Search "plumber near me" on your phone. Before any websites, Google shows a map with three businesses under it. That box is the map pack, and for most home-service searches it's where the calls happen.
If you're not in it, most people never scroll far enough to find you.
#How Google picks the three businesses
Google says local results are based on three things:
- Relevance: how well your business matches what the person searched. Your categories, services and website pages decide this.
- Distance: how far your business is from the person searching, or from the area they searched for.
- Prominence: how well known and trusted your business looks. Reviews, links, mentions across the web and your website all count here.
You can't change where a customer is standing. You can work on relevance and prominence.
#What contractors can control
Relevance
- Pick the right primary category on your Google Business Profile
- List every service you actually offer
- Have a page on your website for each main service
- Use the words customers use: "water heater repair", not "thermal solutions"
Prominence
- Get reviews steadily, and reply to all of them
- Keep your name, address and phone the same everywhere (citations)
- Earn real links from local businesses, suppliers and associations
- Keep your profile active with posts and photos
#What you can't control
Distance. A customer searching from across town may see a closer competitor first, no matter how good your profile is. That's why a map pack rank can look great from one street and weak from another. It's also why nobody can honestly promise you "number one on Google".
#Quick checks you can do today
- Search your main service plus your city on your phone. Are you in the three?
- Open your Google profile. Is the primary category the job you want most?
- Count your reviews from the last 3 months. Is it more than zero?
- Search your phone number on Google. Do old listings show a different address?
If any of these made you wince, that's where to start.
Want to know where you stand? Our free audit checks all of it. Or see how our local SEO plans handle it every month.