Whitespark, a company that specialises in local SEO software, has released its 2026 Local Search Ranking Factors guide. If local rankings and SEO traffic are at all important to you it is worth a look, and even if you don’t think of yourself as a local business, the findings back up something we have been recommending for years.

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Every business should have a Google Maps listing

For years we have recommended that all customers, whether they are local or small businesses or not, set up a Google Maps listing for their head office. Brand search is a key part of SEO and online marketing, and a strong Google Maps listing is one of the best ways to dominate the search results for brand related searches.

Google is pay to play, even for your own brand

Google is now essentially a pay to play search engine, and this is true even for your brand search results. Search your business name, or a partial match for your business name, and you will see competitor ads appear.

We know with 100% certainty that competitor ads on your brand are bleeding you customers. We have tested this by running ads for customers on their competitors’ names, and those ads generated leads and sales.

Google Maps listings are still free and an excellent way to beef up your footprint in the search results page.

Reviews and listing activity keep rising

It is not surprising that customer reviews continue to be one of the most important ranking factors, and that activity on the Maps listing itself also continues to rise in importance. We have seen the same thing for our own customers. If your business is actively posting on social media, it is worth cross-posting those same posts into the Google Maps listing itself.

Claim your listings on Bing and Apple Maps too

With the rise of AI search and ChatGPT, both Bing and Apple Maps are directly feeding AI search tools, so keeping those listings claimed and up to date is worth the little bit of time it takes. If you don’t have access to these listings yet, your first step is to claim them:

Read the full breakdown of the ranking factors at https://whitespark.ca/local-search-ranking-factors/. Then go and check that your own Maps listing exists, is claimed, and has had a post or a new review in the last month.

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