Keywords In Local Reviews Does Not Impact Google Local Rankings; Study Says

Oct 31, 2022 - 7:51 am 8 by
Filed Under Google Maps

Google Intent Maze

A new study from Sterling Sky shows that putting keywords in the local reviews on business listings does not help improve the local listings ranking in Google Search. The study said, "it does not improve rankings."

In short, the study put reviews with the keyword phrases "fresh cut Christmas trees" and "Christmas trees" in the reviews. And in there was no ranking improvement after the reviews were added. In fact, the results got worse for some of the keywords.

Joy shared charts below that tracked the two keyword phrases which shows that rankings did not improve. Specifically for the first keyword phrase the rankings got worse. Whereas in the second instance, rankings stayed relatively the same, the study showed:

click for full size

click for full size

This was an interesting study but it had a very limited test, just keep that in mind.

Forum discussion at Twitter.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Google Ads

Google Ads API Outages and Slowness; Microsoft Ads Warns About Google Imports

Jun 29, 2025 - 8:12 am
Google Updates

Heated Google Search Ranking Volatility On Saturday June 28th

Jun 29, 2025 - 7:59 am
Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: June 27, 2025

Jun 27, 2025 - 10:00 am
Google

Google AI Overviews Tests Showing Site Names

Jun 27, 2025 - 8:10 am
Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Where The Google Core Updates, Web Is Thriving & AI Index Freshness

Jun 27, 2025 - 8:01 am
Google

Head Of Google Search, Liz Reid, On Ads & SEO With AI Search

Jun 27, 2025 - 7:51 am
Previous Story: Google Tests Fall Decorations In Search Results