Local search, explained
Local SEO that gets you
into the map pack
Two sets of results sit on one Google page: the three businesses pinned on the map at the top, and the ordinary blue links underneath. They are won in completely different ways. Here is what moves you up each of them.
The Problem
The map pack and the blue links are two different fights.
Search plumber Leeds on a phone and you get a small map with three businesses pinned on it, then a list of web results below. The two lists are ranked on different signals, so winning one does not win the other.
The map pack is ranked on your Google profile
Those three pinned results come from Google Business Profiles, not websites. Google weighs how well your profile matches the search, how close you are to the searcher, and how well known you are, which is mostly reviews. A tidy website alone will not put you there.
The blue links are ranked on your website
Underneath the map sits the normal list of web results, and that one is your website's fight. It is won with pages built around what a trades customer actually types: your trade, your town, your prices, your work. Directories fill those slots when local firms leave them empty.
Local intent quietly rewrites the results
Type boiler repair without naming a town and Google still hands back local firms, because it reads the intent and uses the phone's location. The same search two streets away returns a different order. A rank you saw once is a snapshot, not a fixture.
What Moves The Needle
Three things move local rank. The rest is noise.
The profile, filled in properly
Primary category, secondary categories, every service written out, the areas you cover, hours, real photos, a post most weeks. Most profiles we open had a category picked in thirty seconds and never touched again. Fixing that alone often moves a listing, and it is the profile work we do every month.
Reviews, arriving steadily
Not ten in one week then silence. Google reads recency as well as volume, so two genuine reviews a month beats forty from two years ago. That is the whole point of the tap-to-review cards every client gets. Customer taps the card, the review page is already open, job done.
How It Works
How we work through it, in order.
We check where you actually stand
Before we ring you we search your trade and your town the way a customer would, note where you land in the map pack and in the list underneath, and read your profile against the three above you.
Profile first, because it moves fastest
Categories, services, service area, description, hours, and photos named and geotagged properly. This is the part almost nobody has had done, which is exactly why the first movement usually shows up here.
Then the site that backs it up
A fast page for every service and every town you work in, wired to the profile with matching name, address and phone. Both go live on the same day, and that is the day the 90-day clock starts.
Reviews and reporting, every month
Fresh posts on the profile, review cards in the van, and a one-page report showing where you sit for each search we track, what moved and what is next. Map positions shift with the searcher's location, so we always say where we measured from.
Verified
What we can actually prove, with a date on it.
FAQ
Questions we get asked about local search.
The map pack is the box of three businesses shown on a small map at the top, and it is ranked from your Google Business Profile. The blue links underneath are web results, ranked from your website. Different signals, different fixes, and you can sit high in one and nowhere in the other.
Profile changes can show within days. Ranking movement usually takes weeks, as reviews build and Google starts trusting the listing. Our guarantee is worded exactly this way: top 3 in the map pack within 90 days of site and GBP both live, or the monthly pauses.
Because Google knows where you are standing and what you have clicked before, and both push your own listing up. A customer three miles the other side of town, on a different phone, sees a different order. Check from their side before you judge where you sit.
Yes, for two reasons. Google checks the profile against the website to confirm you are real and do what you say you do. And the profile has to send people somewhere. If that link lands on a slow page with no obvious way to ring you, the click is wasted.
£250 to set up, then £100 a month. One package: a fast website, your Google Business Profile set up and managed every month, and NFC review cards to collect reviews. No tiers, no upsells. The website and the profile stay yours if you ever walk away.
Want to know where you actually rank right now?
Send us your trade and your town. We will run the search the way your customer would, tell you who is sitting in the map pack, where you land and what is holding you back. Fifteen minutes, no obligation, and you keep the answer either way.
Message Jack on WhatsApp£250 to set up, then £100 a month. One package, no lock-in.
or email us at jack@jackandjoshwebsites.com