The State of Google Map Pack Call Buttons

What Happened to the Call Button?

If you run a local business or manage marketing for one, you've probably noticed that the call button that used to appear next to business listings in Google's Map Pack on mobile phones has been disappearing.

That call button was a big deal. A potential customer could search for something like "plumber near me," see three businesses in the map pack, and tap a button to call one of them instantly. No visiting a website. No extra steps. One tap, and they're on the phone.

Google has been quietly removing this button for many businesses. We wanted to find out exactly how widespread this change is and whether there are patterns in which types of businesses are affected.

Before diving in, if you haven't heard of the map pack, it is the section that shows three Google Business Profiles on local search queries. It looks like the image below.

How We Did This

The analysis was conducted for 41 niches, 15 cities, and 172 keywords. The number of keywords per niche varied from 2 to 6. Once a keyword set was decided for each niche, the same set was used for all 15 cities. Each keyword was searched on Google from a mobile viewport.

Cities Analyzed

For each keyword-city combination, two variables were recorded: whether a call button was present, and the section label displayed by Google (e.g., "Businesses," "Places"). Consistency was high, as only 1% of searches showed different results on repeated checks.

The Big Picture

4 out of 5 searches in the map pack have no call button

Out of 2,580 results we checked, just 510 had a call button. That's a 19.8% call button rate. If you search for a local business on your phone right now, there's an 80% chance you won't see a call button in the Map Pack.

The Map Pack is shifting from a conversion tool (where customers call you directly) to a discovery tool (where customers see you but need extra steps to contact you).

Places vs Businesses Label

This is the single most important finding in the entire study. When Google shows you a Map Pack, it puts a small label above it. The two most common labels are "Places" and "Businesses." These two labels account for 94% of all results.

The difference in call button rates between them is staggering.

If Google labels your map pack result as "Places," you have a 76.2% chance of showing a call button. If it labels the result as "Businesses," that chance drops to 0.9%.

Think of it this way: the label Google assigns to your map pack result essentially decides whether your call button lives or dies.

The 16 results that showed a call button under the Businesses label are notable outliers. These anomalies appeared across niches like lawn care, HVAC, plumbing, dentist, veterinarian, electricians, pest control, and wedding planners. They may reflect Google's ongoing A/B testing or edge cases in their classification system.

Niche-by-Niche Analysis

The 41 niches studied show enormous variation in call button rates, ranging from 95.6% (Senior Care Service) to 0% (12 niches).

Complete Niche Ranking

*If the primary label shows "Businesses (95%)", it means that the Businesses label appeared for 95% of the KW searches in that niche.

12 Niches with Zero Call Buttons

These 12 niches showed zero call buttons across every keyword and every city tested, a complete wipeout across all data points.

At the top, senior care, addiction recovery, chiropractors, and party rental services all retained call buttons in 90% or more of results. At the bottom, 12 niches including gyms, photography studios, nail salons, house cleaning, damage restoration, daycare centres, dog walking, dry cleaning, fencing companies, interior designers, tattoo parlors, and towing services showed zero call buttons across every city and keyword we tested.

The pattern maps directly to the Places vs Businesses label. Niches at the top are overwhelmingly classified under Places. Niches at the bottom are classified under Businesses. Google appears to make this classification at the niche level, not on a business-by-business basis.

Whether the call button stays visible in some industries mainly depends on how people search and what they need. For example, in addiction recovery or senior care, people usually need to visit a physical location like a rehab center or care facility. Because of this, Google treats these businesses as places, which helps keep the call button visible. The same applies to storage facilities. Customers are renting actual physical space, so Google clearly sees these as places people need to visit.

Junk Removal and Garage Door Anomalies

Two home service niches didn't follow the usual trend where call buttons disappear: junk removal and garage door repair. Even though these are typical service area businesses (like plumbers or HVAC companies), many of their listings still show the Places label, which helps keep the call button visible.

This may be because of how Google understands these businesses. For example, dumpster rental might be seen as renting a physical item from a real location, like a yard or storage lot. Because of that, Google may treat it more like a place people go to. With garage door companies, many of them used to have showrooms or physical stores. That history might still be influencing how Google classifies them. Until Google fully treats these businesses as pure service businesses with no physical destination, the call buttons may continue to appear.

