Google 3-Pack ranking
Get your business into the Google 3-Pack
Three businesses appear in the map box. Everyone else is a scroll away, and most people never scroll. Here is what decides those three places, and a free way to see where you actually stand across your whole town rather than from behind your own counter.
Start by measuring it properly
Searching your own business name from your own shop is the most flattering measurement there is, because proximity is doing all the work. It is also what nearly everybody does, which is why so many owners believe they rank better than they do. Our free checker runs the same search from 25 points across your area and shows the difference on a map. No account, no card.
The four things that decide it
Your categories
The strongest single lever, and the one most owners set once and never touch. A specific primary category matches far more of what people type than a general one, and the secondary ones are extra searches you can appear for at no cost.
How to pick categories →Reviews, and how recent they are
Recency does more work than the total. A steady two a week beats two hundred from three years ago, and replying to them is itself a signal Google reads.
How to ask properly →Proximity, which you cannot change
You will rank near your own address and fade further out. That is not a fault, it is how the pack works, and it is why checking your rank from your own shop tells you almost nothing.
Why rank changes across town →Whether the profile looks alive
Posts, photos, answered questions, filled-in services. None of these wins on its own. Together they are how Google tells a trading business from a dormant listing.
Grade your profile free →By industry
What gets a restaurant into the pack is not what gets a plumber there. Pick your trade for the version written for it.
- Restaurants
- Dentists
- Plumbers
- Hair Salons
- Gyms & Fitness Studios
- Auto Repair Shops
- Law Firms
- Coffee Shops & Cafés
- HVAC Companies
- Roofing Companies
- Med Spas
- Electricians
- Landscaping & Lawn Care Companies
- House Cleaning Companies
- Barbershops
- Nail Salons
- Pest Control Companies
- Locksmiths
- Chiropractors
- Veterinary Clinics
- Moving Companies
- Chimney Sweeps
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Common questions
How long does it take to get into the Google 3-Pack?+
Category and profile fixes can move your position in 2-6 weeks. Reviews and consistent activity compound over months. Anyone promising a specific position by a specific date is guessing, because nobody outside Google can guarantee a rank.
Can you pay to be in the 3-Pack?+
No. The pack is organic and cannot be bought. What you can buy is the sponsored slot that sometimes sits above it, which is a different product with its own pricing. Anybody offering to sell you a pack position is selling you something they do not control.
Why am I in the 3-Pack at my shop but not across town?+
Proximity. You hold the pack near your premises and lose it further out, which is normal rather than a fault. It is a coverage problem, not a ranking one, and the only way to see it is to check from several points rather than from where you are standing.
Do I need a shopfront to rank in the 3-Pack?+
No, but you do need a verified profile. Service-area businesses (plumbers, mobile mechanics, cleaners) can rank with the address hidden, provided the service area is set honestly.
What is the single fastest thing to fix?+
Your primary category, almost always. It takes two minutes, it is the strongest lever in the profile, and a surprising number of businesses are sitting in a category that is one step too general for what they actually sell.
Doing it every week is the hard part
None of the four levers is difficult. Keeping at all of them, every week, while running the business is what stops people. RankLocal replies to reviews, publishes posts, tracks your position across the town and tells you what to do next, on a short weekly list.