Google ranks local businesses on relevance, distance and prominence. Google builds each Google Business Profile from the owner, the business's website, licensed third-party data, public edits and its own calls, then ranks that profile. Local ranking works this way in the UK on Google Maps and Google Search, as of October 2026.

Where does Google get the information on your Google Business Profile?

Google gets the information on a Google Business Profile from the owner, the business's website, licensed third-party data, public edits and Google's own calls. Google Business Profile information is compiled from a variety of sources, not just what the owner enters. Customers may see details the owner never added, such as a menu link or customer photos. Google may also call, text or send a WhatsApp message to the profile's phone number to confirm details such as opening hours. Updates from those contacts are marked Pending, and the review can take up to five working days. So a Google Business Profile is a combined record, not a form only the owner fills in.

  • The owner: A business owner who claims a Google Business Profile supplies the core details, such as the name, category, address, opening hours and services.
  • The business's website: Google crawls publicly available web content, including a business's official website, and uses it as a source for the Google Business Profile.
  • Licensed third-party data: Google licenses business data from other companies for Google Business Profiles, and it doesn't publish a list of which companies supply it.
  • Public edits and content: Members of the public can suggest changes to a business's name, address, opening hours and other facts on Google Maps, and add photos and reviews to its Google Business Profile.
  • Google's own calls and texts: Google may call, text or WhatsApp a business to confirm its Google Business Profile details, and it never asks for payment, so a caller asking for money to keep a business on Google isn't Google.

Here's the thing most owners miss. You don't own your Google Business Profile the way you own your website. Think of it as a shared document with five people holding the pen: you, your website, data companies you've never heard of, any member of the public, and Google itself. You hold one pen. Google decides what ends up on the page.

Then Google uses the lot to pick results. A hair salon can turn up for "salons open now" because its opening hours are on the profile. If those hours are wrong, the profile might not show for that search at all. That's a booking walking to the salon down the road.

(For the website half of this, there's a separate guide on LocalBusiness schema.)

That's what Google is working from. Here's what it judges it on.

What are relevance, distance and prominence?

Relevance, distance and prominence are Google's three main local ranking factors: how well a business matches a search, how close it is and how well-known it is. Relevance is how well a Google Business Profile matches what someone is searching for, and complete, detailed business information helps Google make that match. Distance is how far the business is from the person searching, and if they don't share their location, Google uses what it knows about where they are. Prominence is how well-known a business is, which includes how many websites link to it and how many reviews it has. More reviews and positive ratings can help a business's local ranking. There's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google. The details of how the three factors are weighted aren't published.

  • Relevance: Relevance in local search is how well a Google Business Profile matches what someone searched for, such as "plumber" or "salons open now".
  • Distance: Distance in local search is how far a business is from the person searching, or from where Google thinks they are.
  • Prominence: Prominence in local search is how well-known a business is, shown partly by links from other websites and by its reviews.
  • Verification: Verifying a Google Business Profile isn't a fourth factor, but it tells Google the owner is authorised to represent the business, which makes the profile more likely to show up in search results.

Relevance. Google matches the search against everything it holds about you: what kind of business you are, your address, your hours and your attributes. That's the "open now" example in action. Category information can also be picked up from your website and from mentions of your business around the web. What you can change: pick the most specific primary category, using the fewest categories that describe your core business. Then list every service, keep your hours and attributes accurate, and have website pages that describe the same services and towns, because Google reads your website too (more on why the website matters). What you can't change: the words the searcher types. Categories aren't for keywords, and keywords can't be added to your business name either.

Distance. Google works from where the searcher is (or what it knows about their location) and where your business is. What you can change: make sure your address and map pin are accurate, or, if you travel to customers, that your service area is accurate. What you can't change: where the searcher is standing. And the address has to be the real place you operate from. A virtual office, rented for post and never worked from, isn't eligible for a profile in the first place.

Prominence. This is reputation, more or less. It's partly based on how many websites link to you and how many reviews you have, and more reviews and positive ratings can help. What you can change: ask every customer for a review, using your review link or QR code, and earn links from real local websites, like a supplier you work with or a local group you're genuinely part of. There's a full guide to Google reviews and local SEO, so I won't repeat it here. What you can't change: you can't pay Google for a better spot, and rewarding customers for reviews counts as fake engagement. A reputation gets built slowly, in the real world.

Verification. Verification isn't one of the three factors, but it's the first thing to sort. It tells Google you're authorised to represent the business, so a verified Google Business Profile is more likely to show up in search results. If yours isn't verified yet, start there. It's the cheapest fix on the list.

One honest line to finish. Nobody outside Google knows how these three are weighted. So when you see a chart carving local ranking into neat percentages, it's a guess dressed up as a fact.

Of the three, distance is the one you can do least about. So how much does it matter?

How important is distance in Google Maps ranking?

Distance is usually one of the biggest factors in Google Maps ranking, because someone searching for a local business normally wants one nearby. A business can't move the person searching, and its address has to be the place it really operates from. How much weight distance carries against relevance and prominence isn't published. IvI SEO's Local Signal Ratings, Jack's scores out of 10 for 33 local ranking signals, put distance to the person searching at 10 out of 10, one of nine signals with that score.

At IvI SEO, the advice for a business that can't move is to win on relevance and prominence instead. Distance is fixed, but the other two factors aren't.

