When you talk to business owners every day, listening to their confusion and frustration about why their website isn’t driving results, you begin to realize something. Most people don’t want just a website. They want something that works as hard as they do — whether that’s pulling in leads, getting their phone to ring, or turning a random Google Maps search into feet through the door. And right now, one of the sneakiest but most powerful levers to pull in that effort is showing up in the Local Pack.
If you’ve ever Googled something like “pizza near me” or “realtor in Franklin,” you’ve seen the Local Pack. It’s that little box with a map and three business listings — addresses, hours, and sometimes reviews. It lives right at the top of Google’s search results, above any website links. And ranking there? It can mean a massive bump in traffic and phone calls. Especially for brick-and-mortar businesses and service providers anchored to a particular city or region.
Yet, despite its importance, many business owners, especially small and midsize ones, have no idea how to optimize their website — and their overall digital presence — to even be considered for the Local Pack. And that’s what we’re tackling today.
The first step in ranking in any search feature is understanding how it actually works. The Local Pack isn’t just pulled from your website. It’s powered by Google’s local algorithm, which prioritizes three main factors: Relevance, Distance, and Prominence. Your site, your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business), and your broader online presence all feed into this.
Relevance is how closely your business matches what someone is searching for. If someone searches "plant nursery near me," and your business is a landscape design firm with no mention of "nursery" on your site or Google listing, you may not show up — even if you’re physically nearby.
Distance is obvious — it’s how close the searcher is to your business. This is why mobile search changed the game, and why having accurate location data is everything.
Prominence is where things get nuanced. It's a blend of factors including online reviews, how well-known your business is, links to your site, and even how active your social profiles are. This part behaves a lot like Google’s traditional search algorithm.
So if you’ve been writing blog posts just hoping they’ll help you get local business? That’s only one slice of the pie.
Let’s start with arguably the most important piece: your Google Business Profile (GBP). This is what shows up in the Local Pack more often than your website does directly.
I once worked with a yoga studio outside of Nashville that had a beautifully designed Wix site, consistent blog content, and loyal members. But their Google profile? It was a ghost town. Wrong opening hours, outdated photos, services missing, no real description of what they offered. Once we cleaned it up and started treating it like a mini-website — including weekly photo uploads and service updates — their profile clicks tripled in three months.
Here’s what you should absolutely do:
For extra credit, use GBP’s “Posts” feature, just like a blog, to announce offers, share tips, or highlight a new project. Think of this as your social-media-meets-local-SEO tool — and it’s free.
Now that your profile is dialed in, it’s time to make sure your website aligns with it — not just by repeating your address in the footer, but by building pages and content that strengthen your local signals.
What this looks like depends on your business. If you offer services in multiple cities, you’ll want dedicated pages for each location. If you run one location, you can still structure service-based content in a way that’s locally flavored.
Consider a real estate agent in Franklin. Instead of just having a Services page that lists “Buyer Services” and “Seller Services,” they could build a Franklin Home Buyer Resource page that answers very specific, geography-aware questions: what kind of down payment assistance programs exist in Williamson County? What’s the typical home inspection process like here?
Try to keep it real. I tell clients all the time: don’t just sprinkle in the name of your town and call it local SEO. Bake local nuance into the actual content — talk about regional seasons, mention local partners, reference city-specific laws or pain points.
In every industry I’ve worked in, from med spas to dog trainers to plumbing contractors, word of mouth is king. And reviews are digital word of mouth. They show up in the Local Pack, influence click-through rates, and support Google's “prominence” ranking factor.
A salon I consult for in Brentwood went from averaging one lead per week from Google to five, just by going from 8 reviews to 60-plus reviews — most of them 5 stars — over six months. No paid ads. We just made reviews part of their post-service follow-up email and trained the staff to ask kindly but directly.
The best reviews do more than say "great service." They build your brand’s search visibility, storytelling, and credibility all at once.
While your website and Google profile are the obvious starting points, your business’s presence on the broader web still carries heavy weight in local SEO — specifically through citations (mentions of your NAP on directories and platforms) and backlinks (links from other websites).
One of my clients in the home remodeling space asked, "So...wait, I need to care about CouponCow.com listing my business?" The answer: sometimes, yes. But it’s not just about quantity — it's about accuracy and reputation too.
Start with core platforms: Apple Maps, Bing Places, Facebook, Yelp, YellowPages, BBB, and local chambers of commerce. Then work toward industry-specific ones — Angi for contractors, Avvo for attorneys, and so on.
It’s worth using tools like Whitespark’s Local Citation Finder or Moz Local to get a read on where you’re listed and how consistent it is.
A backlink from a respected local news outlet can outweigh links from huge national blogs in terms of local SEO impact. Local press still matters.
This is usually the part where business owners start to disconnect — schema? Crawling? Canonical tags? But local SEO doesn’t require deep technical wizardry. With a few key adjustments, most modern platforms like Webflow, WordPress, and Squarespace can help you set things up right.
The biggest technical lift you can make is adding Local Business schema markup — a bit of structured data code that tells Google about your business in a format it can parse clearly.
You can use a tool like TechnicalSEO.com’s Schema Generator to generate this for your own business, or use plugins like “RankMath” or “Yoast” on WordPress. In Webflow, you’ll likely add it as custom code in the page header.
Also useful: setting up a robots.txt file, submitting your sitemap to Google via Search Console, compressing your images, and ensuring your site is mobile friendly. Remember: most local searches happen on mobile. If your site isn't giving people what they need in 5 seconds or less, you’re leaving money on the table.
Finally, it’s essential to track what’s actually working. Google Business Profile gives you Insights that show calls, directions requests, and visits. Coupled with Google Analytics and Search Console, you gain a pretty solid understanding of the full picture.
But don’t fall into the traffic trap. A coffee shop in Green Hills doesn’t need to go viral nationwide. They need to show up for “best espresso near Green Hills” and get 10 more people in line tomorrow.
Watch for trends in:
Even simple improvements — like increasing GBP calls by 25% month-over-month — mean real revenue. And if you're a web designer like I am, you’re rarely just building a site. You’re building a revenue-generating platform that connects local demand with specific solutions.
When people ask “How do I get my website higher in local rankings?” they’re usually thinking just about page titles or keywords. But showing up in the Local Pack is bigger than that. It means owning your digital footprint — from how your site talks about your services, to where your business is listed, to how your customers affirm your quality through reviews.
Think of your website as your storefront, your Google Business Profile as your curb appeal, and your citations and links as the street signs leading people there. It all has to work together.
And the businesses that win? They don’t just optimize one touchpoint. They nurture the whole ecosystem, knowing each part supports the rest.
As someone who builds websites but also helps clients untangle their messaging, their marketing psychology, and their trust-building strategies, I’ve seen how shifting this mindset reorients everything. You stop designing websites in a vacuum. You start designing experiences that show up where it matters — and drive real results where they count.
It’s not about chasing algorithms. It’s about showing Google what your community already sees in you.
Copyright © Zach Sean Web Design
