Local Pack

When you search plumber near me or restaurants in Seattle, Google places a 3-item listing block at the top of the page with a small embedded map. Each listing shows:

• Business name and star rating (e.g., "ABC Plumbing ★★★★★ (127 reviews)")
• Business category (e.g., Plumber, Roofing Contractor)
• Hours status ("Opens 8 AM", "Closed", "Open now")
• Short photo (often the main GBP image)
• Website and Directions buttons

Above the three listings sits a small map showing all three pins. Below the Local Pack sit 20+ additional local results (the Local Finder) and then organic web results. The Local Pack occupies the prime real estate on the page — it gets clicked far more than organic results or the expanded local list below.

Google's Local Pack ranking depends on three core factors: proximity, prominence, and relevance. The weighting has shifted since the 2021 Vicinity update, which significantly raised the importance of proximity — the distance between the search location and the business.

In practice, proximity now dominates. If you search dentist from Brooklyn, Google will show the three nearest dentists before it shows the highest-rated dentist 5 miles away. After proximity filters the candidates, prominence (review count, rating, NAP consistency, citation strength) and relevance (keyword match in the business name, description, categories) determine rank within that proximity tier.

This is why a newer, less-reviewed business can rank in the Local Pack if it's closer to the search location than an established competitor.

The Local Pack is the top 3. That's it. Below the Local Pack sits the "More places" section — the Local Finder — which lists 20 or more results and links to the full local results page.

Google Maps has its own SERP with a distinct ranking algorithm. Maps rankings weight proximity even more heavily than the Local Pack does, and the results often diverge. A business might rank position 7 in the Local Pack but position 2 on Google Maps, or vice versa. The Local Pack and Maps ranking algorithms are related but not identical.

For most businesses, the Local Pack is what matters — it's where the clicks are. The Local Finder is where users go when they need to compare more options. Maps is used mostly for getting directions and reading full reviews.

A major challenge with Local Pack tracking: a single IP address sees the same results, but results differ by geography. An IP in Seattle sees different results than an IP in Boston for the same keyword.

Traditional rank trackers that run from one IP miss geographic variation. You get a single rank number per keyword, but you don't know if your business ranks in the Local Pack 1 mile away but outside the top 3 at 5 miles out.

Two paths forward: accept the limitation and track from one IP as a rough indicator, or use geogrid scans to map rank across a territory. A geogrid scan runs the same keyword search from 25 (or 49, or 81) different geographic cells and returns a heat map. For single-cell checks (one keyword, one location), the Local Pack API runs a live rank check.

Google's AI Overviews can cite businesses from the Local Pack. When you ask an AI Overview for a recommendation ("best plumber near me"), it may pull structured data from the Local Pack listings and cite them in its answer. The underlying business knowledge graph that feeds both the Local Pack and AI Overviews is the same — NAP consistency, review signals, and proximity all flow through the same data layer.

What this means: improving your Local Pack ranking factors (proximity, prominence, relevance) simultaneously improves your chance of appearing in an AI Overview recommendation. The work doesn't change — it's still proximity first, then rating and review velocity, then NAP consistency. What changed is the surfaces your efforts influence.