What you can change instead:

  • Relevance: A Google Business Profile with the most specific primary category, every service listed and website pages for each service and town gives Google more reasons to match it to a search.
  • Prominence: More reviews, positive ratings and links from other websites make a business better known, which is what prominence measures.
  • An accurate location: A correct address and map pin means distance is measured from where the business really is, and a business that travels to customers should keep its service area accurate too.

Picture a locksmith based on the east side of a city. Someone on the far west side gets locked out at midnight and searches "locksmith". There might be a few locksmiths a couple of streets away from them. Winning that one from across town is a big ask, however good your profile is. And honestly? From the customer's side, fair enough. They want someone who'll turn up fast.

You'll notice I haven't given you a radius. There's no IvI SEO grid or test behind this page, and how far a business can rank from its address varies, so any single mile figure from me would be made up.

Be wary of anyone promising you'll "rank everywhere in the county" from one address. And don't get talked into a virtual office or a fake address to sit closer to more searchers. A rented address you don't work from isn't eligible for a profile, so you'd be risking the whole thing for it.

Your location's fixed. Your profile details aren't, and you're not the only one who can change them.

Why has Google changed my business information?

Google changes business information when sources such as public edits or licensed data report that your Google Business Profile is wrong or out of date. In the Google Business Profile editor, blue text shows information changed by Google. Members of the public can suggest edits to a Google Business Profile. For some suggested edits, you may get an email or notification and have four days to accept or reject them. If you don't respond, Google may publish the edit when other public information, such as your business website, supports it. Google may also apply some suggested edits without prior review. You can always correct the profile directly. So a Google Business Profile needs checking, not just filling in.

  • Look for blue text: In the Google Business Profile editor, blue text marks details Google has changed, and a notification at the top of the page flags Google updates.
  • Answer suggested-edit notices within four days: A Google Business Profile owner who accepts or rejects a suggested edit within four days isn't leaving Google to decide on its own.
  • Keep the website matching the profile: Google can publish a suggested edit that a business's website supports, so old hours or an old address on the website can work against the Google Business Profile. (The full reasoning is in the post on NAP consistency.)
  • Correct it directly: A Google Business Profile owner can edit the profile directly whenever a detail is wrong, without waiting for anyone.

Picture this. You changed your Saturday hours two years ago and updated the profile, but the website footer still says the old ones. Nobody's touched that footer since the site went live. Someone suggests your old hours, you miss the email, and four days later the one bit of evidence backing a stranger's edit is your own website.

That's not a ranking problem first. It's a leads problem. Customers ring when you're shut and don't bother again, or turn up at a locked door, or at the wrong door entirely if it's the address that's gone stale.

Anyone can suggest an edit: a customer, a passer-by, someone who's never been near the place. You don't need to be paranoid about it. Just look at the profile now and then, and keep the website saying the same thing.

Keep the details right and you're in the running. So which signals push you up from there?

Which local ranking factors matter most?

The local ranking factors that matter most are usually a group of roughly equal signals, such as distance, primary category and number of reviews, not one alone. Google doesn't publish an order of importance for local ranking factors. In IvI SEO's Local Signal Ratings, Jack's 0 to 10 scores for 33 local ranking signals drawn from client work, primary category shares the top score of 10 out of 10 with eight other signals.

Of those nine, only distance and number of reviews appear by name among Google's local ranking factors. The others are IvI SEO's reading of how relevance and prominence work, not something Google confirms. Chasing one magic factor misses the other eight.

Here are the nine that score 10, mapped onto Google's three factors, with an honest note on how much Google backs each one.

Relevance

  • Primary category: Primary category is part of the complete business information that helps relevance, but nothing from Google says it carries extra weight, so its 10 is only partly backed.
  • A real business name that already contains the service: A business name that genuinely includes the service scores 10 with no Google backing at all, and adding words that aren't in the real name isn't allowed and can get a Google Business Profile suspended, so never add keywords.
  • Website pages that match services and towns: Website pages that match a business's services and towns score 10 with indirect backing, because the business's website is one of the sources Google builds the profile from (why the website matters).
  • Website link: A website link on a Google Business Profile scores 10 with indirect backing, since Google can detect category information from a business's website.
  • Name, address and phone matching online: Name, address and phone details that match across the web score 10 with indirect backing, because businesses with complete, accurate information are more likely to show up (more on NAP consistency).
  • Local phone number: A local phone number scores 10 as IvI SEO's view only, with no Google backing for it as a ranking signal.

Distance

  • Distance to the person searching: Distance to the person searching scores 10 and is named outright as one of Google's three local ranking factors.

Prominence

  • Number of reviews: Number of reviews scores 10 and is named outright, because prominence includes how many reviews a business has.
  • Brand mentions and name searches: Brand mentions and searches for a business's name score 10 with indirect backing, because they fit "how well-known a business is", although Google's own examples only name links and reviews.

Just below those, star rating and how recent the reviews are both score 9.5. Star rating fits with positive ratings helping prominence. Recency is my view only. Clicks, calls and direction requests score 7, again my view, not something Google confirms.

You'll find charts online slicing local ranking into tidy percentages: this much for the profile, that much for reviews. I'm not repeating the figures, because nobody outside Google has the weights. That's exactly why my ratings aren't percentages.

And the honest limit on mine: IvI SEO's Local Signal Ratings are my judgement from client work, not a controlled test, and Google confirms none of the scores. If you want to see all 33, the full chart is here.

Everything on this page is yours to use, so if you'd rather sort the profile, the website and the reviews yourself, crack on (yes, I'm talking myself out of work again). If you'd rather have someone keep all three pulling in the same direction, that's what IvI SEO's local SEO service is for. Your call.