The leaked code references a query-entity match score for local businesses

The conventional understanding of local search ranking is that it comes down to three things: relevance, distance, and prominence. Google says this on their own support page. But the leaked code suggests the "relevance" part is more granular than just matching a search query to a GBP category.

// local_ranking/query_match.proto
message QueryEntityMatchScore {
  float category_relevance = 1;
  float implicit_service_match = 2;
  float website_content_match = 3;
  float review_topic_match = 4;
  float composite_score = 5;
}

category_relevance is the obvious one. Your GBP categories match the search query. Plumber matches "plumber near me." That's table stakes.

implicit_service_match is where it gets interesting. "Implicit" suggests Google is inferring services you offer even if they're not in your GBP categories. If someone searches "tankless water heater installation" and you're a plumber who's never explicitly listed that service, Google might still match you based on other signals. GBP services, website content, maybe even review text.

Which brings us to website_content_match. We've always suspected that website content affects local rankings, but most local SEOs treat the website and the GBP as separate optimization targets. This field suggests Google is actively comparing your website content to the search query as part of the local ranking calculation, not just for organic.

review_topic_match is the one that made us both stop and stare. If this does what the name implies, Google is reading your review text and matching topics mentioned in reviews against the search query. A plumber whose reviews frequently mention "water heater" would score higher for "water heater repair" than one whose reviews only mention "leak" and "pipe."

We've seen anecdotal evidence of this for years. Businesses that get reviews mentioning specific services tend to rank for those services. But we always chalked it up to correlation. This proto message suggests it might be a direct signal.

Practical implications

If review topic matching is real, it changes how you think about review generation. It's not just about star rating and count. The content of your reviews matters for ranking, which means guiding customers to mention specific services (naturally, in their own words) has ranking value.

The website content match also reinforces something that should be obvious but gets overlooked: your website needs service-specific content, not just a homepage that says "we're a plumber, call us." Individual service pages probably feed directly into this matching score.

We're going to try to test the review topic signal specifically. It's the most actionable and the most testable of the four fields. More on that later.