Decision tree
Local pack SEO: should you buy links at all?
Work down five questions and you will know whether a link order is your next move or a waste of money. Most owners stop at question two.
The upshot
Links are the fourth thing to fix, not the first
Google says local results rest on relevance, distance and prominence. Links touch only the third, and only through your website, so a missing category or thin reviews will beat any link order.
- Profile first: category, hours, services, photos
- Reviews second: steady, real, answered
- Website third: a page per service and per area
- Links fourth: a few relevant mentions for the page that stalls
Five questions, asked in order
- 1
Is your Google Business Profile verified, with the right primary category?
If no, stop here and fix it. A plumber filed under 'contractor' competes in the wrong race, and no backlink repairs that.
- 2
Do you search your own service plus your town from a phone, standing a mile away?
If you vanish a few streets out, you have a distance problem. Links cannot move your shop. Think about a second profile only if you truly have a second staffed address.
- 3
Do you have fewer reviews than the three businesses above you?
If yes, build a habit of asking every happy customer. Do not buy reviews: Google's policy on fake engagement exists and removals do happen.
- 4
Does your site have one page per service and one per area you serve?
If one page tries to cover 'emergency plumber, boiler repair and drain unblocking', split it. Thin pages cannot rank in the pack or below it.
- 5
Do the pages exist, and still sit on page two of the organic results?
Now links are a sensible next move. Pick two to five relevant mentions for that single page, then wait.
Where each lever sits
| Lever | What it affects | Typical cost to you | Do it before links? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary category | Which searches you qualify for | Free | Yes |
| Reviews | Prominence and click-through | Time and a polite ask | Yes |
| NAP consistency | Whether Google trusts the listing is you | An afternoon | Yes |
| Service and area pages | Organic rankings and relevance | Writing time | Yes |
| Relevant backlinks | Website authority behind the pages | From $1 per link | No, after |
| Proximity | Distance from the searcher | Not for sale | Not changeable |
Why proximity is the honest blocker
Distance is the part nobody can sell you. The Vicinity update in December 2021 made Google lean harder on how close a business is to the person searching, and the effect has not faded.
That is why you can sit first on a grid tool such as Local Falcon or BrightLocal from your own doorstep and nowhere three miles away. Both tools show it plainly, and neither will promise you a fix.
What helps is realism. Decide which streets are really yours, build pages for them, and let the website's strength carry you a little further than the map alone would.
Our glossary defines the terms used above, and the neighbourhood link checklist is the free route once you reach question five. Yelp, Bing Places and Apple Maps listings matter too, as the citations page explains.
Things people ask next
- I rank in the pack for some searches and not others. Why?
- Because the pack is personal. Your position changes with the searcher's location, the exact wording and even the time of day. Check a grid from several points before you decide anything is broken.
- Will a new profile appear on Google straight away?
- Usually it can appear within days of verification, but showing up and ranking are different things. Expect to be visible for your own name first, and for service searches only once reviews, category and a good site support you.
- Is the third spot worth fighting for?
- The pack shows three listings, so the gap between third and fourth is large. If you sit in fourth to sixth, a few more reviews often matter more than any link.
- Does a service-area business need a street address shown?
- Not necessarily. You can hide the address if you serve customers at their homes, but switching later between hidden and shown can reset what Google thinks it knows, so decide once.