Google has updated its local ranking documentation and Tips to improve your local ranking on Google page. The new wording is shorter and has fewer details than the older version.

A lot of the page was actually updated, so you can compare the old document here to the new document here.

Here is a side by side on the ranking section that talks about relevance, distance and prominence:

OMG National I believe first spotted this and notified me of this change on X, he wrote:

Google has quietly updated its documentation on local ranking factors, and the changes are significant.

The section on “Prominence” has been completely reworded, removing key phrases SEOs have relied on for years.

This sentence has been completely DELETED from the “Prominence” factor description: “Your position in web results is also a factor, so search engine optimization (SEO) best practices apply.”

They also simplified what contributes to Prominence. OLD text mentioned: “…links, articles, and directories.” NEW text now says: “…how many websites link to your business and how many reviews you have.”

So, the takeaway? It seems Google is simplifying “Prominence” to focus heavily on links & reviews, while pointedly removing the mention of traditional SEO best practices.

I agree with @JoyanneHawkins

— Mike Blumenthal (@mblumenthal) July 14, 2025

I am not sure if this means any ranking changes were changed in the core local ranking system – I kind of doubt it – but who knows.

Forum discussion at X.

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Microsoft is testing showing the “See more” button at the top of the Bing local pack, instead of the bottom of the local pack. I suspect this is a test and not a bug, but who knows.

This was spotted by Khushal Bherwani who posted this screenshot on X:

This was spotted first by Sachin Patel in January:

It looks like Bing is testing a new design for map results.@rustybrick pic.twitter.com/Nmdctzw2LO

— Sachin Patel (@SachuPatel53124) January 20, 2025

In comparison, this is what I see for the local pack:

I tried numerous browsers and I cannot trigger this experience.

Forum discussion at X.

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What Is a Yahoo Business Listing?

A Yahoo local business listing is an online mention of your local business information (i.e., a local citation) that can appear in Yahoo results. 

These listings include key information about your business. Like your business’s name, address, and phone number (NAP). 

Your listing can also appear in Yahoo map results when users search for nearby businesses.

Yahoo has 2.24% of the mobile search engine market share. Which means real people use it to look for businesses like yours. 

Plus, it’s a good complement to your Google Business Profile.

And since it’s free and easy, it’s worth creating or claiming your listing to help your local SEO. 

How to Add a New Yahoo Business Listing

To list your business on Yahoo, go to Yahoo Local, select the “New listing” tab, and click “Claim a new listing.”

You’ll be sent over to The Real Yellow Pages site to create your listing. 

Yahoo no longer hosts its own listings. And it displays The Real Yellow Pages’ listings in its search engine results pages (SERPs).

The Real Yellow Pages may already have information about your business. If it does, your business will appear in the drop-down menu when you look it up by location and name. 

Click “Claim Now.”

Next, add your contact information to claim your business listing. 

If The Real Yellow Pages doesn’t have information about your business, no results will appear in the drop-down.

So, select “click here” (or call the phone number) to submit your information.

You’ll be taken to a new page where you can fill out your basic listing information. 

Once you’ve completed the form, click “Submit.”

A Business Advisor will contact you to complete your listing verification. They’ll also discuss whether you want to upgrade to a paid plan that allows for more customization.

How to Claim an Existing Yahoo Business Listing

To claim a Yahoo business listing that already exists, navigate to Yahoo Local, select the “Existing listing” tab, and click “Claim existing listing.”

Look up your listing by location and business name and choose it from the drop-down menu. Then, click “Claim Now.”

Next, follow the prompts to update your contact information and claim your existing listing. Then complete your verification when a Business Advisor reaches out. 

You can also look up an existing listing using the Yahoo search bar. 

When you find your business in the results, click “Verify your listing” near the bottom of the listing.

You’ll then be directed to the page that lets you update your contact information. 

If someone else has already claimed your Yahoo Business listing, you may not be able to claim it via the self-service site. If this happens, call the provided number. 

What Are the Benefits of Having a Yahoo Listing?

