Another advantage to being in the Google Local Pack / Map Pack

Google's Mobile-friendly update rolled out back in April of 2015, and that meant significant penalties for websites that are not optimized for use on mobile devices.

If your website is still not Mobile-friendly (you should fix that), you are not beyond hope. Gary Illyes of Google confirmed that the Google Map Pack will not be affected by the Mobile-friendly algorithm.

Here's a rough diagram that will show you exactly what the Google Map Pack is:

diagram marking different sections of a typical Google SERP


You'll notice that all listings in the Map Pack have a couple things in common:

  1. They are listed in Google My Business (formerly Google Places)
  2. They have at least one Google review
Aside from gaining a little protection from tomorrow's Mobile-friendly algorithm update, there are some other distinct advantages to being listed in the Google Map Pack, but we will talk about that another time.

Right now you should be focusing on making sure your website is mobile-friendly, and making sure that your business is integrated with Google's different business functions.