Google has stated the local pack is ranked on three factors: relevance, distance, and prominence. Understanding what each one actually controls is more useful than any generic tips list.
Relevance
How well your Business Profile matches what’s being searched. Fix this with accurate categories, a complete services list, and Business Profile posts that use the terms your customers actually search.
Distance
How close your business (or service area) is to the searcher. You can’t move your office, but service-area businesses can define their service area accurately instead of leaving it too broad or too narrow.
Prominence
How well-known your business is — built from review count and quality, citation consistency, and the general authority of your website. This is the slowest-moving factor and the one most local SEO work targets directly.
What This Means in Practice
Most businesses can’t influence distance, so local SEO effort should concentrate on relevance (profile accuracy) and prominence (reviews, citations, links) — see our local SEO services for how we structure that work.
