Local Pack (Google 3-Pack)
The local pack, or Google 3-pack, is the block of three map-pinned business listings Google shows for searches with local intent, drawn from Google Business Profile data and ranked by relevance, distance, and prominence rather than by an AI-generated answer.
Also known as: Google 3-pack, Map pack, Local 3-pack
The local pack is the map with three business listings that appears near the top of Google results when you search for something like emergency dentist Tacoma or Thai food near me. Each listing shows the name, star rating, review count, category, address or distance, hours, and buttons to call or get directions. Click any of them or the more places link and you land in Google Maps with the full list.
It's ranked from Google Business Profile data using three broad factors Google names publicly: relevance (does your category and description match the search), distance (how far you are from the searcher or the place named), and prominence (how well known you are, which folds in review count, rating, and links to your site). It isn't an AI answer; it's a ranking, and it's been the main way local businesses got found on Google for over a decade.
How does it compare with AI recommendations? SOCi's 2026 Local Visibility Index, covering 350,000-plus locations of multi-location brands, found the Google local 3-pack surfaced 35.9% of locations, versus 11% recommended by Gemini, 7.4% by Perplexity, and 1.2% by ChatGPT. Those are brands, not independents, and the study isn't contractor-specific, but the gap is large: the pack remains the highest-visibility local surface by a wide margin.
A question you'll see answered confidently online is how often AI Overviews appear on local queries and whether they're replacing the pack. Nobody has published a clean measurement of that. Figures like 7% or 15% of local queries circulate without a study behind them. What's known is that the two surfaces are driven by different signals and can appear together on the same results page, so optimizing for one doesn't remove the need for the other.
For a small business, the pack and AI answers reward overlapping work. A complete, accurate Google Business Profile with steady reviews is the main lever for the pack, and that same profile is one of the most cited sources in AI answers. Tibly focuses on the AI side, tracking whether you're named across seven engines and which sources they cite, but the listing work it recommends tends to lift the pack as well.
Keep exploring the glossary
- Google Business Profile (GBP)Google Business Profile is the free listing a business manages in Google that holds its name, address, hours, phone, categories, photos, and reviews, driving Google Maps and local 3-pack results and serving as a heavily cited source in AI answers.
- AI OverviewsAI Overviews is Google's AI-generated summary that appears above the organic results for many searches, answering the query directly and citing a handful of sources instead of showing ten ranked links.
- Review SignalsReview signals are the count, rating, recency, and written content of customer reviews on Google, Yelp, and industry directories that search engines and AI answer engines read as evidence of a business's quality when deciding how to recommend it.
- Mention Rate (Visibility Rate)Mention rate, also called visibility rate, is the percentage of AI answers to a tracked set of buying questions that name your business, calculated per engine over repeated runs, so it measures how reliably an engine recommends you.
Common questions about Local Pack (Google 3-Pack)
- Are AI Overviews replacing the local pack?
- Nobody has measured this properly. Claims that AI Overviews appear on a specific percentage of local queries aren't backed by a published study. The two surfaces use different signals and can appear on the same page. The pack still surfaced far more businesses than any AI engine in SOCi's 2026 data.
- How do I rank in the Google 3-pack?
- Complete your Google Business Profile with the right primary category, accurate address and hours, and real photos; earn and reply to reviews steadily; and keep your website's facts identical to the profile. Distance from the searcher is a factor you can't control, which is why service-area businesses often see the pack vary by neighborhood.