on your competitors'. Google has the facts. Why would Google not take those facts into consideration? -- Phil Rozek A few months ago Google officially presented the idea of using driving directions as a ranking factor in local search. While it is very difficult to test this, it is sure that Google is either testing, or already implementing this algorithmic variable. -- Nyagoslav Zhekov I think it is enough to mention "semantic relevance" and the general importance of the categories, and it becomes clear why this factor is of high importance. -- Nyagoslav Zhekov Proximity of Address to Centroid This has previously been a very important ranking factor, for completely unknown reasons. Google changed that a few months ago, and now its significance is majorly decreased. It is, however, still a relevant ranking factor in the cases when the city name is specifically quoted in the search query. -- Nyagoslav Zhekov Proximity seems to be different based on industry, but in general the closer you are, the better you rank. -- Mike Ramsey This very much matters on a relative scale. If you are in a major metropolitan area being within 0-1 miles of a business centroid can have a major impact on where you rank. If you are in a suburb that number might be 0-10 miles or more. -- Adam Dorfman This year, it's been marginally easier for businesses outside the the centroid of a given of city or town to rank IF they have strong off-page organic