Factors Report (published 6 November 2025), Whitespark
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