How to get into the Google map pack in your town

Search for “electrician near me” on your phone and the first thing you see is a map with three businesses under it. That is the map pack. Most people call one of those three and never scroll further. If you are not in it, you are competing for the leftovers.

What decides who is in the map pack

Google says it uses three things. Relevance, distance and prominence. In plain English:

Relevance is whether your listing says you do what the person searched for. Categories, services, and the words in your listing and on your site.

Distance is how far you are from the person searching, or from the town they typed. You cannot move your business, but you can tell Google where you work.

Prominence is how well known you seem. Reviews, how many, how recent, how good, and whether other sites mention you. This is the one that moves most.

Fix your Google Business Profile first

Your Google Business Profile is the listing itself. Most are set up once and never touched. Go through it properly.

• Primary category. Pick the most specific one. “Plumber”, not “Contractor”. “Dental clinic”, not “Health”.
• Secondary categories. Add the others that apply. A plumber who does bathrooms adds “Bathroom remodeler”.
• Services. List every service you offer, with a short description each. This is where “boiler repair” and “emergency plumber” go.
• Service area. If you travel to customers, set the towns you cover. Be honest. Listing forty towns dilutes it.
• Hours. Correct, including bank holidays. Wrong hours get you reviews about wrong hours.
• Photos. Real ones, of your work, your van, your premises, you. Add a few every month.
• Description. What you do, where, and for whom. Plain words.

Then get reviews, steadily

Nothing moves the map pack like reviews. Not a burst of twenty in one week, which looks odd. A steady one or two a week, every week, with a reply to each.

Ask after every job. Make it easy: a link that goes straight to the review box. Text it the same day, while they are still pleased. Reply to every review, good and bad, in your own voice. A calm reply to a bad review reassures the next customer more than five good ones. We wrote a whole guide on asking for reviews without being awkward.

Make your website agree with your listing

Google checks that the name, address and phone number on your site match your listing exactly. It also reads your site to understand what you do and where. A site with a page for each service and each town backs up the listing and lifts it. That is local SEO, and it is built into every site we make.

Post something now and then

A post on your profile every week or two. A job you finished, a service you want more of, a change in hours. It keeps the listing active, and active listings rank better. It takes five minutes. On our care plan we do it for you.

What to expect

A tidied profile can move you into the map pack within weeks for your home town. Ranking in the map for towns you travel to takes longer and depends more on reviews and on your website naming those towns. It is steady work, not a trick, which is why it holds once you have it.