The benefit to claiming your Yahoo business directory listing is mainly that it helps you reach more prospective customers.

More specifically, having a Yahoo listing is good for:

• Keeping your local business information consistent: This ensures users have the correct details 
• Improving your organic (unpaid) rankings in Google: Google looks for consistent and accurate information across local directories when determining what to prioritize in local search
• Connecting with people who use Yahoo to discover new businesses: Appearing on Yahoo means more opportunities to reach new audiences

Boost Your Brand’s Local Visibility Beyond Yahoo

Listing your local business in places beyond Yahoo helps you reach as many potential customers as possible.

So, use Semrush’s Listing Management tool to easily distribute your information across listings.

You can first check whether you’re listed on major directories. And see whether there are any issues that need to be fixed.

You can manually fix these listings on the individual directory websites. 

Or sign up for the Semrush Local Toolkit to have the tool take care of them automatically. 

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Starting around June 25, 2025, many are noticing huge declines in impressions and clicks from their local rankings in Google. This is from the Google Business Profiles performance reports and I think it is a data/reporting glitch, but who knows, maybe it was a ranking change?

I first spotted this over at the Local Search Forum where a number of local SEOs began asking if others were noticing a steep decline in their local search performance. And yes, many are.

Here are some charts from the thread:

Veronica wrote, “We are seeing a drop in impressions both on Search Desktop and Search Mobile starting from June 25th. The decline is common across clients from different categories and with varying numbers of retail locations.”

Willy Evans wrote, “Looks like our drops started on the 24th/25th of June as well” and shared this chart:

I spot checked some of the Google Business Profiles I have access to and it seems there is a data loss in the reports. I mean, it can be a ranking issue for these local listings but to me, it seems more like a reporting and data bug.

Sophie at GMBAPI post “We spotted a noticeable decline in both mobile and desktop search impressions across multiple GBP accounts on June 25th, but actions and engagement stayed steady.”

Here is there chart:

I don’t think it is realted to the Google June 2025 core update because that didn’t start until the 30th and we didn’t see movement with that until the July 2nd. But before that we did have rumblings on June 25th but my gut says this is a reporting issue and not a ranking change.

I don’t see a confirmation from Google on this yet but you should be aware, you are not alone with these concerns.

Forum discussion at Local Search Forum.

Update: A Google Product Expert posted in this thread saying, “This is a known glitch. Google is working on restoring the data.” I suspect this is related?

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Microsoft is testing showing the local/places listings in green within the Bing search results. Normally, you’d see them in the normal white background color, but here it is in green.

This was spotted by Frank Sandtmann who posted the following screenshot on Mastodon:

In comparison, this is what I see:

Frank wrote, “Bing is getting even more colorful. In this test, it appears that they have ditched the map and are showing Places results in green.”

Forum discussion at Mastodon.

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Do you need to reach more customers in more than one city or town? 

Let’s say your plumbing company wants to expand outside of your base location. With keyword research, you can see where the most demand is in your local area and target potential customers living in that zone.

This guide will show you how to start. We’ll cover how to search keywords locally and track your SEO in multiple locations.

Why Track SEO in Multiple Locations?

Local search results can vary between cities or even neighborhoods. 

For example, someone searching for a plumber in downtown Philadelphia will see different Google results than someone searching from a neighboring town like Bryn Mawr, Camden, or Collingswood. 

Depending on the size and nature of your business, you’ll want to know how your SEO is performing in each area.

In general, there are two common scenarios where multi-city SEO tracking is crucial:

• Multi-location businesses: If your business has multiple locations or stores, each with its own Google Business Profile (GBP), track how each ranks locally.
• Service-Area Businesses: If you serve multiple cities from one location—like a plumbing company with one office but clients in surrounding cities—track your performance in each city to assess local visibility.

What Can You Do with Semrush’s Local SEO Tools?

We’ll cover three Semrush tools for local SEO tracking. 

Search Keywords Locally

Before tracking rankings, it helps to know the search demand in each target location. 

Keyword research shows how many times people search for something like “plumber near me.” For example, if there are 200 searches a month, that means people search for plumbers in your area 200 times every month.

