How to rank higher in Google Maps

Ranking in Google Maps is significantly Important for any local-based or service-based business, especially since

86% of people look up the location of a business on Google Maps. 

76% of people who conduct a local search visit a business within 24 hours.

78% of location-based mobile searches result in an offline purchase. 

In this blog post, I will discuss how to rank higher in Google Maps, aka the snack pack or map pack

Before we start, I want you to know that getting to the first-third page of Google map pack just requires more volume of what we will discuss.

Testimonial from local cream shop

Table of Contents

Optimizing Google Business Profile (GBP)

Reviews

Proximity

Website optimization

NAP Consistency

Conclusion

Optimizing Google Business Profile (GBP)

A complete GBP increases your chances of appearing in Google’s Map Pack—the top three local search results.

Which can lead to a significant boost in visibility. Businesses in the Local Pack receive up to 700% more clicks than those that don't. Additionally, 86% of consumers use Google Maps to find local businesses, and 50% of users visit a store within a day of conducting a local search. 

Do's

• Provide all the services your business offers

• Provide the days and hours your business operates

• Provide the correct business address

  IF | Service-based business: You can add all the areas your business operates in the Google Business Profile

• Provide Business Name

• Complete the profile with factual information

It is important to make any GBP changes in advance, preferably by 2 weeks to a month, to keep potential customers alerted of business changes, for Example, changing business hours due to holidays. You can put holiday hours in advance in the Google Business profile.

Reviews

Reviews act as a trust signal in the Search engine results page and Google map pack.

This is an important metric that every business should pay attention to.

Importance

93% of consumers say online reviews impact their buying decisions.

Consumers read an average of 10 reviews before feeling able to trust a business.

85% of consumers consider reviews older than 3 months as irrelevant.

48% of consumers only pay attention to reviews written in the past 2 weeks.

Businesses with a 4.2–4.5 star rating are perceived as most trustworthy. A perfect 5.0 can sometimes be seen as "too good to be true".

Increasing a star rating by just 1 star can increase revenue by 5%–9% (Harvard Business Review study, Yelp-based but broadly applicable).

Since I am teaching you how to rank high on Google Maps? Then I must mention this...

According to Moz and Whitespark

Reviews contribute to ~15–17% of local pack (map) ranking factors.

Google looks at:

Review quantity

Review velocity

Review diversity (keywords used)

Response from owner, WHICH INCREASES MAP PACK RANKING!!!

Tactics for gaining more reviews

If you want to gain more reviews, a simple operational change that can dramatically increase your overall reviews by 50% is by asking for a review after doing a fantastic job and having a QR code digitally or printed.

Here is a script that works after completing the job

Hey Name,

Thank you again for giving us the opportunity and trusting us with our services.

It would mean the world if you could provide us with an honest Google review.

That way, we can continue to serve more amazing people like you.

NOTE TO SELF: Do not ask for a review if you did a shitty job. For the love of my sanity and your business profitability.

Another tactic that a lot of service-based businesses need to start doing is simply tracking their overall review and incentivizing their staff to get more if needed.

Something that has worked very well with us and the clients we have worked with is our custom review tracker planner. This planner was designed to track how many reviews we collect on a day-to-day basis. This allowed us to crush our competitors since none of them were prioritizing reviews as much as we did.

For More advice on building your reviews check out

https://www.mms8p.net/post/how-to-get-more-google-reviews-for-your-business

Proximity

Proximity is simply where your business is located. Proximity ranking power is 30%

Luckily for service-based businesses, something a lot of business owners have done is an analysis to see where and when the most people search for their service in nearby locations. Than they would put that as their primary location.

Now, if you're just reading this, do not do this because this is a more advanced strategy. But if you would like to learn more about this strategy, just follow our blog or LinkedIn at the mms8p Agency.

What you can do is list all the different locations your business services, if you go to your customers. An example of this would be plumbers and handymen services.

Website optimization

Your website plays a critical role in your local map pack seo ranking factors. I love how a lot of seo experts like to gate-keep this, but yes, it is true. You need to make sure your website is crawlable and indexable for Google bots. You have to have a significant number of backlinks compared to your competitors.

Here is a quick chart I've put together,

Estimated Local Map Pack Ranking Factors (2024–2025)

Ranking Factor	Estimated Weight	Website’s Influence
Proximity (searcher to business)	30%–35%	❌ Not influenced by the website
Relevance (keywords, services)	25%–30%	✅ Website content confirms and expands on services/keywords
Prominence (reviews, authority, backlinks)	35%–45%	✅ Website’s backlink profile, citations, and trust signals help build authority

NAP Consistency

Name, Address, and Phone number consistency is another ranking factor, now this is not a big one, but ideally you still want to make sure that your business.....s information is accurate across all search engines and directories.

Conclusion

If you made it this far, congrats!

You now know what you have to do to gain a higher position in the local map pack. If you want more information on a deeper level. Make sure to follow our blog or follow us on LinkedIn at MMS8P Agency.

It would mean the world to me if you could share this information with someone who needs this.