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.

Review management is the ongoing process of asking customers for reviews, monitoring new reviews as they arrive, and replying to every one of them. For a local business it centers on Google, because Google reviews feed both the map pack ranking and the decision of the person comparing listings.

Review generation is the practice of systematically asking every completed customer to leave a review, usually by text and email with a direct link to the review form. It replaces asking in person, which most staff forget, with an automatic request triggered when a job closes.

Review reactivation is a one-time campaign that asks a business's past customers — typically the last one to two years — for a Google review, spread gradually over several weeks instead of sent all at once. It turns an existing customer list into reviews without waiting for new jobs.

A Google review link is a URL that opens a business's Google review form directly, with the star rating ready to tap. It is built from the business's Place ID in the form search.google.com/local/writereview?placeid=YOUR_PLACE_ID, or copied from the "Ask for reviews" button on the Business Profile.

A review response is the business owner's public reply to a customer review, shown directly under it on Google. Replying to every review — positive and negative, ideally within a day — shows readers the business is active and gives Google a fresh signal on the profile.

Review attribution is matching a posted review back to the request that prompted it, so a business can measure what share of requests turn into reviews. Because Google doesn't share reviewers' phone numbers or emails, attribution relies on tracked link clicks plus matching the reviewer's name within a short time window.

A2P 10DLC (application-to-person, 10-digit long code) is the US carrier registration system for businesses that send texts from standard local phone numbers. The business and its message use case must be registered before sending, or carriers filter or block the messages.

A review widget is a small embed that displays a business's live Google reviews and star rating on its own website, updating automatically as new reviews arrive. It lets site visitors see social proof without leaving the page.