I've been studying Local SEO from the perspective of local 3-pack ranking for the past couple of years and have been involved in Organic SEO much longer. While SEO isn't my primary area of expertise, I have found the 3-pack fascinating as in many cases it just "doesn't make sense"
While there are of course many many factors, the 3-pack in my estimation places additional weight on the following in addition to the "normal" non-local organic ranking factors (including backlink profile and on-page factors)
- proximity of business to the location intent of the user's search
- reviews and average rating of GMB listing
- proximity of business to the user's location
- Keywords in name of the business (moreso than keywords in landing page title)
I've not seen any discernable patterns in any other local-specific ranking factors that indicate a significant weight approaching the weight of the above four.
What baffles me is results like THIS though: https://i.imgur.com/pKsV0gs.png
You may or may not see the Wild Rabbit in your own results but this is a classic example where you have a 3-pack result in a very large, relatively saturated city, and one of the businesses listed:
A. Has an address not in the intent city (Los Angeles) but rather the neighboring city of Glendale
B. Has no organic rank on page 1 outside the 3-pack
C. Has no reviews or ratings for their GMB listing
D. (In my case) is not the closest to my (the search user's) location
E. Has absolutely no search keywords in the business name
Any guesses why it's ranking so well?
While there are of course many many factors, the 3-pack in my estimation places additional weight on the following in addition to the "normal" non-local organic ranking factors (including backlink profile and on-page factors)
- proximity of business to the location intent of the user's search
- reviews and average rating of GMB listing
- proximity of business to the user's location
- Keywords in name of the business (moreso than keywords in landing page title)
I've not seen any discernable patterns in any other local-specific ranking factors that indicate a significant weight approaching the weight of the above four.
What baffles me is results like THIS though: https://i.imgur.com/pKsV0gs.png
You may or may not see the Wild Rabbit in your own results but this is a classic example where you have a 3-pack result in a very large, relatively saturated city, and one of the businesses listed:
A. Has an address not in the intent city (Los Angeles) but rather the neighboring city of Glendale
B. Has no organic rank on page 1 outside the 3-pack
C. Has no reviews or ratings for their GMB listing
D. (In my case) is not the closest to my (the search user's) location
E. Has absolutely no search keywords in the business name
Any guesses why it's ranking so well?
