Introduction: What is a Local 3-Pack?
Put in simple words, a local 3-pack is the display of the top 3 relevant local searches on the first page of the search result. If a user searches for “restaurants near me”, then Google understands that they are looking for local restaurants and accordingly provides the top 3 local restaurants in the search result. Previously Google used to display 7 local results and it was known as the local 7 pack. However, it was changed to top 3 results due to growing internet access through mobile phones to optimize the SERP for smaller mobile screens.
The local 3-pack is displayed above the organic search results and takes up considerable area on the search result page. It contains sufficient details about the best and most relevant local businesses and most potential customers may not scroll down below to the organic search results. Local pack displays all the relevant information about a business-location on Google Maps, ratings and reviews, contact number, website URL, business hours, photographs, etc. which customers generally look for. Any business should aim to feature in the local 3-pack for getting increased visibility, developing authority and credibility, and build a brand name.
Hence a business can experience drastic growth in traffic to their website and increased footfalls to their store if they are listed on the local 3-pack. This can increase their sales and revenue manifold.
Advantages of Local 3-Pack
The key advantages for a business appearing in local 3-pack listings are as follows:
Improved Search Engine Rankings
The biggest advantage of featuring in the local 3-pack is that it improves your search engine rankings drastically. Users searching for businesses similar to you will get your business listings on the local pack. This helps to build the business brand and reinforce it among the potential customers. The possibility of increasing sales depends a lot on the ease with which online visitors can search and locate a business during their online searches. A business featuring on the local pack will most likely have much greater traffic to their website which helps to improve their visibility.
Increased Conversions and Sales
When a business features in the local pack, it can expect more traffic to its website which improves the odds of converting them into customers. Reports suggest that 88% of all the users who search for a business online are likely to visit them within a week of their search. 28% of these local searches result in the user buying from the business. Featuring in the local pack means that a business has been verified by Google as being truly local and offering excellent service to the customers. This assurance is likely to further motivate the potential customers to buy from such businesses. Local pack listing also allows the customers to search a business on Google Maps and make phone calls with a single click. This can lead to more footfalls and increased sales and revenues for the business.
Authority Building
When a business listing makes its way to the local pack, it helps to establish its credibility and trust among the potential customers. Such businesses can also expect to be linked back to by other popular blogs through the use of backlinks. This helps search engines to build authority of the business and improve its search rankings further. Any business which appears in the local pack is more likely to be trusted by the potential customers and it helps them to emerge as an authority figure in their niche.
Lower Marketing and Promotion Costs
Another prominent advantage of your business getting featured in the local pack is that it lowers the cost of promotion and marketing. Businesses can expect to get considerable traffic to their websites due to improved search engine rankings. A place in the local 3-pack also establishes your credibility and your customers can spread positive word of mouth which can drive more organic traffic. This will help them to reduce their budget allocation to other expensive marketing channels, which they would have done otherwise. The savings made in marketing and promotion costs can be utilized for other productive business functions, which helps to boost the business productivity. Featuring in local pack can reduce the cost of marketing and customer acquisition significantly, which ultimately helps to improve the business profitability.
How to Get Your Business into Local 3-Pack?
Businesses need to invest time and efforts to ensure that they appear in local 3-pack search results. Some of the key tips for featuring a business in the local 3-pack are discussed below:
Create and Complete Google My Business (GMB) Profile
GMB profile is absolutely mandatory for all businesses who want to be discovered in local searches. Nearly 25% of the weight of local 3-pack ranking signals can be attributed to GMB, which is more than any other category. Google relies on GMB profiles to get the details about your business and also assess its credibility. The first step in this direction is to create your GMB profile. You can enter your business name, address, and category. The most relevant business category should be selected as it will let Google know the type of customers who need to be targeted and shown your listing. Once you add your phone number and website URL, you are done creating your GMB profile.
The next step is to verify your business to claim it on Google. Verification can be thought of as confirming to Google that the business is yours which allows you to fully manage and represent your business on it. The default and most common way of verifying your business is to send a postcard with a verification code to your business address. Once this is done, you are finished with creating and claiming your business on GMB.
You will need to enter accurate and complete information about your business on the GMB profile next. You should pay attention that the GMB profile is completely filled and not left with unfilled sections. Complete GMB profiles help Google to understand your business better and show your listings to the relevant customers when they search online. You should pay particular attention to description and attributes section. Description allows you to describe your business to the potential customers and you should elaborate it judiciously. Attributes refers to the amenities like parking, Wi-Fi, wheelchair availability, children play area, etc. Attributes work like tags and ensures your business listings shows up when relevant keywords are used.
Once your listing and GMB profile is complete in all respects, you should add lots of high-quality and relevant photographs which can describe your business better. You can add photographs pertaining to interiors, exteriors, menu, amenities, etc. for your business depending upon what is relevant. You should also download the GMB app for optimizing your listings on the go and frequently.
Complete Name, Address, Phone Number (NAP)
NAP is another important factor which affects your business coming in the local 3-pack. NAP means name, address, and phone number which needs to be added to the contact page of your website. When mentioning your NAP, it is absolutely critical to ensure consistency across all listings. Your NAP should be the same for all online listings as it is viewed as a positive sign by search engines. If you have used the phrase “St” for the word “street” in your business listings, then it should be used consistently across all NAP listings. Using different phrases will impact your search engine rankings as it will be viewed negatively by Google.
