What does it take to show up in the Metro Vancouver HVAC Map Pack?

Short answer — from a 12-keyword snapshot of Google's Map Pack across Metro Vancouver (compiled 2026-05-21; 19 businesses, 36 appearances): it takes four things.

1. Clear the review band: 50 or more reviews. 21 of the 36 Map Pack appearances we tracked carried 50+ reviews (median 198). Only one business sat below 20.
2. Hold a 4.7–5.0 star rating. Nearly every business in the pack sat in that range. The rating gets you considered; it no longer separates you.
3. Compete for the rotating third slot. Two businesses held 12 of the 36 appearances — exactly one third. In 7 of the 12 searches at least one of those two was in the pack, and in 5 both were — so the rotating spot is the realistic opening.
4. Pick a winnable city. Vancouver businesses took 23 of the 36 appearances; Burnaby (6), Surrey (3), and Richmond (3) had thinner, less-entrenched packs.

The Map Pack is not random — it rewards a small set of established, heavily-reviewed local businesses, and the rest of the field rotates through a single open slot. The study below shows the data behind each of these.

1. The question

When someone in Metro Vancouver types "furnace repair Vancouver" or "AC installation Burnaby" into Google, the first thing they see — above the website links — is the Map Pack: three businesses with a map, star ratings, and a call button. For most HVAC searches, that three-pack is where the phone actually rings. So the practical question for any contractor is simple: what does it take to be one of those three, and how crowded is that race already?

The stakes are concrete. In 7 of the 12 searches we tracked, at least one of the same two businesses was in the pack — and in 5 of them, both were, leaving a single visible slot for everyone else. If you're not in the pack for a search, the homeowner who typed it never sees you; the call goes to one of the three names on the map.

2. Data & method

We ran the searches homeowners actually run — 12 HVAC keywords across Metro Vancouver, searches like "furnace repair Vancouver," "furnace installation Burnaby," "heat pump repair Surrey," and "boiler repair North Vancouver" (the full list is in the References) — and recorded what Google showed. Searches were run from a Vancouver, British Columbia location; the data summarized here was compiled on 2026-05-21.

That gave us 19 distinct businesses appearing across the Map Packs, and 36 Map Pack appearances that carried review data. Everything in this study is what any searcher can see on Google Maps right now — we just tracked it across 12 searches to find the pattern.

3. Findings

The pack is concentrated — a few businesses own most of it

Across 12 keywords there were 36 Map Pack slots to fill, but they were not shared evenly. Two businesses appeared in five or more of the twelve searches — one in 7 of 12, one in 5 of 12 — and together they held 12 of the 36 appearances: exactly one third. Six more businesses showed up two to four times; the remaining eleven each appeared exactly once.

The read for a contractor: in our snapshot, two of the three Map Pack positions were typically held by the same recurring local names across many search terms, while the third changed from keyword to keyword. The recurring spots are hard-won; the rotating slot is where a newer or growing business realistically competes.

Most of the visible spots cluster in Vancouver

Across the same 12-keyword snapshot, Map Pack appearances were not evenly distributed across the region: Vancouver-based businesses took 23 of the 36 appearances, Burnaby took 6, and Surrey and Richmond took 3 each.

Because results shift with the searcher's location, this Vancouver-weighting partly reflects where the searches were run from. But it also signals something useful: the suburban markets had thinner, less-entrenched Map Packs. Vancouver's 23 appearances were shared by 9 businesses, with the same names recurring; in Surrey and Richmond, no business appeared twice — every slot went to a different name.

Reviews are table stakes — but the bar is a band, not a number

Review counts among Map Pack businesses ranged from 17 to roughly 4,500, with a median of 198. The more telling cut is the distribution: of the 36 appearances with review data, 21 carried 50 or more reviews and only one sat below 20. Another 14 sat in the 20–49 range — so businesses under 50 reviews do break in, just less often.

The takeaway in one line: in Metro Vancouver's HVAC Map Pack, the de facto review floor is 50 reviews — and the median among businesses that actually appear is 198.

Ratings, by contrast, were almost uniformly high: every one of the 19 businesses sat between 4.7 and 5.0 stars. In a field where everyone has a near-perfect rating, the rating gets you considered and the review count helps separate you — but neither is a guarantee on its own, and the single business under 20 reviews shows the door isn't fully closed to newcomers.

4. What this means for a contractor trying to rank

• Two of three slots were spoken for in most searches; compete for the third. In 7 of the 12 searches at least one of the two recurring names was present, and in 5 both were. The realistic opening is the rotating slot — and it rotates by keyword and location, so a focused set of services and neighbourhoods beats trying to win everything.
• Reviews are a band, not a finish line. In this snapshot the band is 50–200 reviews (median 198). You don't need 4,500. You need to clear the band the locals in your city are sitting in. And all 19 businesses in the pack held a 4.7–5.0 rating — a baseline entry condition, not a differentiator.
• Suburban markets look less crowded. Vancouver's 23 appearances were shared by 9 businesses with heavy recurrence; Surrey and Richmond had 3 appearances each with no business appearing twice. A contractor based outside the core may have a more winnable race in its own city than the raw competition count suggests.
• Location shapes what customers see. Because the pack changes with where the searcher is standing, "ranking" isn't one number — it's coverage across the neighbourhoods you actually serve.

Is your business in the rotating slot for your actual searches? Book a 15-minute call — we'll check which searches show your business and which ones show your competitors.

5. Limitations

This is a snapshot from a single point in time (compiled 2026-05-21), searched from Vancouver, BC — if you're in Surrey, the pack you see looks different, which is actually the point: coverage is local. Map Pack results are volatile and personalized; review counts and ratings drift between snapshots, which is why we report them as bands and a median rather than fixed figures. We have no click or call data behind these listings, so appearing in the pack is a visibility signal, not a measured outcome. And this is observed public data — we did not run an experiment and cannot claim any business's position was caused by any single factor. Sample size is modest: 12 keywords and 19 businesses. None of that changes what the snapshot is: a record of what's actually ranking right now, not a guess about why.

6. What Rankwise tracks from here

Rankwise tracks these same keyword snapshots over time, which lets us revisit this study and watch how the rotating slot changes, whether the suburban packs stay thin, and where the review band drifts.

A visibility check is this same study, pointed at one business: we run the searches your customers actually type, from the neighbourhoods you serve, and show you which Map Pack spots you hold, which searches the recurring names own, and which rotating slot is closest to winnable for you.

In 7 of the 12 searches we tracked, the same two names were in the Map Pack — which leaves one rotating slot, and a lot of good contractors invisible. Not sure which searches your business shows up in right now? It takes 15 minutes to find out: rankwise.ca/audit.

References

1. Public Google Maps / Search results, collected via SerpAPI from a Vancouver, British Columbia search location; snapshots stored in the Rankwise serp_snapshots database. Compiled 2026-05-21 from 12 keyword snapshots (latest per keyword).
2. The 12 tracked keywords: AC installation Vancouver · HVAC contractor Burnaby · HVAC service Coquitlam · air conditioning repair Vancouver · boiler repair North Vancouver · emergency HVAC Vancouver · emergency furnace repair Vancouver · furnace installation Burnaby · furnace repair Vancouver · furnace replacement Richmond · heat pump installation Vancouver · heat pump repair Surrey.
3. Aggregate review-count and city-distribution figures derived from the same snapshot set (n = 19 businesses, 36 Map Pack appearances with review data). Individual businesses are intentionally anonymized; figures are reported as bands and medians because review counts and Map Pack positions change between snapshots.