Local SEO: how to make your Google Business Profile work

What the local pack is

When you search for something local on Google, a map with three businesses often appears at the top, the so called local pack. Those three spots get a large share of the clicks. Which businesses end up there is decided above all by the Google Business Profile, not by the classic website position.

Fill in your profile completely

Google favours complete, well kept profiles. In concrete terms:

• Exact category (or categories), address, phone number and opening hours, consistent with your website.
• A meaningful business description with your services and your location (in our case Lüneburg and the surrounding area).
• Current photos of the shop, the team and the services.
• Services and attributes kept up to date, so Google can match you to the right searches.

Consistency is what matters: name, address and phone number should be identical everywhere, on the website, in the profile and in directories. Contradictions weaken your local ranking.

Reviews are visibility you can count

The number, the recency and the score of your reviews are among the strongest local signals, for Google as well as for AI systems. A business with 4.8 stars from 200 recent reviews is preferred over one with a few old ones.

Ask satisfied customers for a review and reply to reviews, including the critical ones. That shows Google and future customers that there is an active business behind the profile.

Tie website and profile together

Profile and website should work together. The website needs LocalBusiness schema with address and opening hours, a clear location reference in the text and an embedded map. That way the two confirm each other, and Google assigns you cleanly to your region (in our case Lüneburg).