Most keyword research tools default to national search volume, but Semrush allows you to zoom in on a specific city or region. Here’s how to find local keyword data:

Open the Keyword Overview tool in Semrush (found under Keyword Research). 

In the search bar, enter your target keyword (1). For example, let’s say you want to check the term “plumber near me” in different cities.

Then, click the location drop-down and type in the city name, county, or even postal code (2).

Now you can review the local metrics for this keyword.

The Keyword Overview report will now show the monthly search volume for “plumber near me” specifically in San Francisco, along with other metrics like Keyword Difficulty and SERP Features. 

You can see how the local keyword metrics compare to the U.S. totals/averages. In this case, the keyword difficulty is higher and the cost per click is twice as high as the national average ($40.14 vs. $20.57). 

Want to compare keyword metrics in one city to another?

Just change the location to another city and the volume will update accordingly – giving you a quick way to compare interest level by city.

For instance, here we see “plumber near me” has varying levels of volume, difficulty, and competition in several suburbs around Philadelphia. 

Repeat this process with search terms around your services and notice which keywords have higher volume in which cities. These insights can guide your content and local SEO strategy. 

For example, if “plumber near me” is surprisingly popular in one particular suburb, you could create a page targeting that locale or adjust your GBP to highlight your services there.

If you want to systematically compare search volumes for a list of keywords across multiple cities, use Position Tracking.

Benchmark Your SEO in Each City 

After doing keyword research, set up tracking to measure where your site stands in multiple target cities.

To do this on Semrush, take the following steps:

1. Set up a Position Tracking campaign and target a specific city showing local volume
2. Add your target keywords and start tracking
3. Once your campaign is running, click on the link below the project name and find the “+ Add new target” option 

4. Add the additional location using the same keywords and device type 

Navigate to the Devices and Locations tab. From this tab, you’ll be able to track your visibility metrics and compare where you have the best rankings. 

You can also compare local volumes for all of your keywords across each location in the table below.

Sort the table by volume and compare the differences for each keyword.

Note: It may take Position Tracking up to one day to gather local volume on the city level, so check on your project after a day or two to get accurate data.

Identify Competitors in Multiple Areas

Tracking rankings in multiple cities also reveals who you’re up against in each market. 

Often, you’ll find that each city has its own set of top competitors. 

On Semrush, this can be done in two ways:

1. For Competitors in Different Cities, Regions, or Devices: Use Position Tracking

After setting up your campaign with target keywords and multiple locations, the Competitors Discovery report identifies the top competitors in each area.

2. For Competitors in Different Neighborhoods within a City or Region: Use Map Rank Tracker

This tool (available in the Local Toolkit) lets you track your local rankings on a grid overlaid on a map. And, once it’s set up you can check out who the biggest competitors are in each specific area.

Identify Local Competitors Across Multiple Cities with Position Tracking

To identify local SEO competition across multiple cities, use Position Tracking

If you have a Position Tracking campaign set up, you can review the Competitors Discovery report to see your local competition. 

Just select the location and see who owns the most visibility for your set of target keywords in the table.

Tip: If you want to compare your SEO across multiple search engines or devices (like Google and Bing or desktop and mobile) it’s the same process. Just add another target to Position Tracking and choose what to track.

Identify Local Competitors in Your Area with Map Rank Tracker

If you run a restaurant or local shop, tracking competitors in your immediate area is more important than analyzing businesses across multiple cities.

Why?

Because your customers are mainly looking for nearby options. Someone searching for “coffee near me” isn’t comparing your shop to one in another town.

To find these cross-town competitors, use the Map Rank Tracker.

Go to the tool and enter your business name and location to get started.

Set up a campaign by:

1. Entering your target keywords (or choose from those suggested by AI)
2. Selecting the radius (typically you choose your service area, which could be a few blocks for a cafe and a city for a car rental business, for instance).
3. Selecting your grid size (5×5, 7×7,11×11, 13×13, or 15×15)
4. Choosing your schedule (how often you want your rankings to be collected: daily, weekly, monthly, custom)

Hit > Run campaign and wait a couple of minutes.

