Local SEO: what Google rewards, and what breaks the rules
How Google ranks local results, what a Business Profile needs, the UK review rules in force since April 2025, and how to measure local enquiries.
In this guide
Google ranks local results on three things: relevance, distance and prominence, and there’s no way to pay for a better local ranking (Google Business Profile Help). The work Google says helps you show up is a complete, accurate Business Profile and a steady flow of genuine reviews, backed by local pages worth landing on. The work that can cost you the profile, or break UK law, is keyword-stuffed names and filtered reviews; after that, measure the calls, clicks and enquiries the work brings in.
How Google ranks local results
Google’s own definitions are short. “Relevance is how well a Business Profile matches what someone is searching for.” “Distance refers to how far each business is from the customer who’s searching.” “Prominence means how well-known a business is” (Google Business Profile Help).
Distance is out of your hands. Relevance and prominence aren’t. On prominence, Google’s local ranking help page says it’s “based on info 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”. Google gives no thresholds or weightings, so treat anyone quoting a magic number of reviews with caution.
Google’s local ranking help page is clear on one more point: “There’s no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google.”
Get the Business Profile right
Google says “Businesses with complete and accurate info are more likely to show up in local search results”, and that verifying the profile tells Google you’re authorised to represent the business (Google Business Profile Help). Verification and completeness come first.
The guidelines set out what accurate means (Google Business Profile Help):
- Name. “Your name should reflect your business’s real-world name.” It must not include service, product or location information, and breaking that “could result in the suspension of your Business Profile”.
- Categories. “Use as few categories as possible”, and don’t use categories “solely as keywords”.
- Service area. It “shouldn’t extend farther than about 2 hours of driving time from where your business is based”.
- Hours. “Provide your regular customer-facing hours of operation.”
The same work can help in AI answers. Google’s guide to its AI features says generative AI responses “can include … information about local businesses”, and that Business Profiles can help keep your products and services visible in those responses (Google Search Central). An accurate profile can help you show up in AI answers as well as local results.
Reviews: what Google allows and what UK law bans
Google’s content policy bans offering incentives “such as payment, discounts, free goods and/or services” for a review, and bans businesses that “selectively solicit positive reviews from customers” (Maps content policy). Its review tips describe incentives as “fake engagement” and “strictly prohibited” (Google Business Profile Help).
UK law adds legal penalties for some of the same behaviour. Schedule 20 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 bans fake reviews, defined as reviews that purport to be, but are not, based on genuine experience. It also bans “failing to publish, or removing from publication, negative consumer reviews whilst publishing positive ones” (legislation.gov.uk). Those rules came into force on 6 April 2025 (legislation.gov.uk).
The CMA’s guidance treats inviting only satisfied customers as cherry-picking, and says asking a member of staff to review the business can count as commissioning a review (CMA). Under the new consumer protection regime, the CMA can fine businesses up to 10% of global turnover (CMA).
One caution: the CMA guidance suggests a prize draw with no guaranteed benefit is unlikely to count as commissioning, but Google’s policy bans incentives in exchange for any review. I’d keep prize draws away from Google reviews altogether. Side by side, the two sets of rules look like this:
| Practice | Google’s policy | UK law and CMA guidance |
|---|---|---|
| Incentives for reviews | Banned, including payment, discounts and free goods (Maps content policy) | Commissioning a review includes “incentivising by any means” (legislation.gov.uk); check the CMA guidance for what this covers |
| Asking only happy customers | Banned as selective soliciting (Maps content policy) | Treated as cherry-picking (CMA) |
| Asking staff to review the business | Banned as a conflict of interest, which “may include current or former employment” (Maps content policy) | Can count as commissioning a review (CMA) |
| Hiding negative reviews | Discouraging or prohibiting negative reviews is banned (Maps content policy) | Banned when positive ones are published (legislation.gov.uk) |
What’s left is simple and allowed: ask every customer, the same way, at the same point. Replies help too. Google says “Positive reviews and helpful replies can help your business stand out” (Google Business Profile Help), and replies are checked before they go live, usually within 10 minutes but sometimes up to 30 days (Google Business Profile Help). Google doesn’t say replies affect ranking, so reply for the next customer reading them.
Local pages that help rather than hurt
Location pages are a common place where local SEO crosses into spam. Google’s spam policies give this as a doorway example: “Having multiple domain names or pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page”. Generating many pages “for the primary purpose of manipulating search rankings” counts as scaled content abuse (Google Search Central).
I’d suggest one page for each real location, with its own address, hours, directions and anything that genuinely differs there. If a town page would only swap the place name, leave it out.
LocalBusiness structured data can tell Google about “business hours, different departments within a business, reviews” (Google Search Central). Google notes elsewhere that structured data isn’t required for its AI search features (Google Search Central), so treat it as useful housekeeping.
Measure local enquiries
The Business Profile Performance report shows searches, directions, calls, website clicks, messages and bookings (Google Business Profile Help). Read the definitions closely. Calls are “the number of times a customer clicked on the call button”, not answered calls, and the searches figure only updates at the start of each month.
You can also connect a Business Profile to GA4, where its metrics are available for the last 6 months (Analytics Help). From there, judge local work the way you’d judge any channel: by the revenue its enquiries lead to. Why your best campaign by leads might be your worst by sales shows how lead counts alone can rank channels the wrong way round. The one-page GA4 report shows a way to keep that on a single page.
A quarterly local check
- Check the Business Profile name, categories, service area and hours against Google’s guidelines.
- Confirm the profile is verified and every field is complete and current.
- Review how you ask for reviews: every customer, no incentives, nothing filtered.
- Reply to recent reviews, good and bad.
- Read any location pages and remove or rewrite those that only swap a place name.
- Compare calls, website clicks and directions with the quarter before, alongside tracked enquiries in GA4.
For how local results fit into search more widely, including AI answers, see SEO vs GEO vs AEO.
FAQ
Can I add my town or main service to my Business Profile name?
Only if it’s part of your real-world business name. Google’s guidelines say the name must not include service, product or location information, and breaking that can lead to suspension (Google Business Profile Help).
Can I offer customers a discount for leaving a review?
No. Google bans incentives such as payments, discounts or free goods in exchange for any review (Maps content policy). UK law also defines commissioning a review to include “incentivising by any means” (legislation.gov.uk), so read the CMA’s guidance before running any incentive scheme.
Does replying to reviews improve local ranking?
Google doesn’t say so. It says replies can help your business stand out (Google Business Profile Help).
14 sources, all opened and checked
- Tips to improve your local ranking on Google, Google Business Profile Help
- Guidelines for representing your business on Google, Google Business Profile Help
- Tips to get more reviews, Google Business Profile Help
- Manage customer reviews, Google Business Profile Help
- Understand your Business Profile performance and insights, Google Business Profile Help
- Prohibited and restricted content, Maps user-generated content policy
- Connect Google Business Profile to Google Analytics, Analytics Help
- Local business structured data, Google Search Central
- Google’s guide to optimizing for generative AI features on Google Search, Google Search Central
- Spam policies for Google web search, Google Search Central
- Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, Schedule 20, legislation.gov.uk
- The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (Commencement No. 2) Regulations 2025, legislation.gov.uk
- Fake reviews (CMA208), Competition and Markets Authority
- CMA to boost consumer and business confidence as new consumer protection regime comes into force, Competition and Markets Authority