Local SEO and the Google map pack
For a local service business the three results in the map pack generate more calls than everything below them combined. Most of what decides who appears there happens off your website entirely.
The short answer
Local SEO is the work of appearing in the map pack and in "near me" searches. It is mostly off-site: a correctly configured Google Business Profile with the right primary category, name, address and phone details identical everywhere they appear, a steady flow of genuine reviews, and local pages on your site that are actually about the place. Proximity, relevance and prominence are what Google weighs, and only one of those is fixed.
What we work on
- Google Business Profile: primary category, secondary categories, services, attributes
- Service-area configuration for mobile businesses, so you rank against the right suburbs
- Name, address and phone consistency across every listing that mentions you
- A review process that produces a steady trickle rather than a one-week burst
- Business Profile posts and photos, which almost every competitor ignores
- Answering the Q&A on your own profile before someone else does
- Location pages on your site with genuine local content, not spun templates
- Local citations on Australian directories that actually matter
Why businesses miss the pack
- Primary category set to something adjacent rather than exact
- A residential address showing publicly for a mobile business
- Five reviews, all from the same fortnight two years ago
- The business name differs slightly between the profile and the website
- Duplicate listings from a previous owner or a rebrand, still live
- No photos since the profile was created
A job like this
A bayside trade business had been invisible in the map pack for its main service. The profile’s primary category was a near-miss — a related trade rather than the one they actually do. Changing it, adding service areas properly and getting eight genuine reviews over two months moved them into the top three for their core term.
How local work runs
01
Profile audit
Categories, service areas, hours, attributes, duplicates and suspensions. Most profiles have at least two of these wrong.
02
Fix the data everywhere
One canonical version of name, address and phone, applied across the profile, the site and the directories.
03
Reviews and activity
A simple routine for asking after every completed job, plus posts and photos so the profile shows signs of life.
04
Local pages
Pages about the suburbs you actually work in, with real detail. Templated suburb pages do more harm than good.
Questions about local SEO
How important are reviews?
Very, and velocity matters more than total. Two a month sustained beats twenty in a week — a burst looks manufactured and often is. Ask after every completed job, by name, with a direct link.
We work from home. Should we show our address?
No. Configure the profile as a service-area business and hide the street address. A residential address showing publicly risks suspension and ranks you against the wrong suburb.
Do location pages on our website help?
Genuinely written ones do. Generated ones actively hurt — Google filters near-duplicate local pages and a thin one can drag down the pages that work. Build a few, well, only where you have real customers.
How long before we see movement?
Profile changes can move things within a fortnight, which is faster than most SEO work. Review velocity and citation consistency take a few months to compound.
Related: SEO · technical SEO · why you are not in the map pack
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