The short version
- Google ranks local results mainly on relevance, distance, and prominence, and says there is no way to pay for a better local ranking.
- Relevance and prominence are in your hands. The category, complete details, reviews, and real sites that link to you.
- Distance is not. Do not rent an address in a bigger town. Google does not allow a profile at a virtual office.
Search "plumber Tacoma" on a phone and Google shows a map with a short list of businesses under it, each with stars and a call button. Marketers call it the map pack. Google calls it local results, and it publishes how it ranks them on a help page most contractors have never opened.
The page is short and it does not give away the math. It does name the factors, and it lists what a business can do about each one. I set up Google Business Profiles for contractors in Washington and Oregon, and this is how I read that page for a trade business.
What Google says, in its own words
The help page is called Tips to improve your local ranking on Google (opens in a new tab). It says local results are based mainly on three factors. The headings name them relevance, distance, and prominence, though the summary line above them calls the third one popularity. Same idea.
| Factor | How Google defines it | What a contractor controls |
|---|---|---|
| Relevance | How well a Business Profile matches what someone searched for | The category, the services, the description, the site |
| Distance | How far each business is from the person searching | Almost nothing, beyond an accurate location |
| Prominence | How well known the business is, based partly on links to it and its reviews | Reviews and real sites that link to you |
The page also says this, word for word. "There's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google." It adds that Google keeps the details of the algorithm confidential. So nobody outside Google knows how the three factors are weighed against each other, and anyone who claims to is guessing.
What you can do is work on the two factors you control and stop worrying about the one you do not.
Relevance. Tell Google exactly what you do
Relevance is the match between the search and your profile. Google's advice is to give it complete and detailed business information, so it can match you to the right searches. For a contractor, four things carry most of that.
The primary category. Google's help page on business categories (opens in a new tab) says the categories you select affect your local ranking. Pick the most specific category on Google's list that describes the business, not the general one. You cannot write your own category, and the page warns that editing a category can send you through verification again, so choose once and leave it.
Few categories, not many. Google's guidelines (opens in a new tab) ask for as few categories as possible and say not to use categories as keywords. Their test is whether the category describes what the business is, not something it has or sometimes does. A roofer who installs gutters on some jobs is still a roofer. The gutters go in the services list.
The services and the description. List every service you sell, each as its own line, and write a description that says what you do and where. This is the complete information Google asks for, and it gives the profile words to match against.
The name, left alone. Adding the trade or the town to your business name does not count as relevance. The guidelines say unnecessary information in the name is not permitted and can get the profile suspended.
Relevance does not stop at the profile. The same guidelines say Google can pick up category information from your website and from mentions of the business across the web. A site with a page for each service you sell tells Google the same story as your profile, in more detail.
Distance. The factor you cannot move
Distance is how far each business is from the person searching. Google's page adds that when a searcher does not share a location, Google uses what it knows about where they are.
For a contractor, that means a homeowner searching from Everett is closer to an Everett roofer than to one in Kent, and nothing on the Kent roofer's profile changes that. Distance is measured from the business, and the business is where it is.
The shortcut contractors get sold is a second address. Do not take it. Google's guidelines say a virtual office, meaning an address you rent but do not operate from, is not eligible for a Business Profile, and a service area business cannot list one unless it is staffed during business hours. Mailboxes at remote locations are out too. A profile built on a fake address is a profile that can be taken down.
Set your service area honestly instead. That means the towns you serve, within about two hours of driving from your base, with the street address hidden if customers do not come to you. The service area tells homeowners where you work. It does not move the business closer to them.
For the towns at the edge of your area, the website does the work. A town page for Mukilteo can show up in the regular results under the map for a Mukilteo search, whatever the map shows. My guide to service area pages covers how to write one that Google treats as a real page and not a doorway.
Prominence. The factor you build job by job
Prominence is how well known the business is. Google says it is based partly on how many websites link to your business and how many reviews you have, and that more reviews and positive ratings can help your local ranking.
Reviews. This is the part of prominence you control most directly. Ask every customer, on the day the job ends, with the direct review link. Reply to every review. Google's page says positive reviews and helpful replies can help a business stand out. My guide to getting more Google reviews has the text to send and the rules to follow.
Links from real places. Think about who already knows your business. The supplier who lists you as an installer, the manufacturer whose program you are certified under, the trade association you belong to, the local paper that wrote about a project. A link from any of those is a website linking to your business. Do not buy links.
Time. Prominence builds the way a reputation does, one job and one review at a time. A contractor with eight years of reviews has something a new profile does not, and the way to catch up is to start asking today.
The tips Google lists, for a contractor
Under the three factors, Google's page gives a short list of things to do. Here is what each one means for a trade business.
| Google's tip | What it means for a contractor |
|---|---|
| Verify your business | Google says a verified business is more likely to show up in search results. Finish verification before anything else. |
| Keep your business information up to date | Hours, holiday hours, phone, category, and service area. Google says complete and accurate profiles are more likely to show up in local results. |
| Respond to reviews | A sentence or two on every review, including the bad ones. |
| Add photos and videos | Photos of your own jobs, your crew, and your trucks, added every month. |
The fifth tip on the page, showing in store products, is for retail stores. Skip it.
What does not move the map
- Paying Google. Google says there is no way to pay for a better local ranking. Google Ads is a separate paid placement, not a ranking.
- Keywords in the name. It breaks the guidelines and puts the profile at risk.
- A second profile. Google's guidelines say there should be one profile per business. A second one for a second town is not a second chance.
- Changing the category every week. Each edit can mean verifying again, and the profile does not get more relevant by changing its mind.
A checklist, factor by factor
- Relevance. Pick the most specific primary category, add only the extra categories that name what the business is, list every service, and write a plain description.
- Relevance. Give each service its own page on your site, with the same names you used on the profile.
- Distance. Use your real location, hide the street address if customers do not come to you, and list the towns you serve within about two hours of driving.
- Prominence. Ask every customer for a review on the day the job ends, and reply to every review within a day or two.
- Prominence. Make sure the suppliers, manufacturers, and associations that know you list your business, with the right name and phone.
- Everything. Verify the profile, keep the hours current, and add job photos every month.
If you would rather hand off the setup, map listings are $600 on their own and come with a Site with Tools. They cover your Google Business Profile, your Apple Maps listing, and your Bing listing, with photos, categories, service areas, and a review link. For the full order of work around the profile, start with my local SEO guide for contractors.
