The three things Google ranks on
Google says it ranks local results mainly on relevance, distance and prominence. In plain terms:
- Relevance: does your profile match the search? Your primary category, services, description and reviews all count.
- Distance: how far your business is from the person searching, or from the town in the search.
- Prominence: how well known you are. Review count and rating, links to your site, and mentions around the web.
Distance is why a roofer with 300 reviews can be invisible two towns over while a newer company with 40 reviews ranks there. You can't fake proximity, and trying to (fake addresses, virtual offices) gets profiles suspended.
Step 1: Get the profile right
- Primary category. Pick the one that matches the job people search for most, like Roofing contractor or Plumber. It's the biggest single setting on the profile.
- Secondary categories for other real services, and no more.
- Services list. Add every service you do, in the words customers use.
- Business name exactly as registered and on your truck. Adding keywords or cities breaks the guidelines and gets profiles suspended.
- Hours that match when someone really answers the phone.
- Service area set to where you actually drive. It doesn't make you rank in those places by itself, but it should be accurate.
- Photos of real jobs, crews and trucks, added regularly.
Our GBP optimization guide covers each of these in more detail.
Step 2: Reviews, steadily
Ask every customer, at the same point in the job, with a direct link. A text when the job is closed works best. Reply to every review, good or bad.
Don't offer discounts for reviews, don't only ask happy customers, and don't buy them. All three break Google's rules, and fake reviews can get removed in bulk.
Step 3: City pages for the towns you drive to
Your profile ranks near your address. To show up in other towns, you need pages on your site for those towns, each with real local detail: jobs you've done there, neighborhoods, local codes or weather issues, and photos.
Copy-paste city pages with only the town name swapped are what Google calls doorway pages. They don't help and can hurt. One real page beats ten thin ones.
Step 4: Fight the spam
In many trades the map pack is full of fake listings: lead-gen businesses at fake addresses with keyword-stuffed names. Report them through Google Maps with Suggest an edit, and through Google's Business Redressal form when they keep coming back. It's slow, but each one removed is a spot you can take.
Why you can't rank everywhere
A service-area business that hides its address still ranks around that address. Owners who moved, or who live 25 miles from their main market, see this most. The fix isn't a fake address. It's city pages and, if you really have a staffed location in the other market, a second profile there.
Use a grid-based rank tracker to see where you show up across your area, not just from your own driveway. That's what our free audit uses.
