Map results show businesses and places, drawn mainly from Google Business Profiles, while organic results link to individual web pages. Appearing prominently in one doesn’t guarantee the same visibility in the other, which is why your website can rank while your profile is missing, or the other way round.
This guide explains what Google shows for a local search, which part draws on which information, and how to work out which part of your own visibility needs attention next.
Checked against Google’s documentation and live UK searches on 13 October 2026.
What is a local search?
A search is local when the person wants something near a place. That can be stated outright, as in “accountant Nottingham”, or implied, as in “accountant” or “plumber near me”.
When someone doesn’t name a place, Google estimates where they are. It uses sources such as the device’s location, saved home and work addresses, past activity and the IP address of their internet connection (Google).
Google says this helps show nearby results “even if you didn’t include a location in your search”, so the same search can produce different results in different places. Google also lists location, language and device among the things that can affect which results it shows for any search (Google Search Central).
Map pack vs organic results: what’s the difference?
The parts of a local results page draw on different information and need checking in different places.
| Search surface | What appears | Main information source | What the business can check | Important limitation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Local results (the “map pack”) | A map and a short list of businesses with ratings, hours, and call, website or directions buttons | Business Profile information | Is your profile eligible, verified and accurate? Do you appear when searching from where customers are? | Only a few businesses are shown, and which ones depends heavily on location |
| Expanded local list (“More businesses”) | A longer list with a map | The same business information as the map pack | Where you appear in the longer list | Not everyone clicks through to it |
| Google Maps | Businesses and places on a full map | Business information, plus Maps data such as user contributions | Search for your service in Maps from your area | Related to the map pack, but a different view that can show different results |
| Organic web results | Links to individual pages, with a title and description | The content of web pages Google has crawled and indexed | Search Console clicks, impressions and pages | A page can rank here while your business doesn’t appear in local results |
| Sponsored results | Ads, including some local business listings | Advertisers’ paid campaigns | Your own ad account, if you advertise | Paid placement. It doesn’t affect organic or local rankings. |
| AI Overview (when shown) | A generated summary with links | Google’s systems, drawing on indexed pages | Whether your pages are indexed and eligible for a snippet, and your Search Console AI setting | Appears for some searches only, and can differ from AI Mode |
Google says business information comes from several sources (Google):
- what owners and other users add, including reviews and photos;
- publicly available information such as crawled web content;
- data licensed from third parties.
That’s why your website and your profile should say the same things.
Google also says it “doesn’t accept payment to… rank [a site] higher” in its results, and that there’s “no way to request or pay for a better local ranking” (Google Search Central; Google).
What Google says about local ranking
Google says local results are “mainly” based on three factors (Google):
- Relevance: “how well a Business Profile matches what someone is searching for”. Accurate categories, services and descriptions help Google understand what you do.
- Distance: “how far each business is from the customer who’s searching”. If someone doesn’t say where they are, Google uses what it knows about their location.
- Prominence: “how well-known a business is”. Google says more reviews and positive ratings can help, and that this factor also takes into account how many websites link to the business.
Google also says businesses with complete and accurate information are more likely to show up in local results.
These are broad factors, not a full list of every signal Google uses, and Google doesn’t publish one.
Distance works differently from the other two. Editing your profile doesn’t change how far you actually are from a given searcher. If customers search from a different part of the city from your premises, other businesses may simply be closer to them.
What “near me” changes, and what it doesn’t
“Near me” isn’t a place. It tells Google to use the searcher’s location, which is why the same “near me” search can show different businesses in different parts of Nottingham.
A hypothetical example (not a documented search): someone searching “electrician near me” in Beeston, in West Bridgford and in Arnold could see three different sets of local results. Each is near a different place, and the businesses closest to each searcher may differ. We haven’t run those searches from those places, so treat this as an illustration of the principle, not evidence about any business.
Our Local SEO Nottingham page shows real Search Console figures from a Nottingham client, where “near me” searches and searches containing “Nottingham” performed very differently over the same period.
