How to Rank in the Google Map Pack: Local SEO Guide

The map pack is the box of three businesses that shows up with a map when someone searches “roofer near me” or “med spa in Doral.” For a service business it is the most valuable spot on Google: it sits above the regular results, it shows your stars, and it has a call button. Here is how local SEO for service businesses gets you into it.

How Google chooses the three businesses

Google says it ranks local results on three things (Google Business Profile Help):

• Relevance: how well your profile matches what the person searched.
• Distance: how far you are from the person, or from the place in their search.
• Prominence: how well known you are, online and off: reviews, links, mentions, articles.

Distance is the one you can’t change. A plumber in Kendall will have a hard time ranking for someone standing in Aventura. Everything else is work you can do.

1. Finish your Google Business Profile, for real

Most profiles we audit are half done. Fill in all of it:

• Primary category: the most specific one that describes your main service (“Plumber,” not “Contractor”). It weighs more than anything else you pick.
• Secondary categories and services: every service you actually sell, in the words customers use.
• Service area: the cities and ZIP codes you drive to. If customers don’t visit you, hide your address and set a service area instead.
• Hours, phone, website, photos: real photos of your crew and your work, added every month.

Don’t add keywords or city names to your business name. Google treats it as spam and can suspend the profile.

2. Get reviews every week, and answer every one

Reviews are the biggest part of prominence you control. What matters is not only the star average but how many you have, how recent they are and whether you reply. Ten reviews from three years ago lose to forty from this year.

Ask every happy customer, the same day the job is done, with a direct link. Never pay for reviews or ask only the happy ones: Google prohibits both. We wrote a full guide on how to get more Google reviews the right way.

3. Give Google a page for each service and each town

Your profile links to your website, and Google reads that site to decide how relevant you are. One “Services” page with ten bullet points doesn’t tell it much. A page for each main service (“water heater repair,” “roof replacement”) and for each town you serve, with real details about that work in that place, does.

Each page needs a clear title, your phone number, reviews from customers in that area and a way to book. Copying the same page and changing only the town name doesn’t count.

4. Same name, address and phone everywhere

Google cross-checks your business on other sites: Apple Maps, Bing, Yelp, the BBB, Facebook, industry directories. When your name, address and phone match everywhere, it trusts the profile more. When an old phone number or a former address is floating around, clean it up.

5. Earn local links and mentions

A link from your chamber of commerce, a local news story, a sponsorship of a youth team or a supplier’s “find an installer” page tells Google you are a real part of the community. A few local links beat dozens of random ones.

What doesn’t work

• Fake addresses or virtual offices to appear in more cities. Google suspends them.
• Keyword-stuffed business names. Same result.
• Buying reviews. They get filtered, and Google can mark your profile publicly.
• Expecting results in a week. Local SEO builds month after month; how fast depends on your competition and how far you are from the searcher.

Where to start this week

1. Check your primary category and fix it if it’s vague.
2. Send a review link to your last ten happy customers.
3. Make sure your phone number is the same on your website, your profile and Facebook.

Doing it every month, on top of running a business, is the hard part. Our local SEO service and Google Business Profile management do it for you, and every month you see where you rank on the map. If you want to know where you stand today, book a free 20-minute call and we’ll look at your profile with you.