Local Ranking Factors: User-to-Business Proximity | Vicinus.ai

There are many factors that impact local ranking. User-to-Business proximity is one of these very important factors which can impact the local pack ranking of your business in search results.

What is User-to-Business Proximity?

In simple terms, User-to-Business proximity is the geographic relation of a customer to a business store. For example, a customer might be searching relevant terms such as ‘coffee near me’, ‘coffee shop near me’, or even simply ‘coffee shop’.

The search engine will then show relevant coffee shops within a certain proximity of the customer. This allows them to choose which store is right for them from these results.

It is likely that the customer will see the ‘local pack’ which is the first three search results. This is after they have made a local search inquiry as detailed above.

This local pack will change depending on the geographic location the customer is to the business. Additionally, the local pack is influenced by the competitiveness, dentistry, and diversity of similar businesses in the area.

Google suggests that:

‘businesses offer products and services to customers based on the customer’s known place of residence or to customers who reside within the geographic area of the business’

Local Ranking Factors can help me rank as high as possible?

To be able to rank higher in local searches, optimising certain elements can help you rank higher in searches. These elements are based around your Google My Business (GMB) profile. These include certain factors such as keywords, business name, business category, reviews, etc.

Reviews are a very important part of developing your local ranking factors. This is because reviews can influence your potential customers to use your business. This means that responding to all customer reviews- whether good or bad- is essential. 

For more information about how reviews can impact your search ranking, please check out our blog post below:

Should You Be Worried About Negative Reviews?

After this, User-to-Business Proximity is an essential factor in how and where your business shows up in ‘near me’ search results.

How can Google My Business Listing Optimisation help my business show up in ‘near me’ searches?

Dedicating some time and effort to your GMB listings can really help your business climb up the local search rankings. Making sure that your listings are up-to-date as well as having daily activity can help optimise your GMB listings.

This is where Vicinus can help you. Vicinus is an AI-powered hyperlocal marketing tool that will enhance your local presence online. 

The Vicinus platform features real-time management and creation of business listings. This is across multiple platforms, insights into performance, building and monitoring online reputation and more.

For full local optimization, Vicinus also assists in creating SEO-friendly location pages for each of your business locations.

For more information about how Vicinus can help you, please contact us below:

contact@vicinus.ai or call one of our hyperlocal experts: +447760525905