Search for almost any local service, like "plumber near me" or "Thai food in Raleigh," and Google usually shows a small map with three businesses beneath it, above the regular website results. People often call it the local pack, and it's where many local customers click first. Only three spots, shown to everyone nearby searching that term.
Most guides tell you what to do in general. This one starts somewhere more practical: with the three businesses already sitting in those spots for your most important search. They're your answer key. Figure out what they have that you don't, close the gaps, and you give yourself a real shot at joining them.
How Google picks the three
Google says it weighs three things for local results:
- Relevance: how well a business matches the search, based largely on categories, services and description. Mostly in your control.
- Distance: how close the business is to the person searching. You can't move, but you can define your service area clearly.
- Prominence: how well known and trusted the business seems, including reviews, mentions across the web and overall activity. The one you can build steadily.
Your scorecard measures the parts of relevance and prominence you can see from the outside.
Step one: pick your search and pull the three
Choose the search that matters most to your business: your main service plus your town. Search it on your phone, from your location, in a private browser window so your own history doesn't skew it. Note the three businesses that appear. Then do the same search from a couple of other spots in your service area, since results shift with location.
Step two: fill in the scorecard
Open each competitor's profile and fill in a simple chart like this, with yours in the last column:
| What to compare | Competitor A | Competitor B | Competitor C | You |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Main category | ||||
| Number of reviews | ||||
| Newest review (how recent) | ||||
| Average rating | ||||
| Do they reply to reviews? | ||||
| Number of photos, and how recent | ||||
| Services listed | ||||
| Recent posts on the profile | ||||
| Description mentions the town? | ||||
| Hours complete, including weekends |
Then search each competitor's name to get a rough sense of how many other sites list them: directories, review sites, local organizations.
Step three: read what the gaps tell you
They use a more specific category
If all three use "Emergency plumber" or "Italian restaurant" and you use something broader, that's likely costing you relevance. Switch your main category to the most specific one that truly fits, and add secondary categories for your other services.
They have more, or more recent, reviews
Count matters, but freshness matters too. If their newest review is from last week and yours is from last spring, start a steady routine of asking every happy customer. This review routine makes it easy to keep up.
They reply; you don't
Replying shows you're active and attentive. Start answering every review, including the old ones. Here's how to handle the negative ones.
Their photos are newer and more numerous
Add real photos of your work, team and location, and keep adding a few each month.
They list more services
If they list twelve services and you list two, they can match more searches. Add every service you actually offer.
They post regularly
Short weekly posts keep a profile looking active. If they're posting and you aren't, start. Five minutes a week is enough.
They mention the town and you don't
Make sure your description names your city and service areas naturally. Don't stuff them in; one or two mentions is plenty.
They're listed in more places
If competitors show up on a lot of directories and local sites and you appear in very few, build out your citations. Start with your Listings Junkie profile and our list of directories worth claiming, and keep your name, address and phone identical on every one. Here's why matching matters.
Step four: fix your own weak spots too
Some things won't show up on the scorecard but still matter:
- Your profile is complete, with no empty fields. Our section-by-section Google profile guide covers each one.
- Your website works on a phone, loads quickly, has a tap-to-call number and an address that opens in maps.
- Your details match everywhere, including old directories you forgot about.
- Your business name is honest. Stuffing keywords into it breaks Google's guidelines and can get you suspended, even if a competitor seems to get away with it.
Step five: re-score every month
Run the same searches and update the chart once a month. You'll see your gaps shrink, and you'll notice when a competitor slows down. Many do. The businesses that hold those three spots over time are usually the ones that keep doing the basics after others stop.
How long it takes
There's no fixed timeline. In a quiet market, you might start appearing for some searches within weeks. In a crowded one, it can take months of steady work. This look at what sets the local search timeline explains the factors, and local SEO versus traditional SEO explains why map results usually move faster than website rankings.
Questions owners ask about the top three
The results change depending on where I search. Which ones count?
All of them. Map results shift with the searcher's location, so you might be in the top three near your shop and missing a few miles away. Check from several points in your service area and focus on the places where most of your customers live.
A competitor in the top three has fake-looking reviews. What can I do?
You can flag reviews that break Google's rules through the platform's reporting tools, but don't count on that to move you up. Your time is better spent building your own steady flow of genuine reviews.
What if a competitor stuffs keywords into their business name?
Google allows users to suggest edits to a business name that doesn't match its real-world name. You can suggest the correction, but again, the bigger win is improving your own profile rather than policing theirs.
Does paying for Google ads help me get into the map results?
Ads can appear in and around the map results as labeled sponsored spots, but they don't change the unpaid rankings. The free spots come from relevance, distance and prominence.
Should I create a profile for every town I serve?
No. One real location gets one profile. Fake locations can get you suspended. Use your service-area settings and your website to cover the other towns.
This week
- Pull the three businesses for your most important search
- Fill in the scorecard, including your own column
- Fix your category and add missing services
- Ask five recent customers for reviews and reply to every existing one
- Upload new photos and publish your first post
- Build or fix your directory profiles, starting with Listings Junkie
For the full strategy, see local SEO for small businesses and the listing checklist.
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