Once the data is collected, you can see your Heatmap report.

On the left hand side you can see a list of your competitors in this zone. Click on any of their business names to view the heatmap report of their visibility.

Then, you can go to the Competitors tab and see their share of voice around town:

With this data, you can develop targeted strategies to improve your local visibility where it matters most — right in the streets and neighborhoods where your customers live and work.

Analyze Your Competitor’ Top Landing Pages by City

If you want to know how your competitors are getting ranked ahead of you, just take a look at their landing pages. You might discover some ideas for your own strategy based on what works well on their website. 

Finding a competitor’s top-performing landing pages on Semrush is easy. Just take the following steps:

• Use the “Pages” tab in Position Tracking
• Select a competitor’s domain from the drop down
• Sort by Estimated Traffic or keyword count
• Click to inspect high-performing pages

The list of pages in this report is a great source of information if you want to understand what type of content is currently ranking in your niche. 

Take a look at your competition’s top pages and analyze what they do well to acquire backlinks and answer the questions that people ask in search.

Track Your SEO on Google Maps 

To track SEO on Google Maps, use the Map Rank Tracker. This tool offers a heatmap that makes it easy to visualize your SEO across your service area.

You’ll see where in the city you have the best rankings, and where you can improve. 

The Google Maps heatmap is incredibly useful for local SEO, especially for service-area businesses. It essentially shows your local visibility footprint. 

You can use it to target specific areas for improvement – for instance, if the northwest part of town has poor rankings, you might focus on getting more local backlinks or citations from that area, or even run a targeted Google Ads campaign there to increase brand awareness.

After some time, you can measure how well your efforts are paying off by monitoring how your rankings change in the tool.

Track Your Google Business Profile Views Across Multiple Locations

Semrush Local’s GBP Optimization tool helps you monitor and improve the performance of your GBPs across multiple locations — with more historical data than the standard Google dashboard.

Here’s what you can do:

• Track profile appearances in Google Search and Maps, segmented by desktop and mobile.
• Analyze performance by day, week, or month, with over 24 months of historical data — four times more than Google’s native reporting — making it easy to compare results year over year.
• Monitor engagement actions like website visits, direction requests, phone calls, and messages across all your locations.
• Spot trends and opportunities to optimize weaker profiles by comparing visibility and engagement between locations.

By staying on top of these metrics, you can fine-tune each GBP listing to boost visibility, drive more local actions, and win more customers in every market you serve.

Win Your SEO Competition, Wherever Your Customers Are 

Managing SEO across multiple cities has never been easy. 

Whether your regional franchise in multiple cities or a neighborhood coffee shop, Semrush has a solution to help you manage and measure your SEO situation.

Monitor your progress in every city that matters, track your growth on the map, and tailor your strategy accordingly. 

Get started today with a free trial of Semrush Guru or Semrush Local. 

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Google is testing adding the text “background checked” to the local service ads listings in the Google local search results. This seems to be instead of the Google Screened or verified labels.

Google just slaps on the text “Background checked” in the local listing, to show searchers Google vetted this company in some fashion.

This was spotted by Shameem Adhikarath who posted the following screenshot on X:

I think I prefer the big green Google Screened or verified icons but Google always be testing…

Forum discussion at X.

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Quickly roll out your business info

Local citations are one of the most valuable parts of a solid local SEO strategy, but can you be sure your business profile is accurate across all the major online platforms and directories? A local search engine optimization service like Semrush Local’s Listing Management tool guarantees your local listings are where they need to be and optimized to boost your local SEO rankings.

Distribute business profiles fast

Local citations put your company in front of thousands of people actively looking for your products and services, as well as improving local rankings. Trust Semrush’s local citation service to distribute your business to the highest-authority directories and save time on manually uploading your details to dozens of websites. Include your logo, location photos, website, social accounts, opening hours… and get your business in front of potential customers today! Submitting to the important directories one by one leaves a lot of room for mistakes that can not only lose you business, but also negatively impact your local SEO.

