Over the past years, Google has started giving more and more favour to their local businesses, which obviously supply them with a huge amount of combined revenue in AdWords revenue (Google’s main income source).

However, the recent Google local pack change has seen some local businesses completely “drop off the map” and their enquiries dwindle dramatically, so in this short article were going to have a look at the changes and how they affect or could affect you and your business and likewise what to do to make sure you turn this change into a positive.

What Is The Google Local Pack?

First off, the Google Local Pack is basically how many listings Google shows from their maps, which predominantly normally feature at the very top for local search terms.

They used to show seven businesses, whereas now they only show three.

This is actually a good thing, as psychological studies have shown that when someone is given more choices that they tend to be less likely to make a decision, so being in this top three list of websites/businesses in Google’s Local Map Pack, and especially listing at the top of the searches will actually mean you get more calls, visitors and business as a result.

Why the Change?

One of the main reasons for this change is the fact that more and more people are using their mobiles to browse for browsing the internet, including browsing for local businesses.

Previously, showing seven businesses on local searches meant that was probably all that the user saw, whereas now they can see the top three along with viewing the websites below that are ranking well for the keywords and phrases that have been searched.

Likewise, you have to remember that Google is all about the user and not the website or business owner, therefore if you want to be at the top of search results then you can pay Google to be there. They want their best experience to be for their users only so that people will continue to use Google for their searches.

How to Get and Stay in the Top Three

Getting into and staying in the top three is actually based on a range of factors, however it is also likely to change in the near future as Google has also started running some tests to make people pay to be higher up in these maps listings as sponsored suggestions.

However, it all comes down to where your website ranks, your reviews, social presence and the other directories your website and business has been added to.

Google is out there to provide a good experience to their user and providing that your business is credible, liked by more people and you have a stronger online presence than your competitors then you should be likely to rank in Google’s top three.

The Good News

As soon as you are in this top three, you have automatically knocked out the other 5 listings that were previously shown. This means more clicks to your website, more phone calls, more people in your store and more business and money because of this change.