The map pack is the real front door
When someone searches “dentist near me,” Google shows a map with the three closest, best-matching practices front and center, complete with star ratings, hours, distance, and a call button. That block is the map pack, and for most local searches it’s the first and sometimes only thing a patient sees before deciding who to call.
Google ranks those three spots on relevance, distance, and prominence. You can’t move your building, so distance is fixed. Relevance and prominence you can influence, and most practices are leaving points on the table by not trying.
Prominence comes down largely to reviews and photos, and recency matters more than volume on both. A practice with 200 reviews from three years ago and nothing since looks less active to Google than a competitor steadily picking up two or three a week. The same goes for photos: real, recent shots of your office, team, and equipment signal an active practice, while a gallery that hasn’t changed since launch signals the opposite. A profile that looks lived-in this month outranks one that looks frozen in 2022.
Relevance is the other lever, and it comes down to whether your profile actually matches what people search for. If you offer Invisalign or sedation dentistry but haven’t added those as services on your Google Business Profile, you’re far less likely to show up in that search. Make sure all your services are clearly listed, along with the right primary and secondary categories.
Want to see what this actually looks like in practice? Check out our case study to see real data behind these recommendations.