Welcome everyone to Episode #72 of The Chiropractic Marketing Podcast.
I’m your host, Dr. Patrick MacNamara, and today we’re diving into something that I know is frustrating a lot of you out there — and that’s why your chiropractic clinic isn’t showing up in Google’s Map Pack. You know what I’m talking about — those three businesses that appear right at the top of local search results, sitting right above everything else, attached to that little map. If you’re not in that top three, we need to talk about why, and more importantly, what you can do to change it.
So let’s set the stage here. The Map Pack — sometimes called the Local Pack or the 3-Pack — is hands down one of the most valuable pieces of digital real estate available to any local business. And for chiropractors, it’s especially critical because the people searching for a chiropractor near me aren’t just browsing around. They’re ready to book. They have back pain, neck pain, or some other issue, and they want help now. Studies have shown that the Map Pack receives 44% of all the clicks in local search results. That’s almost half of everyone searching — and if you’re not in those top three spots, you’re essentially pointing those patients straight to your competitors.
Now, Google uses three big umbrella factors to decide who makes it into the Map Pack — relevance, distance, and prominence. But underneath those three broad categories, there are dozens of specific things that could be working against you. So let’s walk through the most common ones I see chiropractors run into.
The first one, and honestly the most common, is an incomplete or inconsistent Google Business Profile. I talk about Google Business Profile optimization for chiropractors a lot on this show because it is the absolute foundation of your local visibility. And yet, so many docs create a basic listing, do the bare minimum, and then never touch it again. Missing hours of operation, no service descriptions, no appointment links — all of that tells Google your listing might not be reliable. And then there’s NAP consistency — that’s your Name, Address, and Phone number. Those details need to be identical everywhere. Not similar. Identical. Something as small as writing “Street” on your website and “St.” on your Google profile can create confusion for Google’s algorithm. And I know that sounds nitpicky, but this stuff matters. Check out my earlier episode on Google Business Profile secrets if you want to go deeper on this.
The second reason I see chiropractors missing from the Map Pack is reviews — or more specifically, not enough of them, or reviews that are too old, or not responding to the ones you already have. Google uses reviews as social proof of your prominence in the community. If your competitors have 80 reviews and you have 12, Google is going to favor them. And it’s not just the number — recency matters too. If your most recent review is from a couple of years ago, that’s a signal to Google that maybe you’re not actively seeing patients anymore. And here’s one that surprises people — responding to your reviews, both the positive ones and the negative ones, is actually a trust signal to Google. It shows engagement and active management of your reputation. I covered SEO review management strategies in depth on the DCRank blog, and I also touched on this in my review management episode if you want to go back and listen.
Now here’s one that a lot of chiropractors don’t realize — your website has a direct impact on your Map Pack rankings. Google cross-references your Google Business Profile with your website, and if your site isn’t optimized for local SEO, you’re leaving ranking power on the table. We’re talking about things like making sure your name, address, and phone number are clearly displayed on every page of your site. We’re talking about having content that actually mentions your city, your neighborhood, the communities you serve. Generic content that could apply to any chiropractic clinic anywhere just doesn’t cut it for local rankings. And then there’s schema markup — that’s the structured data that helps Google and AI systems actually understand what your business does and where you’re located. If you don’t have local schema markup properly implemented on your site, that’s a gap worth closing. Also, over 60% of local searches are happening on mobile devices. If your site is slow or clunky on a phone, Google is going to notice. A professionally built site from Chiropractic Marketing Websites can make sure your web presence is actually supporting your local visibility instead of holding it back.
Let’s talk about the competitive side of this for a minute, because the Map Pack only shows three results. Even if you’re doing a solid job, if three other chiropractors in your area are doing it better, you’re still on the outside looking in. This is where things like citation building come into play — those are your business listings in online directories and health-specific platforms like Healthgrades, Vitals, and WebMD. If your competitors are listed in 60 directories and you’re in 10, that’s a gap in local authority. Backlinks matter too. If other chiropractors in your market have earned links from local news sites, health blogs, or community organizations, they’re building domain authority that strengthens their position in the Map Pack. And regular content — blog posts, condition pages, patient education resources — all of that demonstrates expertise and relevance to Google in a way that a static five-page website simply can’t. I’d encourage you to go back and listen to my local SEO website optimization episode for more on this.
Now I want to bring up something that a lot of chiropractors overlook, and that’s the geographic piece. Distance is one of Google’s core ranking factors. If you’re located farther from the city center, or your service area isn’t properly defined in your profile, you’re naturally at a disadvantage for certain searches. You can’t pick up your practice and move it, obviously, but you can compensate. Creating location-specific landing pages for the different communities you serve, building citations in those neighboring area directories, and generating reviews that mention your patients’ various cities and neighborhoods — all of that helps you compete beyond your immediate front doorstep.
