How Google picks the three businesses it shows first

Search for “physio near me” or “electrician Paddington” and Google usually shows a map with three businesses underneath. Those three are seen before any website, which is why being one of them matters so much to a local business.

Google explains how it picks them on its own help pages. It comes down to three things: relevance, distance and prominence. It also says plainly: “There’s no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google.”

Relevance: do you match the search?

“Relevance is how well a Business Profile matches what someone is searching for.”

Google’s advice is to give it complete and detailed business information. In practice that means:

• The most specific main category you can choose: “Physiotherapist” rather than a general medical category, “Roofing contractor” rather than “General contractor”.
• Your services listed on your profile, in the words customers use.
• A website with a page for each main service, so Google can match you to searches for each one.

Distance: how close are you?

“Distance refers to how far each business is from the customer who’s searching.”

If a customer doesn’t share where they are, Google uses what it knows about their location. You can’t move closer to every customer, but you can make sure Google has your location right:

• Check your address and map pin or, if you go to your customers, the service area on your profile.
• If you serve several suburbs, a page on your website for each one gives Google something to match when people search with a suburb name.

Prominence: how well known are you?

“Prominence means how well-known a business is.”

Google says this is based on things like how many websites link to your business and how many reviews you have, and that “more reviews and positive ratings can help your business’s local ranking.”

• Ask every customer for a review, and reply to each one.
• Keep adding photos of your work or your premises.
• Get listed, with the same name, address and phone number, on the directories and local sites people in your industry use.

A 15-minute check you can do today

1. Open a private browser window and search for your main service and suburb.
2. Write down the three businesses Google shows.
3. Compare their categories, review counts and photos with yours.
4. Check whether your website has a page for that service, and one for that suburb if you travel to customers.

Do that for your three most important searches and you’ll know where the gaps are.