How to get into the Google “Snack Pack” – map listings
Do you notice that if you search for a local service, that there are three listings that appear at the top plotted on a mini Google Map? This is called the Google “Snack Pack”. Being in this three can mean a huge traffic boost for the businesses featured.
We often get asked: “How do we get into the top three of the google map listing thing?” so here are some pro tips.
But before we start on the pro stuff… It almost goes without saying that before you do anything, make sure you’ve claimed ownership of your Google My Business listing, and that you have completed this as much as possible, including adding photos, etc.
If you have one, it will show up on Google in the right column when you search for your business name. Sometimes even if you haven’t deliberately made one, you will have one showing there anyway which can be ‘claimed‘. We can help you if you’re stuck just drop us a line.
How to get into the top 3 map listing on Google search
Pro tip #1 – Consistent and complete local citations
Check to make sure that your ‘citations’ are all consistent and 100% accurate, local and complete. Citations are the other places where your business is listed on the internet. These should be linking to your main website of course!
For example, yellow pages, true local are all citations that feature your contact information. All the phone, address, information needs to appear EXACTLY as it does on your Google listing, and your website. So if your address is listed as 12/16 Thingamy St on google, it should not be listed as 12/16 Thingamy Street in other places, or Shop 16, 12 Thingamy St… etc. Everything has to be identical, right down to putting parentheses around the phone area code or not.
Likewise, make sure that the other listings are all completed properly and not missing bits of information.
Use a local phone number, not your mobile on your website and google listing. This will again help google to feel confident that you are in fact a local business, and not someone pretending to be.
Pro tip #2 – Google reviews
Basically, Google wants to show searchers the best results possible. Good reviews are an excellent signal to Google that a business is reputable. So, it’ll tend to favour businesses with reviews over others without reviews. The more reviews, the more chance you’ve got to get to the top.
So, ensure your google listing has a good number of (preferably positive) reviews. The more the better, but be careful how you encourage clients to leave reviews, as Google can be harsh if it smells a rat on this… too many reviews made all at once, or reviews from ‘spoof’ accounts could end up hurting you.
Pro tip #3: Keep posting articles to your website
As a general rule, if your site generally ranks highly in Google organic search listings (i.e. the listings below the Google Snack Pack) for a particular search term, then it *should* rank well in the Google Snack Pack too. So you need to ensure your website has good search engine optimisation (SEO).
So, assuming your site is generally OK structurally, has relevant content, and has a healthy number of quality backlinks from other websites, then you’re left with one main avenue to increase your rankings… create useful, interesting or amusing content, and get people to link to it!
If you have a blog, make sure that you’re posting relevant and interesting articles REGULARLY. Tips, and detailed answers to the questions you get asked by customers frequently make great content (like this article!).
Fresh content keeps your site looking fresh and relevant in Google’s eyes. It also may attract links to it from other places, which will also help your ranking. Make sure your articles are completed with good and relevant metadata such as meta title and meta description. Also remember to share the articles on social media!