Google Maps + Local Search rankings are NOT the same
Sponsored by Semrush , written by Miriam Ellis , & edited by Rebecca Kelley
“I want to rank #1 in Google’s local results.”
It’s a statement your search marketing agency hears constantly from incoming clients. Unfortunately, it contains two major flaws based on a misunderstanding of how Google’s results actually work.
What is Google Local Search?
Google Local Search refers to the results Google displays when users search for products, services, or businesses near their current location. These results typically appear in the “Local Pack” or “Map Pack,” showing a map with a list of nearby businesses, along with key information like ratings, hours, and addresses. Google uses factors like relevance, distance, and prominence to determine which businesses appear in local search results.
Optimizing for Google Local Search is crucial for businesses that serve specific geographic areas. This includes maintaining a complete and verified Google Business Profile, collecting positive reviews, and ensuring consistent business information across online directories. Appearing in local search results increases visibility, drives foot traffic, and helps attract high-intent local customers.
Issue #1: There are no #1 rankings in Google’s local results
The first flaw is easy to explain: there are no #1 rankings in any of Google’s localized results because each unique searcher is shown customized information, largely based on the location of their device at the time of search.
You can have the client fact-check you on this by telling them to search for something like “breakfast near me” while they’re on their mobile phone at home, and then telling them to do the same search the next time they’re on the other side of town.
Unless they live in an extremely rural area with only a couple of restaurants, they’ll be able to see that Google is surfacing different businesses for them based on their location change. This discussion will help your brand steer the conversation away from useless discussion of being “#1” to a more nuanced exchange about overall visibility across desired geographic markets.
Issue #2: Google’s local results aren’t a single entity
The second flaw takes a little more demonstration on your part to clarify that “Google’s local results” are a dynamic mix of factors, not one single thing. There are three main variants of the results, plus major layout differences on mobile vs. desktop displays.
Understanding these variants will fast-track your conversations away from an oversimplified understanding of Google and confused expectations to more meaningful strategic discussions about how to succeed in complex localized results.
Differentiating the 3 core localized Google results
The basic building blocks of understanding this topic is that there are local results based in Google.com/maps and Google.com/search. While these results can look confusingly similar on the surface, they represent two separate indexes.
The three main varieties of local results are:
- Maps
- Local packs
- Local Finders
1. Maps-based local results
Maps-based local results are often the default on Android devices, and can be reached from Google’s organic results on either phone or desktop by clicking the Maps link shown here:
The Maps-based experience most commonly looks like this on desktop, with a list of local businesses on the left and accompanying map on the right, with a somewhat different layout on mobile:
2. Search-based local results (local packs)
By contrast, Search-based local results are typified by the local packs one sees on both desktop and mobile devices within Google’s organic results. They look like this:
3. Expanded Search-based data set (Local Finder)
The user reaches the expanded Search-based data set by clicking on the “More places” link to be taken to the Local Finder. It typically features multiple pages of business listings, instead of the just the three options most commonly shown in the local packs.
The expanded Search-based data set looks like this:
Business owners are justified in being confused by the fact that Maps and Local Finders have such similar layouts, but show your clients the URL fields in the above three screenshots so that they can see for themselves that Maps results are based at google.com/maps, while the packs and finders are at google.com/search.
You may already have seriously surprised a client with this demo; now get ready to blow their mind. Get them to look with you at the actual businesses being featured in the Maps vs. local pack vs. Local Finder results.
The first three businesses in Maps are:
- The Lighthouse Cafe
- RH Rooftop Restaurant at RH Marin
- Farm House Local
But, the first three businesses in the local pack setting are:
- The Lighthouse Cafe
- Farm House Local
- Kitchen Sunnyside
They’re not the same! And in this case, the order of local pack results doesn’t match what we see when we click through to the Local Finder. Instead, the Local Finder is ordering results (in this instance) the same as we saw in Google Maps:
- The Lighthouse Cafe
- RH Rooftop Restaurant at RH Marin
- Farm House Local
Suddenly, we’ve moved miles away from the useless place of wanting to be #1, and into more realistic territory about ranking variation across different but related Google experiences. We should also throw into this mix that rankings can vary between mobile and desktop devices.
To continue our exploration, let’s put in a little time trying to quantify this varied ranking reality.
How different are Google Maps, local pack, and Local Finder results?
There is no official guidance around these different results, and so the easiest way to get to answer is to perform a real-world test.
Methodology:
I created a spreadsheet to record ranking differences across the three Google experiences when searching for the terms related to breakfast in five different US cities. In this experiment, I looked only at the top three results for each search term.
Findings:
Behold my spreadsheet of beauty!
As we can see from the above data, there are some instances in which the result sets are identical across all three experiences, but it’s more common for the results to vary to some degree.
I purposely confined myself in this first experiment to looking only at the top three rankings in each environment because I’ve noticed a trend over the years that rankings for the strongest businesses tend to be more stable. Variation often increases as we scroll deeper into the results.
In my second experiment, I did a search for “vegan breakfast san rafael” and compared the first 10 results in Maps to the first 10 in the Local Finder:
As we can see, the results are 60% different between the two interfaces. This will vary across industry and location, but the increased differences in business inclusion and ranking order after the top three listings is common enough that I was able to pull up an example on my first try.
We’re definitely in a different universe than where we started out, wanting to be #1.
Strive for high visibility in Google’s local results, not being #1
Knowledge is power, and today we’ve learned together that it isn’t accurate to think of Google’s localized results as a single entity. Instead, they come in three main flavors, and ranking order can often be quite different in each setting.
Because of this, it’s more practical to set goals of high visibility throughout Google’s localized ecosystem, rather than having the unrealistic expectation of always being #1 for everybody everywhere.
To that end, it’s important to track the different environments separately. Before you invest in a tool, you should be clear on what it tracks. For example, Semrush offers a state-of-the-art Maps-based ranking tracker.
Other vendors have Search-based local ranking trackers. Know what’s being represented by the data so that you understand whether you’re monitoring visibility on Maps, local packs, or Local Finders.
Pro tips:
- Using a Position Tracking campaign in Semrush, you can track share of voice in organic traffic by location or by topic.
- To view share of voice across sources–direct, referral, search, social, paid search-you can use the Estimated Market Share function in the Market Explorer tool.
It’s good to remember that the local SEO industry’s perspective on the importance of rankings continues to evolve over time. Rankings matter as much as they ever did. Your agency needs to be monitoring them to benchmark visibility gains and to quickly catch sudden visibility losses for investigation.
That being said, you will do your clients a favor by teaching them that rankings are a kind of shorthand quality check for ongoing performance, but that actual conversions are the truest measure of success. Small variance in ranking order is of small importance, so long as conversion goals are being met!