The #1 Google Business Profile Ranking Factor (Too Many Businesses Get This Wrong)

So, right away, Google Business Profile optimization and reviews count for over half of what actually moves the needle. Now, in this report, you'll see that there are nearly 200 different ranking factors. We're going to concentrate on what moves the needle the most by concentrating at the top of this report. So, let's start with the number one factor that impacts Google Business Profile rankings, and that is selecting the right primary category. This is still the strongest ranking signal because it tells Google exactly what the business does. So, you want to make sure that you choose a category that most closely matches the main service that the business offers. So, as a quick example, for a roofer, they should select roofing contractor and not just a general category like contractor. Now, there are over 4,000 different categories available, so most businesses don't have any trouble finding the category that matches their main service. Now, the second factor is the proximity of the address to the point of search. This means the distance between the searcher and the business. The closer the two are together, the more likely that business is to show up in that searcher's search results because Google really heavily favors the businesses that are physically closest to the searcher because they're most likely to visit that business. So, this actually means that two separate searchers can actually see different results even when they use the same keyword, just depending on their location.