So, you’re worried about your Map Pack ranking on Google, but you don’t know how to improve it? Listen up.
How do I rank in the Map Pack on Google?
Ranking in the Map Pack on Google has a lot to do with your physical location, which you can’t change. It also has lot to do with categories on your Google Business Profiles – or profiles, assuming you have them split by department (which you should).It also has a great deal to do with the reviews on your Google Business Profile listings.
Location
You can’t change this. Your location – relative to the the person who’s performing the search – is the primary factor involved in Map Pack. Beyond that though, it can be modified by a whole litany of factors. We’re not going to go through all of them here, but the primary ones to think about are…
Reviews
Reviews are important in terms of both quality and quantity. For quality, you should aim for (at least) a 4.4-star average rating. If you’re below that, do better. In terms of quantity, you just need to have more than your competition. So, if you competition has 1,200 reviews and the same “star rating” as you do, you need to exceed their review count to be able to gain the advantage in Map Pack.
Categorization of Your Google Business Profile
Make sure that you’re filling out all 10 potential categories. Make that is they’re focused on specific services (ie: “Sales” for Sales Listings, “Service” for Services Listings, etc). But you can go much deeper into your GBP filling out things like services that are available under each of the categories. You can write content about each one of those services, tailored towards the specific profit centers you want to get your Map Pack ranking increased for. In addition, you can fill out products, write a better quality ‘About’ section for your GBP Profile(s), making sure that you include some keywords and a natural way in there.
Onsite content does play into Map Pack, but it has much more to do with how you’re going to show up in the organic listings that surround the Map Pack.