How Google determines ranking on Local Business Listings
According to Google, all Local Search results are based primarily on relevance. Google will rank local business listings based on their relevance to the search terms entered, along with geographic distance (where indicated) and other factors. Sometimes the search technology decides that a business that’s farther away from your location is more likely to have what you’re looking for than a business that’s closer.
Google doesn’t say (nor should they) how a business can be listed toward the top of these results. Just like SEO, there are many contributing factors. Currently, location, Yellow Page listings and local Internet advertising do seem to help. Although you don’t need a website to be listed in Google Local, a properly optimized site can be a big plus.
Google Maps and the Local Business Center are a free service, so there’s no way to request or pay for a better ranking. Google does keep the details of the algorithm confidential in order to make the ranking system as fair as possible for everyone, however by increasing the information in your listing (as well as links back to your website), updating your free listing can only help your SEO efforts.
Local SEO for your website
In addition to claiming your Local Business profile, you should also make an initial effort on your hospital website to enable local SEO. Make sure to include your hospital’s address and contact information on every page of your hospital site (and make sure the contact information can be read by the search engines – and not part of a graphical image),
