The 3 Factors That Decide If You Rank Locally: Relevance, Distance & Prominence
Want to show up in Google’s Map Pack? You’re not alone, but showing up doesn’t happen by accident. Ranking comes down to three core factors: relevance, distance, and prominence.
And no, this isn’t theory. Google confirms it directly.
Here’s exactly what these mean, why they matter, and how Local Howl can help optimize your business to dominate local search.
Relevance: Are You What They’re Searching For?
How to move the needle
Let’s say you want to rank for “emergency HVAC repair in Miami.” Here's what matters:
Is that phrase in your business description, reviews, and review replies?
Does your website mention it in headlines, paragraphs, and meta tags?
Do backlinks pointing to your site use that phrase in the anchor text?
Is that term baked into your Google Business Profile, post captions, and FAQs?
Distance: How Close Are You to the Searcher?
This one’s pretty simple, proximity matters. Google weighs how far your business is from the person doing the search, especially for queries like “near me” or when location is implied.
Where Businesses Go Wrong With Distance
Using MapBox instead of Google Maps on their site (this doesn’t send the right signal back to Google)
Ignoring the service area setting in their Google Business Profile
Failing to create location-specific pages for nearby areas they want to rank in
How to improve your distance factor:
Use embedded Google Maps (not third-party tools) on your contact and location pages
Set your service areas accurately inside your GMB dashboard
Create neighborhood-specific landing pages. For instance, if you're in Manchester and want traffic from Town and Country, Missouri, build a page like
/directions-from-town-and-countrywith directions, local references, and an embedded Google Map.
Just make sure it's about visibility with real-world action in mind. If customers won’t drive that far, or if your team won’t go there, it’s not worth the SEO energy.
Prominence: Does Google Trust You?
Prominence is all about authority. It's how Google measures your credibility, based on what the internet says about you.
Factors That Influence Your Prominence Score
How to Build Prominence
Earn links from industry sites (e.g., Avvo for lawyers, Houzz for contractors, Healthgrades for doctors)
Get 4–6 reviews per month and respond to all of them, yes, even the bad ones
Optimize your technical SEO: fast load times, mobile responsiveness, and schema markup
Be active on third-party sites. Your brand should be showing up where customers spend time, not just on Google.
BONUS: The Secret Role of Citations
Citations support both relevance and distance.
Industry citations (like Angi, Expertise, or Houzz) improve relevance
Geographically based citations (like local chamber websites) improve distance
And the “big boy” directories (like Apple Maps, Yelp, and CitySearch)? They enhance relevance, distance, and prominence simultaneously
A clean, consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone) across these platforms builds trust. And if your competitors have more of these, or better ones, you’re starting from behind.
Not Showing Up Where It Counts?
We’ll show you what it takes to move up in the local pack, and stay there.