The vocabulary of local search, without the jargon.

The map pack — also called the local pack or three-pack — is the block of three business listings with a map that Google shows above the organic results for local searches. It is ranked from Google Business Profiles rather than websites, using relevance, distance, and prominence, and it captures the majority of clicks and calls on mobile local searches.

Google Business Profile categories tell Google what your business is. The primary category carries the most ranking weight and largely determines which searches your profile is eligible to appear for; secondary categories add eligibility for related searches without diluting the primary.

Proximity is the distance between the person searching and a business's verified location, and it is one of the three factors Google uses to rank local results. It is the reason map pack rankings change block by block and why checking your rank from your own office is misleading.

Prominence is Google's estimate of how well-known and well-regarded a business is, and it is the third local ranking factor alongside relevance and distance. It is built from review count and velocity, profile completeness and activity, and signals from the wider web such as citations, links, and mentions.

Relevance is how closely a Google Business Profile matches what someone searched for. It is driven by categories, the services list, the business description, attributes, products, posts, and the language used in reviews and Q&A.

A service area business (SAB) is a business that travels to customers rather than serving them at its own address — plumbers, roofers, mobile detailing, cleaning companies. On Google Business Profile an SAB hides its street address and instead lists the cities or regions it serves.

Review velocity is the rate at which a business earns new reviews over time. A steady, ongoing flow signals an active business and contributes to prominence, while a sudden burst after long inactivity often triggers Google's spam filter and gets the batch removed.

Review gating is the practice of surveying customers first and only directing the satisfied ones to leave a public review. It violates Google's review policies, and platforms that do it risk having reviews removed and the profile scrutinized.

A rank grid (or geo-grid) measures a business's map pack position at many separate points across an area rather than as a single number. It reveals the shape of your visibility — where you appear, where you fade, and how far your ranking radius extends.

Google posts are short updates published directly to a Google Business Profile and shown on the business listing in Search and Maps. They are not a direct ranking factor, but they keep the profile active and lift engagement and conversion from people already looking at your listing.

Justifications are the short lines Google displays beneath a map pack listing explaining why that business matched the search — a quoted phrase from a review, a matching service, a post, or a website mention. They occupy the most persuasive real estate on the result and are generated automatically from your profile and review content.

A spam listing is a Google Business Profile that violates the guidelines to gain ranking — a fake or virtual address, a keyword-stuffed business name, a lead-generation listing with no real premises, or a duplicate. Legitimate businesses can report them through Google's redressal complaint form.

NAP consistency means your business name, address, and phone number appear identically everywhere online — your website, your Google Business Profile, and every directory listing. Google cross-references these sources to confirm a business is real, and conflicting information weakens confidence in the profile.