The Dentist Anomaly

One outlier stands out: Dentist results appear under the "Places" label 100% of the time, yet only 6.7% show a call button. Every other niche with a high "Places" rate also has a high call button rate. Dentists break that pattern. This suggests Google may be suppressing call buttons for certain categories even when the "Places" label is present.

SABs vs Physical Location Businesses

We classified each niche into one of two business models. Service Area Businesses (SABs) travel to the customer, think plumbers, roofers, cleaners, movers. Physical Location businesses are ones the customer visits, think dentists, gyms, salons, chiropractors.

You'd expect SABs to retain call buttons more, since a phone call is typically the easiest and most common way to hire them. The data tells a different story.

Physical location businesses retain call buttons at more than double the rate of SABs. This is because most physical location niches that kept call buttons (chiropractors, senior care, addiction recovery) get the "Places" label, while most SAB niches (plumbing, HVAC, roofing, cleaning) get the "Businesses" label.

Here's an interesting wrinkle: when a SAB does manage to appear under the "Places" label (which is rare), its call button rate shoots up to 92.6%, even higher than physical locations under the same label (71.7%). The problem for SABs is that they almost never get classified as "Places" to begin with.

Does Your City or Country Matter?

We tested 15 cities across three countries. City-level variation exists but is far smaller than niche-level variation. The spread across cities is roughly 15 to 25%, while niche-level rates ranged from 0% to 96%.

London leads all cities. Walla Walla (a small city in Washington state) comes second. The largest US cities, New York, Los Angeles, Houston, and Miami, all cluster in the middle or bottom half. Omaha has the lowest rate.

The UK and Canada both outperform the US average. This aligns with a known pattern of Google rolling out SERP changes in the US first, with other countries following later. The higher rates in London and Toronto may reflect a slower rollout internationally.

Across competition tiers, high competition US cities average 18.8%, mid-competition cities 19.0%, low-competition cities 20.3%, and international cities 23.3%. The trend is mild and competition level is not a major driver.

Does the Type of Keyword Matter?

We tested three types of keywords: "near me" keywords (plumber near me), service-only keywords (plumbing company), and city-modified keywords (plumber [city name]).

"Near me" keywords come out slightly ahead. City-modified keywords actually trail, which is surprising since adding a city name seems more specific and commercial.

Do Emergency Keywords Get Special Treatment?

You might expect that urgent searches like "emergency plumber" or "24 hour locksmith" would be more likely to show a call button. They don't. Emergency keywords had a 19.0% call button rate, which is essentially identical to the 19.8% rate for everything else.

Keywords with 100% Call Buttons

Only 4 keywords showed a call button in every single city we tested.

The AI Overview Threat

On top of call button removal, some niches face a second problem: Google showing an AI Overview instead of a map pack entirely. This happened in 101 out of 2,580 results (about 4%), but it is concentrated in specific niches.

For fencing companies and security system installers, roughly 1 in 4 searches don't even produce a Map Pack. This is a compounding problem since these niches already have very low call button rates when the map pack does appear.

Call Button Consistency Across Cities

How consistent are call button results for the same keyword across different cities? We calculated a consistency score for each niche: the average percentage of cities that agree on whether a call button is present for each keyword.

Most Consistent Niches (Same Result Everywhere)

12 niches showed 100% consistency - every keyword gave the same call button result in every city. All 12 of these are the niches with a 0% call button rate: Damage Restoration, Daycare Centres, Dog Walking, Dry Cleaning, Fencing Companies, Gyms, House Cleaning, Interior Designers, Nail Salons, Photography Studios, Tattoo Parlors, and Towing Services.

Other high-consistency niches include Lawn Care (97.8%), Plumbing (97.8%), and Roofing (98.9%), all with near-zero call button rates.

What This Means for Local Businesses and Marketing Agencies

To be honest, the call button disappearing is a change that feels uncomfortable. But it's not all bad news. For businesses that adapt, this shift could actually improve the quality of leads coming through. Here's why, along with what to genuinely watch out for.

Keywords Analyzed

Limitations of the Study

• Snapshot in time Google constantly tests and changes its SERPs. These results reflect conditions at the time of data collection. Though verified twice, results could change further over time.
• About 1% variability A small number of results showed different call button status on repeat searches, consistent with Google's A/B testing.
• One city per international market London and Toronto provide directional signals, but broader international studies would be more conclusive.