Local Services Ads: The Real Ranking Factors Most Business Owners Don’t Know
Local Services Ads (LSAs) continue to dominate high-intent searches, and even brands with excellent organic and Maps performance often find that as much as 70% of their conversions are now being captured through LSAs. Yet despite this shift, many operators still misunderstand how Google actually ranks businesses inside the LSA ecosystem.
A recent survey highlights four core forces shaping LSA visibility in 2026: how you structure your budget and bidding strategy, the strength and freshness of your reviews, the completeness of the services you list, and how quickly you respond to incoming leads. These elements remain the backbone of ranking performance—but they’re no longer the whole story.
Google has steadily infused AI into LSA ranking logic, blending signals pulled from Google Business Profile data completeness, user behavior patterns, the speed at which a business generates new reviews, and real-world engagement indicators. Together, these inputs allow Google to determine not just who can do the job, but who is actively serving customers well and doing so consistently.
Among all these factors, review recency has quietly become the most influential. LSAs reward businesses that earn a continuous stream of new reviews rather than relying on an old bank of five-star ratings. This emphasis helps Google surface providers who are active, responsive, frequently chosen, and reliably delivering great experiences right now—not merely in the past.
Service selection plays a broader role than most operators realize. The services you select inside Google Business Profile directly determine which searches you qualify for in LSAs, how AI categorizes your business, and what a customer sees when they evaluate your listing. Many companies unintentionally under-report their offerings, leaving impressions—and revenue—on the table.
Response time has also become a meaningful behavioral ranking signal. Google now tracks how quickly a business answers inquiries, how many messages go unanswered, and whether communication habits appear consistently reliable. Slow or inconsistent follow-up can pull rankings down even when every other factor is strong.
This is where BeLocal and Mobilosoft strengthen the entire system. Together, they help businesses maintain accurate and complete GBP data, increase review recency through smart routing, keep NAP information aligned across LSA and GBP, and improve overall engagement reliability with centralized dashboards. As LSAs become more competitive and more algorithmically driven, these operational consistencies matter more than ever.
If there was ever a year to master Local Services Ads, it’s 2026.