Siri is powered by Apple Maps, which pulls business information from Yelp. Siri reads the answers aloud, and displays them on the device screen:
Apple's Siri answer to the local search query "Where to buy impossible burger"
We found that there are four main factors (listed in order of importance) that influence the voice assistant's response:
Distance
Number of reviews (Yelp)
Star rating
Price coefficient (usually shown as a set of dollar signs)
Factors that affect local ranking for Siri
Observations on Siri ranking factors
For a specific case, when Siri displays the results of a search for "restaurant near me", the process appears to be as follows:
Siri searches for the local restaurant that appears on Apple Maps.
The assistant displays the closest one, suggesting that distance is a key factor when making "near me" queries.
Siri gathers business information from Yelp, TripAdvisor,e applicable) along with the average star rating and number of reviews. And when there are multiple data sources, Siri prioritizes Yelp.
In the case of the search for "best restaurant":
Siri displays restaurants with the highest average star rating. And distance doesn't affect the results.
Siri pays less attention to the number of reviews a place has, and prioritizes the star rating. An unpopular place with only one 5-star review may rank higher than a more well-known place with a 4.5-star rating.
For a search for "best restaurant near me," Siri will return the same results as above, suggesting that the keyword "best" is more valuable than the keyword "near me":
Apple's Siri answer to the local search query "Best pizza near me"
Apple's Siri answer to the local search query "Where to buy airpods"
Optimization for Siri
There is not much to do about the distance factor. The key to optimizing for Siri is to implement a strategy to collect excellent reviews and more of them compared to other local competitors.
To rank higher on Yelp, and therefore top spot with Siri, businesses must:
Continually work to generate new, good reviews on Yelp. This online reputation guide includes tips on how to encourage positive customer reviews.