Which part of the results page is the local pack?
The block with the map. On a phone it often fills the first screen, below any ads and above the websites.
Tapping "More businesses" opens the full list in Google Maps, where the ranking runs on past the third place. Most people never tap it, which is why the three matter.
What decides which three businesses Google shows?
Google Business Profile Help ("Tips to improve your local ranking on Google") says local results are based mainly on three things. Relevance: how well your profile matches the search, which comes from the category, services and description. Distance: how far you are from the place in the search, or from the searcher when no place is named. Prominence: how well known the business is, which Google says draws on information from across the web, including links and articles, and on your review count and rating.
Distance you cannot change. Relevance is mostly a profile that is filled in. Prominence is reviews and a reputation, and it builds slowly.
Why did a Coffs Harbour salon appear in one suburb and not the next? (example figures)
A hair salon in the Coffs Harbour CBD, four chairs, checked where it appeared for "hairdresser near me" by searching from phones in three places on the same afternoon.
| Searching from | Distance to the salon | In the local pack? |
|---|---|---|
| Coffs Harbour CBD | Under 1 km | Yes, second |
| Park Beach | About 3 km | Yes, third |
| Sawtell | About 10 km | No, three local salons shown |
Sawtell has salons of its own, so no amount of work would put a CBD salon first there for "near me". A search for "balayage coffs harbour" names the city, and from all three places the salon ranked first. The likely reason is relevance: of the salons nearby, its profile was the only one listing balayage as a service, with a price. The owner stopped worrying about Sawtell and added the other specialist services. Calls from the profile rose from about 60 to 85 a month over the next quarter, at an average visit of $140, which is around $3,500 a month in bookings.
Can Cora help you get into the local pack?
CoraVision cannot move you up the local pack, and neither can anyone selling a shortcut. What it does is put the profile work into your plan: the 12-month strategy breaks into tactics such as the category, the services and a habit of asking for reviews, with weekly check-ins to keep them moving. Cora teaches each tactic on your own screen, with pill mode pointing at the next step, and the visits your profile sends are counted in Google Analytics 4, which CoraVision reads every night.
Questions
Can I pay to be in the local pack?
Not into the free listings. Google Business Profile Help says there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. Google Ads can place a sponsored listing in or above the map results through location assets, and it is labelled as an ad.
How many reviews does it take to get into the three?
Google publishes no number. It says review count and rating feed into prominence, alongside how well known the business is elsewhere. Look at the businesses that appear for your main search and compare your profile with theirs.