You don’t need to repeat “near me” throughout your website. It describes the searcher’s situation, not your service. What helps is a clear, accurate statement of what you do and where you actually work.
How your website and Business Profile support each other
Your profile and website do different jobs:
- The profile is how you appear in local results and on Maps. It links to your website.
- The website can appear in organic results for searches the profile never shows for, and it gives customers more detail before they get in touch.
Because Google uses crawled web content as one source of business information, the two should agree on your name, address or service area, phone number, services and opening hours. Our Google Business Profile page covers how profiles are set up and managed. If you run a restaurant, pub or café, our hospitality local SEO guide shows how to keep menus and booking links consistent too.
Google has also changed how Business Profile questions and answers work. Our guide to what changed with Google Business Profile Q&A separates public Q&A, owner answers, Ask Maps and Search AI, and explains where to keep customer answers up to date.
Which Business Profile rules apply if you visit customers?
Plumbers, cleaners, mobile hairdressers and many other trades are service-area businesses. Google’s guidelines say (Google):
- Hide your address if you don’t serve customers at it.
- Set your service area realistically. Google says it generally shouldn’t extend farther than about two hours’ driving time from your base, though larger areas may suit some businesses.
- Have one service-area profile if you have no premises customers can visit. The exception is a business with several locations that each have their own staff and their own service area. Each of those can have its own profile.
- Don’t use a virtual office or remote mailbox as your address. A rented mailing address where you don’t operate isn’t eligible.
Adding towns to your service area tells Google where you work. It doesn’t guarantee you’ll appear for searches made from all of them, because distance and the other factors still apply. Our guide to setting up your Business Profile explains how service-area profiles are created and verified.
Verification is Google’s way of confirming you’re authorised to manage the profile (Google). Google says a verified profile is more likely to show up in results (Google). It doesn’t say verification secures any particular position.
If you have several genuine locations, our multi-location SEO page covers how to handle them.
What our Nottingham search checks showed
How we searched, and the limits
We searched Google UK on 13 October 2026, around 00:30 to 00:45, on a desktop browser, signed out, with cookies declined.
Google’s footer showed the search location as “United Kingdom – Unknown – Can’t determine location”. So this was not a controlled search from a confirmed Nottingham location, and someone searching in Nottingham may see something different.
What appeared for “accountant Nottingham”
From top to bottom, the page showed:
- A location chip reading “Nottingham · Choose area”, which lets the searcher change the area.
- Sponsored results. Two text ads, then a sponsored listing for a local business showing its rating, address and phone number.
- A “Find results on” row of directory sites, such as Yell and Bark.
- Local results. A map alongside a short list of businesses, each with a rating, category, opening status, and Website and Directions buttons. A “More businesses” link opened a longer list.
- Web results. Ordinary organic listings linking to web pages.
- People also ask, with questions such as “How much does an accountant cost in the UK?”.
- A second set of sponsored results, further down the page.
- More web results, then “People also search for”.
No AI Overview appeared for this search.
Two other searches the same night showed how much the page changes:
- plumber Nottingham showed a directory row, local results, web results and People also ask, but no ads.
- plumber near me showed directory results for London, Leeds and Gloucester. We can’t say exactly why, but it shows that “near me” results depend on where Google thinks you are.
What these checks can’t tell you
This is one snapshot, on one device, at one time. It doesn’t show:
- who ranks where;
- how many people search for these terms;
- what customers in Nottingham saw that night.
The parts of the page don’t appear in a fixed order. To see what your own customers see, search from where they are, on a phone as well as a computer.
Where AI Overviews and AI Mode fit
In our desktop checks, an AI Overview appeared for general questions such as “how does local search work google” and “map pack vs organic results”. It didn’t appear for the Nottingham service searches. AI Mode is a separate feature, and we didn’t check it. Our guide to AI Overviews and AI Mode for local businesses covers what AI Mode showed for four Nottingham searches.
