How Google picks the businesses in the map pack

When someone nearby searches for “water heater repair” or “nail salon,” Google often answers with a map and a short list of businesses under it. People call it the map pack or the local pack. A spot in that list can bring a steady stream of calls, so it attracts plenty of myths and sales pitches. The good news is that Google publishes the basics of how it decides. Once you know them, you can spend your time on the parts you control.

The three things Google says it looks at

Google’s help page on local ranking says local results are based mainly on three factors: relevance, distance and prominence. Google doesn’t publish how much each one counts, and it keeps the details of its ranking system confidential. It is also clear that there’s no way to request or pay for a better local ranking.

Relevance

Relevance is how well your Business Profile matches what someone searched for. Google says complete, detailed business information helps it understand your business and match it to the right searches.

Distance

Distance is how far your business is from the person searching. If the person doesn’t name a place in the search, Google works out distance from what it knows about where they are.

Prominence

Prominence is how well known your business is. Google says this draws on information like how many websites link to your business and how many reviews you have, and that more reviews and positive ratings can help your local ranking.

Distance: the one you can’t change

You can’t move your business closer to every customer. That’s why the same search can show you near the top a few blocks from your shop and nowhere across town. It’s normal, and it’s also why a single search from your own desk tells you very little.

Some owners try to fix distance with a second address. Google’s guidelines close those doors:

• Virtual offices aren’t eligible for a Business Profile.
• PO boxes and mailboxes at remote locations aren’t acceptable.
• A coworking space only qualifies if it has clear signage, receives customers during business hours and is staffed by your own people during those hours.
• Each business location gets one profile.

Google says it may suspend profiles that break its guidelines, so a made-up address can cost you far more than it gains. If you travel to customers, list the areas you really serve. Google says a service area generally shouldn’t stretch beyond about two hours of driving from where you’re based.

Relevance: tell Google exactly what you do

This is where many profiles leave easy work undone. Go through these in order:

1. Pick the most specific primary category. Google’s guidelines say to use as few categories as possible, choose the most specific ones, and use them to describe what your business is, not as a list of keywords.
2. Add your services. Service businesses can list services on the profile, choosing from Google’s suggestions or adding their own, with descriptions and prices. Google says services may be highlighted when customers search for them.
3. Fill in the rest. Hours, holiday hours, attributes, phone number, website and description. Google says complete, accurate information makes it more likely your profile shows up for relevant searches.
4. Use your real business name. It should match your signage, website and stationery. Google doesn’t allow taglines, service descriptions, locations or phone numbers in the name, and it warns that unnecessary information there could lead to a suspension. “Smith Plumbing” is fine. “Smith Plumbing Emergency Plumber Dallas” is asking for trouble.
5. Verify your profile. Google says verification makes your business more likely to appear in results.

Prominence: earn it in the real world

Prominence moves slowest, because it reflects how well known you actually are.

• Reviews. Ask every customer for an honest review, every time. Don’t offer anything in return and don’t screen out unhappy customers first. Google’s review policy bans both, and Google removes reviews that break its rules.
• Replies. Google recommends responding to reviews. A short, specific reply also shows future customers how you treat people.
• Photos and videos. Google suggests adding them to show what you offer. For a service business, that means real job photos, your team and your vehicles.
• Links from real local websites. Prominence takes into account how many websites link to your business. Trade associations you belong to, manufacturer dealer or installer directories and local news coverage are honest ways to earn them. Don’t buy them: Google’s spam policies treat buying or selling links for ranking purposes as link spam.

What won’t help

• Paying Google for a better unpaid ranking. You can’t. Ads are a separate product. Google Ads can appear above or below search results and on Google Maps, but buying them doesn’t change where your unpaid listing ranks.
• Keywords in your business name. It breaks Google’s guidelines and puts the profile at risk.
• Extra profiles for the same business. One business location, one profile.
• Anyone who guarantees a top spot. Google doesn’t sell local rankings and keeps its ranking details confidential, so nobody outside Google can promise you a position.

How to tell whether it’s working

Once your profile is verified, it has a Performance report. It shows the search terms people used to find you, how many people viewed your profile, and how many tapped to call, clicked through to your website or asked for directions. Watch the trend over months, not days.

Because distance changes results from street to street, a useful ranking check searches from many points across your area, not just from your office. Our free Google Maps ranking report does that for one search, at 49 points around your business.