Update your info across all directories

Distributing your profile everywhere it needs to be is one thing, but making sure everything is up to date, correct, and that there are no duplicates is another job entirely. Inconsistencies in your citations are confusing for the people trying to connect with your business, as well as for search engines attempting to validate your information, like Google. But identifying errors without a local citation service means manually checking dozens of profiles regularly, which is impractical for most businesses. Semrush Local’s Listing Management tool can identify problems automatically—and sort them out in seconds!

Discover huge local citation opportunities

Missing out on even one important directory could leave a lot of valuable traffic (and profits) on the table. Of course, it’s not hard to check the obvious platforms like Google Business Profile and Yell, but are you aware of all the other directories in your area getting hundreds of thousands of monthly visits? The peace of mind you get from knowing there are no holes in your local citation coverage and that any potential client will be able to find you no matter where they search is priceless. Semrush Local’s Listing Management tool audits your location and alerts you to top sites where your business needs to be present, something only the best local citation services can do for you.

Get more traffic and boost rankings

Not everyone uses Google Maps to search for local businesses. While the search engine giant is usually the main focus for local SEOs, there are plenty of other popular directories people trust to give them up-to-date information on products and services in their area. With a complete profile, you can expect to earn yourself a share of all that traffic and see a boost in relevant users walking through your doors. On top of bringing you more website and foot traffic, well-managed local citations also work to improve the position of your business in Google’s local pack. Semrush’s local citation services check that NAP data across all directories are properly distributed and current, so you can rest assured you’ve done everything you can for what has been confirmed by Google as an important ranking factor.

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Google seems to be testing displaying local ads at the bottom of the Google local map pack in the Google Search results. Normally the sponsored ads are at the top of the local pack, but here they are at the bottom.

This was spotted by Anthony Higman who posted a screenshot of this on LinkedIn:

Have you ever seen sponsored ads at the bottom of the local pack before?

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

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Quick Summary

• Local citations help search engines and users find and contact your business more easily
• Consistent, accurate citations can help to improve your local SEO
• Tools like Listings Management can help you manage your citations quickly and easily

What are local citations?

A local citation is any reference to your business online that includes your basic contact information: particularly your business name, website, address, and phone number (NAP). Because this information is often included in online directories, local citations are also referred to as local SEO citations, local listings, or simply, listings. In most cases, your NAP is the minimum info needed to create a listing in a directory. However, on many websites, you can include a lot more, such as:

• Business descriptions
• Industries or categories served
• Social media platforms
• User ratings and reviews
• Photos of your business or products

That said, local search citations can be created by anybody, not just the business owner. Additionally, citation sources aren’t limited to directories or data aggregators. Any mention of your business—including a blog post—could be considered a citation if it includes your business name and contact information. 

As a result, if not actively managed, your business information can sometimes be inconsistent or outdated between sites. This can cause confusion for potential customers and even impact your SEO. That’s where local citation building, or listings management, comes in.

How can local citations help with SEO?

When people in your community search for a local business, local citations help Google deliver them the most relevant results in local search. That’s because Google cross-checks business information across a variety of sources before showing it to users. It looks at:

• Your Google Business Profile (formerly known as Google My Business)
• Google Maps
• Your website
• Business directories and other third-party sources
• User-contributed content

The more consistent your business information is across all these sources, the more trustworthy it appears to be. This can help you increase your local ranking, because Google can display your business in the results with confidence.

• Business descriptions
• Industries or categories served
• Social media platforms
• User ratings and reviews
• Photos of your business or products

What is local citation building?

Local citation building is the practice of distributing and maintaining a business’s information across the internet. This is also referred to as listings management.

Building citations involves:

• Identifying all of your business’s existing citations across the web
• Claiming your local business listings (where possible) to gain control over them
• Updating outdated or incorrect information on your site and in citations
• Adding new information where necessary
• Removing duplicate or fraudulent business listings
• Creating new business listings in important online directories

Because this can be time-consuming, many businesses opt to use automated local citation services (like Semrush Local’s Listings Management tool) to make the job easier.

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