Google says no special markup, files or restructuring are needed. A page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet, and your site must be included in Search Console’s Search generative AI setting (Settings → Search generative AI). Sites are included by default, and excluding one doesn’t affect regular search results (Google Search Central; Search Console Help).
AI Overviews and AI Mode can use different models, so their answers and links can differ (Google Search Central).
AI summaries can also be wrong or overconfident. In one of our checks, an overview stated that name, address and phone consistency is a map pack ranking signal. Google doesn’t list it as a separate factor, though it does say complete, accurate information helps. Treat an AI summary of ranking factors as something to check, not a source.
Which part of your visibility needs attention?
| What you notice | What it may indicate | First check | What cannot yet be concluded |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your website appears in organic results, but your business doesn’t show in local results | The profile may be missing, unverified, ineligible or less relevant for that search, or competitors may be closer to the searcher | Does an eligible, verified profile exist? Is its primary category right? Search from where customers are. | That the profile is “penalised”, or that more website work will fix it |
| Your profile appears locally, but your website doesn’t rank organically | The website may lack a clear page for that service, or may have indexing or content gaps | Search Console: is there an indexed page for that service? Which queries show impressions? | That the profile’s visibility will carry over to the website |
| You appear in some nearby areas but not others | Distance from the searcher, or stronger nearby competitors | Search the same query from each area, or ask customers what they see | That adding those areas to your profile or pages will change it |
| You’re visible in both, but enquiries are few | The listing or page may not persuade, or calls and forms may not be tracked | Profile performance (call-button taps, website clicks); website contact forms; whether tracking works. Our guide to tracking calls and enquiries covers this. | That rankings are the problem |
| Search Console impressions rising without similar clicks | You’re being shown more, possibly lower down, for broader searches, or the results page has changed | Which queries and pages gained impressions? Search them and see what appears | That something is wrong. Rising impressions can be normal. |
If your business doesn’t appear on Google Maps at all, our guide to not showing on Google Maps works through the likely causes.
How to measure each part
Each surface is measured in a different place. Keep the figures separate, and don’t add them together or compare them like for like.
Your website: Search Console
The Performance report shows your website’s clicks, impressions, pages, queries and average position in Google Search. Average position is your website’s position in search results. It isn’t a map pack ranking.
Your profile: Business Profile performance
The profile’s performance report shows views on Search and Maps, the searches people used to find you, and actions such as calls, website clicks and direction requests (Google). Three points matter when reading it:
- “Calls” counts taps on the call button, not calls answered or completed.
- A person is counted once a day for views, though someone using several devices can be counted a limited number of times.
- The figures include activity from Google Ads as well as unpaid results, so if you advertise, they don’t show organic visibility alone.
AI features: the generative AI performance report
Search Console’s generative AI performance report shows how often links to your site appeared in AI Overviews and AI Mode. It shows impressions by page, country, device and date (Search Console Help). It may not appear for sites with few such impressions. Visits from these features are also counted in the main Performance report under Web.
A checklist for your next step
- Search as a customer. Search for your main service from where your customers are, on a phone. Note which parts of the page appear and where you are in each.
- Check your profile. Confirm it’s eligible, verified, in the right primary category, and has accurate hours, services and service areas.
- Check your website. Confirm each main service has its own clear, indexed page, and that its details match your profile.
- Look at the reports. Use Search Console for the website and the profile’s performance report for the profile. Keep them separate.
- Check tracking. Make sure calls and enquiries from both are recorded before judging results.
- Pick one priority. Choose the part of the page where you’re weakest for the searches that matter most, and fix that first.
If your website ranks but your profile doesn’t, start with the Google Business Profile page. If your profile shows but your website doesn’t, or you need both working together across the areas you cover, the Local SEO Nottingham page explains the work involved. Our guide to what SEO costs in Nottingham compares the one-off and monthly options.