How do I show up in "near me" searches?

"Near me" searches, or simply a service with location switched on, are among the most valuable for local businesses: whoever makes them is usually ready to act. Google uses the person's location, so the result changes from street to street and from person to person.

What Google looks at

For local results, Google itself mentions three criteria: relevance (how well the company matches what the person is looking for), distance (how near it is) and prominence (how well known and well referred to it is). We saw them in more detail in what local SEO is.

What you can change

1. The profile's main category. Choose the one that best describes what you do.
2. The services and description. In the words a customer uses.
3. The opening hours. Up to date, including holidays. Whoever searches at night wants to know whether you open tomorrow.
4. The photos. Real and recent, of the space, the team, the work.
5. The reviews. More recent ones are worth more than very old ones, and replies count.
6. The service area, if you go to customers. Indicate the areas where you work.
7. The website. A contact page with the address, the map and the phone number, with details identical to the profile, that reads well on a phone.
8. The questions and answers and the posts on the profile, to show it is alive.

What you do not control

• Distance. If a competitor is closer to the person, they have an advantage on that criterion. It is not solved by changing the address, and faking one that is not yours leads to the profile being suspended.
• What each person sees. Results vary with place, device and history.
• When Google updates what it shows.

And if the person does not type "near me"?

More and more, Google assumes a physical service is local and shows results from the area without the person asking. So the work is the same, whether the person types "near me", the name of the town or just the service.

How to test what a local customer sees

Search for your service on your phone, with location on and in private mode, from different places in your area: your address, a nearby street and a neighbouring district. Note who appears and in what order. Ask the same of a friend or colleague in another area. Repeat every two months. If you do not appear, see what the companies that do appear have more of: more reviews, better photos, a more specific category, clear hours.

If you work in several areas, you do not need a page per town: read whether a page per town is worth it. And for the foundation of all this, the Google Business Profile guide. In Digital Marketing, these searches are among the first we test with the client.

The test in three places

Make a table with three rows: your address, a street five minutes away and a neighbouring district. For each, search for your service on your phone and note the first three companies that appear, with their number of reviews and what they show. You will see whether your problem is distance (you only appear to people nearby) or prominence (you appear little even to people nearby). Only the second is solved by work on the profile.

In short

• Google ranks local results by relevance, distance and prominence.
• You control the profile, reviews, photos, hours and website; you do not control distance.
• Changing the address does not help: it can lead to the profile being suspended.
• Test from several places in the area and repeat every two months.

Quick questions

Can I always appear ahead of competitors?

No. Distance and each person's history change the result. What you can do is make the profile and presence as complete and reliable as possible.

How long until I notice changes?

Some, like hours and photos, show in days or weeks; others, like reviews, take months to build up.

Should I put "near me" on the website?

There is no point writing the phrase. Write the name of the town and of the areas where you work, and the full address, where it makes sense for the reader.