In short, your ranking is defined by how much content you have on the listing and whether you are a free or a paid client. The exact variables are: your rating (average score and amount of ratings), number of reviews and share of responded reviews, the amount of content on your page, and whether you have a subscription.
There are 3 levers to increase your ranking. The first one is actively managing your listing: posting regular content updates, responding to reviews and disputing unjust reviews. The second is choosing a subscription plan for your needs: if you want only top placement in the directory, you’ll do great with Fast Start. However, if you want a highlighted listing on top of that, Premium will suit you better. The third lever lies in analytics: our business account tools visualize your customer funnel on Nicelocal, so you can see how many impressions your listing had, how many people actually went to your listing, and how many of them looked your phone number up. This can give you a hint on where to improve, and our Customer Success Managers will be happy to help you put analytical insights into action.