Local SEO Checklist: 15 Ways to Rank in the Google Map Pack

For trades, clinics and service businesses, the three listings in Google’s Map Pack generate a huge share of phone calls. Use this checklist to give yourself the best chance of claiming a spot.

Google Business Profile

1. Claim and verify your profile.
2. Choose the most accurate primary category — this is one of the strongest ranking factors.
3. Add every service you offer, with descriptions.
4. Set your service areas if you travel to customers.
5. Upload real photos of your team, work and premises every month.
6. Post updates weekly — offers, projects and news.

Reviews

7. Ask every happy customer for a review with a direct link.
8. Reply to every review, good or bad, professionally and promptly.
9. Encourage detail — reviews that mention the service and suburb help relevance.

Your website

10. Create a page for each core service with clear, helpful content.
11. Build suburb or region pages that are genuinely useful, not copy-and-paste.
12. Add LocalBusiness schema with your details.
13. Make sure your site is fast on mobile — most local searches happen on phones.

Citations and links

14. Keep your name, address and phone consistent across directories like Yellow Pages, True Local and industry sites.
15. Earn local links from sponsorships, suppliers, associations and local news.

Local SEO is a marathon of small, consistent actions. Businesses that keep showing up every week are the ones that end up dominating their area.

Not sure where to start? Our Local SEO service handles all of this for you — or grab a free audit to see your biggest gaps.