How Google’s local algorithm works

Google’s local algorithm is based on three factors: relevance, proximity, and prominence.

How does Google decide what information to show in the local pack? It doesn’t have to be a Chinese box, but on the contrary, there is a logic behind the order that it attributes locally to the many businesses that carry out their work in a given geographical area.

The famous local expert SEO  Mary Bowling lays out the three factors that drive Google’s local algorithm and local ranking. Get a good ranking for relevant keywords for … simply and concisely so that anyone can make these important notions their own.

The three factors RelevanceProximity, and Prominence have always been the basis of the reasoning of the Google local algorithm even if Mary Bowling thinks that, even if we are in 2020, there is still a lot of confusion in the minds of many SEOs who do not do local SEO every day.

Index [ hide ]

  • 1 Relevance or Relevance
  • 2 Prominence or Proximity
  • 3 Prominence of Prominence
  1. Relevance or Relevance

When it comes to relevance, Google’s local algorithm asks: “Does this business do or sell or have what the researcher is looking for? It’s quite simple. This answer provides all the activities in the search results that might be relevant.

2 Prominence or Proximity

For prominence, the algorithm asks: “Which are the most popular and most valued companies in your geographic area?

As for proximity or closeness, the question that arises is: “Is the company close enough to the researcher to be considered a good answer to the research done?”

This is really what defines Google’s local algorithm and its three factors in all respects.

Let’s say we have a person in a particular place who is very hungry today and wants some spring rolls. So your question is spring rolls! It’s not that different from asking for “spring rolls near me”. These are the activities that the local algorithm prefers.

3 Prominence of Prominence

They have geolocated results based on where the search is done, and Google most likely ranks them based on their importance. If the aforementioned person asks for something in a particular place, let’s say they asked for “spring rolls downtown” because they don’t want to stay away from work for too long, then the algorithm will favor companies that sell spring rolls downtown, even if the research has been done in a place farther from where the answer is being sought.

If you asked instead “spring rolls open now”, there could be an activity on one side of the city as well as another on the opposite side. In this case, it is the time that the algorithm takes into consideration. Hence the relevance of the query If asked for the cheapest spring rolls, still other places may pop up.

If you were to ask for the best spring rolls, it could be a long, long way from restaurants to reach, or it could be a combination of all of the above places.

So you have to think of closeness as a fluid thing. It is like a insurance band, and depending on the question it pulls towards one part instead of another because what characterizes the answer can be:

  • the question,
  • the position of the seeker,
  • the relevance of the question,
  • and the prominence of the business

And everything we have read above can be shown by Google in the local package.

With the hope that what is written in this article will make it much clearer how Google’s local algorithm works, if you have any comments, questions or suggestions, please do so below.

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