Google is highlighting the most loved restaurants in some of the major cities in the US.
Google’s new local favorites lists highlight the top rated rated restaurants, hidden gems, and rising stars in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City.
‘Local Favorite’ is a designation that was introduced this past summer in Google My Business. There was little information provided about how to earn that status, other than it would go to the top 5% of businesses.
Google has now revealed more about what goes into calculating the top 5%:
“Every day, people visit Business Profiles on Google to look at reviews, menus, or photos, and use that information to make decisions about where to eat or what new places to try. The Local Favorites lists use these ratings, reviews and actions people take on Business Profiles–like calling a business, clicking on the website, or requesting directions—to identify what restaurants to highlight.”
Considering ‘Local Favorite’ status is still a relatively new feature, there’s still much to learn about optimizing for it. In SEO, one of the best ways to learn about how to improve your site is to analyze other sites in the top ranking positions.
To that end, if you want to learn more about achieving ‘Local Favorite’ status it may help to look at the profiles of businesses that managed to earn the distinction themselves.
In addition to highlighting local favorites, Google’s new lists the top 10 rising stars and hidden gems. A ‘Rising Star’ is a restaurant which is new and gaining popularity, a “Hidden Gem” is a place that has a small amount of largely positive reviews.
Lastly, Google also revealed businesses receive a recognition package after earning ‘Local Favorite’ status, which comes complete with window stickers.
