There is a lot of noise about AI right now, and it is easy to get swept up in it. But if you run a business that serves a local area, a plumber, a dentist, a shop, a solicitor, a garage, I want to bring you back to something calmer and more profitable. When someone nearby needs what you sell, they search, and the map pack is still where that search turns into a phone call. That has not changed, and the work that wins it is not glamorous, but it works.
The map pack is the block of three local businesses with a map that Google shows for local searches. Ranking there, and turning up in Google Business Profile results, is the closest thing local marketing has to a sure bet. Here is where to put your effort.
Local intent still converts, quietly
Not every search is a research question an AI can answer in one paragraph. "Emergency electrician near me" is not a curiosity, it is a person with a problem and a wallet. These searches carry high intent, they happen constantly, and they mostly resolve through Google's local results rather than a chatbot.
While the industry debates zero-click and AI Overviews, this stream of ready-to-buy local demand keeps flowing to whoever shows up in the map pack with good reviews and clear information. It is unfashionable to say so, but for a lot of local businesses this is still the single most valuable thing in their marketing, and it is being neglected because the attention is elsewhere.
Reviews are the biggest lever you have
If you do one thing after reading this, make it reviews. Consistent, recent, genuine reviews on your Google Business Profile move the needle more than almost anything else in local search, and they do double duty by convincing the human reading them to actually choose you.
A few honest principles:
- Ask every happy customer, simply and at the right moment, just after you have done good work.
- Make it easy. Send the direct review link, do not make people hunt for it.
- Reply to reviews, all of them, the good and the awkward. It shows you are present and it is a signal Google notices.
- Never buy fake reviews. They get detected, they read as hollow to customers, and they are not worth the risk.
Volume matters, but so does freshness. A steady trickle of new reviews beats a burst two years ago and silence since.
Google Business Profile is a live asset, not a listing
Too many businesses set up their profile once and forget it. Treat it as something you actively maintain.
- Choose your primary category carefully and add relevant secondary ones. Categories are how Google understands what you actually do, and the wrong one quietly costs you visibility.
- Keep your details accurate and identical to your website: name, address, phone, hours.
- Post updates. GBP posts about offers, news and jobs you have done keep the profile active and give people a reason to choose you.
- Add real photos. Your premises, your team, your work. They build trust and they get looked at.
None of this is hard. It is just ongoing, and the businesses that do it consistently pull ahead of the ones that treat the profile as a set-and-forget entry.
Local landing pages that help, not spam
If you serve several towns, it is tempting to spin up a page for each one that is the same text with the place name swapped. Google has a name for that, doorway pages, and it does not reward them.
The version that works is genuinely useful. A page about your service in a specific area should say something true and local: the areas you cover within it, a job you have done there, parking or access notes, response times, questions particular to that place. If a page would be useless to a real customer, it is useless to Google too. Fewer, better local pages beat a pile of thin ones every time.
How AI assistants handle local, and why it is the same work
Here is the part that should reassure you. When an AI assistant recommends a local business, where do you think it gets the information? Largely from Google Business Profile data, reviews and the same local signals that drive the map pack. It is reading the same sources.
That means the work does not split in two. Strong profile, good categories, plenty of genuine reviews, accurate information and useful local pages make you a better answer for the map pack and a better answer for an AI assistant at the same time. You are not choosing between old and new. The local fundamentals feed both, which is exactly why they are worth the effort.
Where to start
Pick the lever with the most slack. For most local businesses that is reviews, closely followed by a tidy, well-categorised Google Business Profile. Get those right and you are competing for the searches that actually turn into work.
If you would like a hand getting your profile and local presence into proper shape, local SEO is a core part of what we do at RevUp, and it starts with an honest look at where you currently rank and why.