Glossary · Review collection
Local pack (map pack)
The local pack — also called the map pack — is the boxed block of three local business results, map on top, that Google shows above the regular organic results for searches with local intent, like "dentist near me" or "best coffee shop in Austin." Placement is driven by Google's local ranking triad of relevance, distance, and prominence, and review signals — count, average rating, recency, and whether the business responds — are a major share of prominence. For most local businesses the local pack is the highest-traffic surface they can appear on, which is why review collection has direct revenue consequences rather than being a vanity exercise.
In practice
What it means for a local business.
The pack is compressed real estate: three spots for what is often dozens of competing businesses, with star ratings displayed inline. That display is itself a filter — searchers skim the stars before reading anything else, so a 4.2 next to two 4.8s loses clicks even when it wins on distance.
The same review signals now feed more than the pack. Google's AI Overviews and agentic local discovery draw on structured review data (counts, ratings, recency) to answer "best X near me" conversationally, and third-party AI assistants lean on the open web's rankings and leaderboards. The operational takeaway does not change: sustained review velocity plus complete structured data is the input; pack placement and AI citations are outputs.
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Related guides & tools.
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