I also want to talk about Google Business Profile features that most chiropractors are completely ignoring. Things like Google Posts — regular updates about your services, health tips, special offers — these signal to Google that your business is active. And make sure you have your services fully listed out — spinal adjustments, decompression therapy, sports injury care, whatever you offer. The more detail you give Google, the better it can match you to specific search queries. I did a full episode on Google Business Profile posts that goes deeper into all of this.
Here’s something that will absolutely torpedo your Map Pack rankings if you’re not careful — duplicate or conflicting listings. This is more common than you’d think. Maybe you moved locations a few years ago and there’s still an old listing floating around. Maybe Google auto-generated a listing based on data it found somewhere, and now there are two profiles for your practice. Maybe you’re part of a group practice and there are overlapping listings. Any conflicting business information across the web dilutes your NAP consistency and confuses Google. Cleaning that up is not glamorous work, but it’s critical. My citation management episode covers how to track down and fix these kinds of issues.
Now I need to talk about something that goes beyond the traditional Map Pack, because the way patients are finding chiropractors is evolving fast. AI-powered search is changing everything. Google’s AI Overviews are now appearing at the very top of search results — above even the Map Pack. AI assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant pull business data differently than traditional search engines do. Chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity are being used by real patients to get healthcare recommendations. If your practice isn’t set up for AI visibility, you’re already behind. I’ve done full episodes on generative engine optimization and adapting to AI SEO — go check those out if you haven’t already. And voice search optimization for chiropractors is part of this same conversation. When someone asks their phone “Hey Google, find me a chiropractor near me,” that’s a fundamentally different kind of search, and you need to be prepared for it.
The other piece of this is making sure you’re visible beyond just Google. Your presence on healthcare directories, social media platforms, Apple Maps, Bing Places, Yelp — all of that feeds into your overall prominence score. This is what I call a search everywhere optimization mindset. You want to be findable everywhere patients are looking, not just on Google. Check out my AI visibility tips episode for more on this approach.
And finally — and this one is often overlooked — Google’s local search algorithm is not static. It changes constantly. What worked a year ago may be less effective today. New chiropractors open in your area. Competitors improve their game. Google rolls out updates. If you’re not actively tracking your rankings and adapting your strategy, you could be slipping without even knowing it. Maintaining Map Pack visibility is an ongoing process, not a one-time setup. I covered this side of the equation in my local SEO metrics episode — definitely worth a listen.
So let me bring this all together for you with a quick action plan. First, audit where you actually stand right now. Look at your Google Business Profile — is it fully complete? Check your NAP consistency across the web. Look at your review count, your star rating, and when your most recent review came in. Then check your website for local SEO fundamentals. And take an honest look at how you stack up against the top three practices currently showing up in the Map Pack for your most important keywords.
From there, fix the technical foundations — get your NAP consistent, complete your profile, implement schema markup, clean up any duplicate listings. Then build a system for generating reviews consistently. Optimize your website for local search. Build your citation presence. Start creating content that demonstrates expertise. And begin thinking about AI SEO strategies because that train has already left the station. I covered a lot of this in my chiropractic content strategy episode as well.
And here’s the bottom line on why all of this matters. If you’re not in the Map Pack and competitors are, you’re losing somewhere in the neighborhood of eight to nine new patients every single month just from that one gap in visibility. Over a year, that could be a hundred patients. When you factor in lifetime patient value, that invisibility is genuinely expensive. I’ve actually written about this on the DCRank blog — the data on how much traffic chiropractors are losing is pretty eye-opening.
If you want to learn more about how DCRank can help you dominate Google Maps rankings and get your practice into that coveted top three, visit DCRank.com — that’s D-C-R-A-N-K dot com. And if you want to explore what a well-optimized chiropractic website looks like, check out Chiropractic Marketing Websites as well.
Your future patients are out there searching right now. Let’s make sure they can find you.
Alright, that wraps things up for today’s episode…
Thanks for tuning in to the Chiropractic Marketing Podcast.
Before you go, remember to subscribe to my podcast on your favorite platform.
Whether it’s Apple Podcasts, Audible, YouTube Podcasts, Spotify, or others, I’ve got you covered.
If you need to see a full list of supported platforms, simply visit Chiropractic Marketing Podcast dot com.
Last but certainly not least, I’d love to hear your thoughts on Apple Podcasts.
Your reviews not only help build awareness of what I’m talking about but also give me a good indication of how I’m doing.
Be nice, be fair, but definitely be honest.
I would greatly appreciate it and so will future listeners!
Thanks for listening and I’ll catch you next time…
Share Your Thoughts
To share your thoughts:
- Leave a note in the comment section below.
- Ask a question.
- Subscribe to the show on YouTube.
To help out the show:
- Leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one. 🙂
- Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Amazon, Audible, YouTube Podcast, or Spotify.