Consistent NAP listings are an important ranking factor by search engines. They view consistent listings as a sign that the business is credible and legit. Consistent listings also help your customers to search and contact you easily every time. NAP inconsistencies are the single largest factor which negatively affects local rankings.
Build Business Citations
Business citations means your business’s listings which may appear in local search engines or business directories. The greater the citations you have, the better it is for your business. Citations are a way for search engines to assess the credibility of your business. More number of consistent business citations results in search engines building your authority which helps to improve your search engine rankings. If your business citations are consistent, then you get benefited as search engines like Google use it to deem your business genuine and legit, which helps to improve your search engine rankings and drive more organic traffic to your website.
Some local search engines like Yelp, Foursquare, etc. provide you an excellent medium to get your business listings reflected. Visitors of these search engines can find your business in their search results.
Get Reviews and Respond to Them
Reviews are critical for enhancing your online visibility. Your aim should be to get as many reviews as possible, especially positive reviews. Review signals contribute more than 15% of ranking signals in Google. The importance of reviews can be understood from the fact that 85% of customers trust and are influenced by reviews as much as personal recommendations. 73% of online users form an opinion about your business after reading 1-6 online reviews about it. They have deeper trust on businesses which have more positive reviews. If you have delighted customers, then they would like to share their experiences with the world. However, you need to know that most customers won’t post a review without a little goading. You can send them a gentle reminder to share their reviews after they have experienced your products and services.
It is important to make the process of posting reviews seamless and a hassle-free experience for the customers. Having a dedicated “review us” page on your website can help to make it easier for the customers to post their reviews. You can also have tablets or mobile devices at the exit which will compel the customers to share their reviews. Another important point to consider is that businesses should always engage with their customers when they post their reviews. Replying to their reviews is a must irrespective of whether it is a positive or negative review. You can express your gratitude towards them for posting positive reviews. In case of a negative review, you must try to pacify their concerns and work towards addressing them. Replying to reviews not only projects a positive image of your business, it also leaves an impression among the customers that you care for them. Replying to negative reviews and pacify the customers and also take most of the negative bite out of them which won’t hurt your business severely.
Optimize Your Website
Optimizing your website is critical for getting the best results and featuring in the Local 3-pack. You can start by improving the loading time for your website. If visitors experience a slow loading website and lag, then it will result in a bad end-user experience and they may not return to your website again. You can find many WordPress plugins which can help to improve the loading speed of your website. A faster loading website is rewarded by search engines with improved search rankings.
Your website should have a responsive design, meaning it should display in the exact same way on both desktop and mobile devices. Google’s search algorithms reward websites which have responsive and mobile-friendly designs. In 2017, more than 57% of all internet traffic was emanating from mobile devices. 88% of all people who conducted local searches using their smartphones visited the business within one week of the search. Hence, a responsive website design is a must for achieving higher search engine rankings. It also prevents the time and money involved in otherwise developing two different websites-one each for desktop and mobile platforms.
You should have a “Contact Us” page on your website. It is important for your customers to locate you and contact you if required. You should also make your phone numbers clickable as 76% of all the mobile searches culminate into a phone call. Not doing so will mean that you are missing out on huge opportunities.
You should also add schema markup to your website. Adding them can display information like address, contact details, business hours, photographs, reviews, knowledge graphs, etc. Schema markup also make your website discoverable by voice assistants which are being increasingly used by potential customers to do their online searches. Your website’s search engine rankings also improve significantly by adding scheme markup.
Develop Local Content
Another very effective way for improving your online visibility and search engine rankings is to develop local content. If you are active in a locality, then you should be aware about the local market and know about the customers- their needs, preferences, etc. This will help you to develop unique and relevant content which will address specific problems of the online users. Preparing generic content can help you get more visitors, but the content may not be of much relevance to them. They may not return to your website again if that is the case. The best way to attract visitors and retain them is to create content based on their needs. You should develop authority in the domain you are working in. Your customers and visitors should see you as specialists and experts in your niche. This will increase your credibility and you will be most likely rewarded by the search engines who will build your authority and improve your search engine rankings.
Monitor Your Business Information in Local Pack Regularly
Once the business has made its way into the local 3-pack, it is important for businesses to monitor the business information regularly. Anyone can make an edit to the business information. These edits are made as suggestions, but they may go live without any notifications, which is not desirable for any business. Any random person can change your NAP details like name, address, phone number, business hours, etc. which can severely impact your search engine rankings. In order to stay protected from such random and unwanted edits to the business NAP details, it is important that businesses should monitor their business information in the local pack regularly. If any discrepancies are noticed due to unwanted changes by random users, then it can be reported to GMB’s support team for resolution.
Track the Local Pack for Keywords
Businesses which find their way into the local 3-pack cannot afford to relax and sit back after it. The search engine algorithms change too frequently for them to assume that their listings will remain in the local 3-pack forever. Changes in algorithms can cause your business listings to experience sudden decrease in online traffic due to reduced search engine rankings. Businesses should track their rankings and local pack search results frequently to be aware of such changes.
The keywords for your search results should also be regularly tracked. Business owners can use a good keyword tracking and planning tool to assess the relevance and popularity of their keywords. These tools can also help to check the SERP features for both organic and paid searches. Businesses can track if their website has made it to the local pack or not.