The local pack is the map box with three business listings that Google puts on a Search results page. People also call it the 3-pack or the map pack. Google Maps is the full list in the Maps app or at maps.google.com. Both are built from the same Business Profiles, but they are shown so differently that one business ends up with two ranks.
What the local pack and Google Maps are
Search “dentist” on your phone and the page that comes back has a small map near the top with three pins. Under it are three listings with a name, a star rating, an address or an area, and a line such as “Open until 6 pm”. That is the local pack. It appears when Google decides the search has a local intent, and it sits among the ordinary web results, usually above them.
Under the three listings is a link, “More businesses” or “View all”. Tap it and you get the local finder: a longer list with the map beside it. The local finder behaves like Google Maps, not like the pack. It shows 20 listings a page and lets you scroll.
Google Maps is the other surface. Open the Maps app or maps.google.com, type the same word, and the list runs down the left on a desktop or up from the bottom on a phone. It shows 20 results, then 20 more as you scroll. The list belongs to the map area on your screen. Move the map or change the zoom and the list is rebuilt.
Why one profile gets two ranks
Google says local results are ranked on relevance, distance and prominence, and that is true of both surfaces. The profiles are the same. What differs is the question each surface is answering.
The pack answers “which three places fit this search from the spot the searcher is standing on?”. It is three deep, and it is part of a web page, so the rest of that page matters too. Google decides whether the search deserves a pack at all, and for some phrases it shows one in one town and none in the next.
Google Maps answers “which places fit this search in the area on the screen?”. The area is set by the map, not by the searcher alone. Open the app zoomed to your neighbourhood and the candidates are the businesses in that neighbourhood. Zoom out to the whole town and the candidates are the whole town. A business on the edge of the view can be in the Maps list and nowhere near the pack.
That is how a business comes to be 3rd in one and 8th in the other for the same search from the same corner. The pack ranked three places for one point and it made the cut. Maps ranked 20 places for a wider area and seven of them came out ahead. Neither reading is wrong. They measured different things.
Which one your customers use
A search on a phone starts with the pack. The customer types the trade, sees three places, and taps one of them or the “More businesses” link. If you are in the pack from where they stand, you are on the shortlist. If you are 4th, you are a tap away, on a screen the customer has to ask for.
“Near me” with the Maps app already open is Maps. People use it when they are out, when they are driving, or when they want to see what is around them before they choose. Here the list is long, the map does the sorting, and a 6th place still gets looked at because it is a pin the customer can see.
A desktop search from an office is the pack again, with the finder a click away. Which surface matters more depends on how your customers arrive. A takeaway lives on the phone pack. A hotel is found on Maps by someone panning across a city. A plumber is found on both, because people search from home with whatever is in their hand.
The differences side by side
| Local pack | Google Maps | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it appears | On a Google Search results page, among the web results. | In the Maps app, at maps.google.com, and in the local finder behind “More businesses”. |
| Listings shown | 3. | 20 a page, more as you scroll. |
| What sets the area | The location Google has for the searcher, or a place named in the search. | The part of the map on the screen, and the zoom. |
| What a tap does | Opens the profile on the search page, with call, directions and website buttons. | Opens the profile inside Maps, with the pin kept on the map. |
| How far people scroll | Three listings, then a link to the rest. | Down the list and across the map. A pin can be chosen without reading the list. |
| How a rank reads | 1, 2, 3, or not in the pack. | 1 to 20 and beyond, for the area shown. |
What this means for tracking
Track both, from the same points, and keep them in separate columns. A pack reading from a point is “1st, 2nd, 3rd, or not in the pack”. A Maps reading from the same point is a place in a list of 20. A 4th in Maps and an absence from the pack are the same business on the same street, told two ways. Put them in one column and the average means nothing.
The same rule as for any local rank applies to both: one search from one spot is one rank. Rankings change from street to street, and the pack changes faster than Maps because it is cut at three. A business that is 3rd in the pack on one block can be out of it two blocks on, while its Maps rank slips no further than from 3 to 5. A grid of points shows where the pack holds and where it falls away.
RankShark Track reads Google Maps from each grid point, and its Google Search engine, in beta, records from the same points the business’s place in the local pack and where its website ranks on page 1, with the same grids and the same reports. The pack and the Maps rank then sit on the same map for one keyword, and a drop in one without the other is visible as a pattern rather than a surprise. If a rank does fall, this guide sets out how to tell a real drop from ordinary movement.
If you have never seen the two side by side, run the free audit for your business and one keyword, then search the same phrase on your phone from the shop and note which of the two lists you were looking at.