Scott Keever Weighs In on Google's Latest Local Search Changes

Keever SEO founder points to review recency and listing accuracy as the two biggest ranking factors of 2026

Google's ongoing refinements to how it ranks and displays local business results continue to have an outsized effect on companies that rely on search visibility to bring in customers, according to search strategist Scott Keever, founder of Keever SEO.

Two Signals That Matter Most

Of the dozens of factors that influence local search rankings, Keever SEO has pointed to two as having an outsized effect this year: the accuracy and consistency of a business's online listings, and the volume and recency of customer reviews.

Businesses that let their Google Business Profile go stale — outdated hours, missing photos, no recent review responses — are increasingly likely to lose visibility to competitors who keep their profiles active. That dynamic has become more pronounced as Google leans further into AI-generated summaries that pull directly from listing data and recent review sentiment.

Treating Reputation as One System

A recurring theme in how Keever SEO approaches client work is the idea that review generation, website content, and business listing accuracy should be treated as a single connected system rather than separate tasks handled by different people or vendors. Companies that align those pieces, according to the firm, tend to perform better in local search than those addressing each element in isolation.

That approach has become more relevant as Google's algorithm updates increasingly reward freshness and consistency across a business's entire online footprint, rather than optimizing for any one factor — like keyword-stuffed titles — in isolation.

No Single Fix

Keever SEO has cautioned that there is no single tactic that guarantees top local search placement, since ranking algorithms weigh dozens of interacting signals simultaneously. The firm's general guidance for business owners is more procedural than tactical: keep listing information accurate across every platform where it appears, respond to customer feedback within a reasonable window, and treat online reputation as an ongoing responsibility rather than a one-time project completed and forgotten.

What Comes Next

With Google continuing to iterate on how local results are surfaced — including expanded use of AI overviews in local search queries — reputation and SEO specialists expect the gap to widen between businesses that actively manage their online presence and those that don't. Keever SEO says it's advising clients to audit their full online footprint at least quarterly rather than waiting for a visible ranking drop to prompt action.