All provider listings in Local Services are displayed and ranked based on a number of factors. When determining which service providers to show in response to a user’s query, Google estimates the expected rate of customers contacting your business. Factors in this calculation include:
- What’s in your profile:
- Your verification status and whether or not you obtained a Google badge of trust, like Google Screened or Google Guaranteed.
- Your bidding strategy. Learn more about how bidding works for Local Services Ads
- Your business hours. Currently open businesses typically rank higher than those that are closed.
- Your responsiveness to customer inquiries and requests. Missed calls and unanswered message leads will negatively affect your responsiveness.
- Reviews and reports for your business:
- Your review score and the number of reviews you receive.
- Whether or not Google has received serious or repeated complaints about your business.
- What customers are searching for:
- The context of a customer’s search (for example, search terms, time of the search, and other user signals and attributes).
- Your proximity to potential customers' locations.
Note: If your business has multiple locations that serve the same geographic area, Local Services will show only the highest ranking ad in response to a user’s query.
In addition to these ranking factors, Google will attempt to spread out the leads that you receive over time. Spreading out leads will prevent you from spending your entire budget early in the budget period. If your ad is generating leads more quickly than your budget can accommodate, you may see your ranking affected or your ad paused temporarily in order to more evenly spread out your leads. Learn more about editing your bid
Ad ranking best practices
- Encourage past customers to review your business: We recommend 5 or more reviews. You can link your Local Services Ads account to your existing Business Profile or use the vanity link in your account to collect customer reviews. Learn more about Local Services Ads reviews
- Expand your job types and service areas: Select all job types you perform and your service areas broadly. For example, your whole county, rather than specific postal codes.
- Maximize leads with bidding: Select “Maximize Leads” instead of the “Max Per Lead” bidding strategy to automatically optimize your budget.
- Use high-quality photos: These could be photos of your team, work, or equipment. Learn more about Local Services Ads photos guidelines
- Opt in to new features:
- Opt in to message leads to connect with customers via text at 50% of the cost of a phone call lead. Learn more about message leads
- If you use an integrated CRM partner, opt in to the Local Services Ads booking feature to allow consumers to book directly through your Local Services ad. Learn more about how booking works
