Show up when customers search: on Google Maps, in search results and in AI answers.
Give them reasons to believe you before they call: reviews, clear answers, proof of your work.
Make calling you the easy decision: pages and forms built to turn visits into booked jobs.
What we find when we measure, with the method shown.
Practical, sourced and plain-spoken.
By Youssef Hodaigui, Mindflow Marketing · Last reviewed October 28, 2026
The local pack is the block of three businesses, shown with a map, that Google places in its search results when someone searches for a local service, such as "plumber near me" or "roof repair Tampa." It's also called the map pack or the 3-pack. Google's own help pages call these "local results."
The local pack puts three companies, with their star ratings and a map, in front of a homeowner before they open a single website. What it shows comes mainly from each company's Google Business Profile. So for a contractor, the profile can win or lose the call before anyone reaches your site.
That's why most local SEO work starts with the Google Business Profile rather than the website.
Google says "local results are mainly based on relevance, distance, and popularity," and describes the third factor under the heading prominence. Relevance is how well your profile matches the search. Distance is how far you are from the searcher. Prominence is how well known you are. Google adds that "there's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google."
Ads, including Local Services Ads, are a separate product with their own rules.
No. The three overlap, but they aren't the same list. In our study, 431 of 1,184 businesses in the Google Maps top three were also in the local pack for the same trade and city. And ChatGPT named 569 of 1,193 local-pack businesses when asked which companies a homeowner should call. A good spot in one place doesn't cover you in the others.
So check the local pack, Maps and AI answers separately.
Source: Mindflow's Home-Service Visibility Study, 400 trade-and-city checks across 8 trades and 50 US metros, collected October 3–17, 2026. "ChatGPT" means the OpenAI API with web search. The Maps top three came from a Maps search at a fixed point in each city; the local pack came from a Google search for the service and the city. How the study was done.
Start with what Google says helps. Verify your Business Profile, which Google says makes it "more likely to show up in search results." Keep it complete and accurate: "businesses with complete and accurate info are more likely to show up in local search results." And keep reviews coming, since "more reviews and positive ratings can help your business's local ranking."
If you go to customers' homes, set the profile up as a service-area business, and keep your name, address and phone number matching everywhere you're listed.
The most common mistakes are believing a spot can be bought, stuffing keywords into the business name, and judging the ranking from a single search. Each one either wastes money or puts the profile at risk, and Google's own pages rule out the first two:
Related terms: proximity · prominence · NAP · local citation · service-area business · AI Overviews
Where to go next: the Google Business Profile handbook walks through every profile setting, and our local SEO and Google Business Profile management pages explain the work if you'd rather hand it off.
Read October 28, 2026.
Want to know where you show up today? The free AI Visibility Review shows your map position for three core searches in your area and what Google's AI and ChatGPT say for two searches, with the three fixes we'd make first.