How to get your business into Google's map pack
The map pack runs on Google Business Profiles. Pick the closest primary category, keep your hours right and add special hours before Christmas, reply to every review and add real photos of your work.
The steps
- Pick the closest primary category. Edit profile, Business category, Primary category. Choose the one that best describes your main service. Google uses it to match you to searches, and you can add other services as additional categories.
- Keep your hours right. Edit profile, Hours. Then add special hours for bank holidays and Christmas, so people don't turn up to a locked door.
- Reply to every review. Read reviews, then Reply. Thank people for good reviews, and answer bad ones calmly with what you've changed. People thinking of using you read the replies as well as the reviews.
- Add real photos of your work. Add photo. Use your own photos of jobs, your premises and your team, not stock images.
The map pack usually shows three businesses, but the layout changes with the search and the device.
Distance is the part you can't change. Someone searching from the other side of town may see a different three.
If you go to customers and don't have a shop they visit, set your service areas and hide your address. Google's help page on service areas explains how.
Tested
: the screens in the video are mock-ups, not a live profile, so no real business, review or figures appear. The category and ranking points were checked against Google's Business Profile help pages on 11 Nov 2026. The steps weren't run on a live profile for this post, and none of this guarantees a place in the map pack.
Where this comes from
Google says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and popularity. A complete, accurate profile helps with relevance, and reviews count towards popularity. Google Business Profile used to be called Google My Business. Sources: Tips to improve your local ranking on Google, Manage your business category, How to set special hours, Manage customer reviews, Tips for business-specific photos on your Business Profile.
Transcript
Google shows three local businesses on this map. Here's how to be one.
That's the map pack, and it runs on Google Business Profiles.
Here's the trick. Google uses your main category to match you to searches, so pick the closest fit.
Keep your hours right and add holiday hours before Christmas. People check them before they set off.
Always reply to every review, good or bad. Future customers read those replies.
Add real photos of your work.
Full checklist at blog dot elkdigital dot co dot uk slash map pack.
On screen: mock-ups of a Google search for "plumber near me" with three made-up plumbers in the map pack, then the Business Profile editor: the primary category changed from Heating contractor to Plumber, special hours added for 24 and 25 December, a reply typed to a four-star review, and a grid of job photos. The businesses, review and reviewer are made up. The screen sits in the top half and the presenter in the bottom half.
The presenter in the video is an AI avatar made in HeyGen, speaking with a clone of Jamie's voice. The script, demo and test were made by ELK Digital with Claude.