Yext Research explainer · 1:22

What earns a spot in Google's top three?

For every 10 views a business got lower on Google's first page, one in the top three got about 27.

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A bakery in Nashville comes up sixth on Google, below the map and the three businesses in the Local Pack. Across more than 51,000 businesses, for every 10 views a business got lower on page one, one in the top three got about 27. In 8.7 million Google results, the three profile features most tied to a top-three spot were review count, new reviews each month and owner replies, and slow replies were the one feature tied to a lower spot. Ask customers for reviews every month and answer every one fast.

The research behind it

Yext Research · 2025-07-01Impact of SERP Ranking on EngagementRead the report → Yext Research · 2025-08-04Best Practices Will Only Take You So FarRead the report →

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Transcript

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  1. 0:13Say you run a bakery in Nashville, and someone nearby searches for one.
  2. 0:17Google shows a map with three businesses at the top. That's the Local Pack.
  3. 0:21Yours comes up sixth, below the map, where fewer people look.
  4. 0:26At Yext Research, we matched the rankings of more than 51,000 businesses to how often Google showed them.
  5. 0:32For every 10 views a business got lower on page one, one in the top three got about 27.
  6. 0:38Each view is someone nearby who could call, stop in or ask for directions.
  7. 0:44Then we looked at 8.7 million Google results to see what the top three had in common.
  8. 0:49The three profile features most tied to a top-three spot were all about reviews.
  9. 0:54How many reviews you have, how many new ones come in each month, and whether you reply.
  10. 1:00And being slow to answer reviews was the one feature tied to a lower spot.
  11. 1:05So ask your customers for reviews every month, and answer every one of them fast.
  12. 1:10Those are the habits most tied to a spot in Google's top three.

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Businesses that keep their data in sync everywhere ranked 2.71 places higher in local search within a mile of the searcher.

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The businesses all four AIs put first got 12.2 new reviews a month, against 1.9 for the typical business.

Built on Four AIs, one question, four different answers 1:57 google search visibility

Why does my rank change a block away?

Since mid-May 2026, Google results on phones got 48.7% more different from one map pin to the next, about five times the change on desktop.

Built on What Changed in Google's Mobile Organic Results in May?