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Local SEO
Free local SEO audit
Takes about a minute
46%
Of Google searches carry local intent
32%
Of ranking weight is GBP signals
Top 3
Map pack spots - no page 2
14+
Industries managed
How the map pack actually gets decided
Google ranks the three-listing map result using relevance, distance, and prominence - understanding which of these you can actually influence is where a real strategy starts.
How well your business profile and website match what the searcher is looking for - categories, services, and content all feed this.
How close your business is to the searcher (or their searched location) - largely environmental and outside your direct control.
How well-known and trusted your business is - driven by reviews, citations, backlinks, and overall online presence.
The single biggest lever
One widely cited breakdown of local ranking signals puts GBP completeness well ahead of every other category - and Google's March 2026 core update tightened that relationship further.
| Share of local pack ranking weight | |
|---|---|
| Google Business Profile signals | 32% |
| On-page signals (site content, schema) | 19% |
| Review signals | 16% |
| Link signals | 15% |
| Behavioral signals (clicks, calls, directions) | 8% |
| Citation signals | 7% |
Since March 2026
Google's March 2026 core update tightened the link between GBP completeness and local pack visibility - businesses missing hours, services, photos, or attributes saw ranking drops out of proportion to what a single missing field would suggest. Most businesses lose local pack positions not because of weak backlinks, but because their profile sits half-finished.
The metric that changed most
A steady flow of new reviews signals an active, trusted business - a pile of old reviews with nothing recent signals the opposite, even if the total count looks impressive.
None in the past six months - increasingly outranked despite the higher total count.
Steady weekly flow with owner responses under 24 hours - recency and engagement over raw volume.
Responding to reviews - especially quickly - signals engagement to both Google and potential customers, and is now weighted more heavily than it was before the recent shift toward behavioral signals.
A steady flow of a few reviews per week consistently outperforms a burst of many followed by silence - the target most local businesses should build toward.
Google reads the language customers use in reviews, which feeds the relevance pillar - a review mentioning "same-day garage door repair" reinforces exactly the kind of search you want to rank for.
Where local search is headed
A fresh, complete profile isn't just winning map pack positions anymore - it's what gets a business surfaced or skipped in AI-generated local recommendations.
A real, recent product change
Powered by Gemini, Ask Maps generates answers directly from your profile data - meaning complete, accurate information matters more than ever, since an outdated or half-finished profile can now be misrepresented in an AI-generated answer rather than simply ranking lower. Industry ranking-factor research has also added a dedicated AI Search Visibility category for the first time, built largely from citation and entity-based signals.
Quick reference
Common questions
Ready when you are
A free audit reviews your GBP completeness, review velocity, citation consistency, and local pack visibility - with a clear, prioritized report either way.
