Guide
How to get your business on Google Maps
You get on Google Maps by creating and verifying a free Google Business Profile; where you then appear depends mostly on how well your profile matches the search, how far you are from the person searching, and how well known your business is.
1. Create or claim your profile
Go to Google Business Profile and search for your business name. If a listing already exists, perhaps added by a customer, claim it. If not, create one. Use the name your business really trades under, as it appears on your signage, vehicles and invoices. Adding extra words such as your town or your services to the name breaks Google's guidelines and can get a profile suspended.
2. Storefront or service-area business
If customers come to you, at rooms, a shop or a workshop, show your address. If you go to your customers, as most plumbers, pest control operators and builders do, you can hide your address and list the areas you serve instead. Either way, the address you give Google must be a real place you work from.
3. Choose your primary category carefully
Your primary category tells Google what you are, and it matters more than almost anything else on the profile. Choose the most specific one that fits, such as Plumber, Pest control service, Building contractor or General practitioner, and add secondary categories only for work you really do.
4. Verify it
Google chooses how each business verifies, and the owner completes it. Depending on the business, that can mean recording a short video of your premises, vehicle or tools, or entering a code Google sends you. Until a profile is verified, it may not appear on Maps at all.
5. Fill in everything
- Your phone number and website address.
- Your hours, and special hours for public holidays.
- Your services, with a line about each.
- A short description of what you do and where, in plain words.
- Photos of your real work, your team and your vehicles or premises.
Google's own guidance is that businesses with complete and accurate information are more likely to show up in local results.
6. Keep your details identical everywhere
Use exactly the same business name, address and phone number on your profile, your website, your Facebook page and any directory that lists you. If you change numbers or move, update every one of them. Matching details help Google trust that they all describe the same business.
7. Ask every happy customer for a review
Reviews are the part of your visibility you can grow week by week. Ask soon after the job, while the customer is pleased, and make it easy with a direct review link or a QR code on your invoice. Reply to every review, good and bad. Never buy reviews, write your own or offer a discount in return for one: Google's policies forbid it, and reviews like that can be removed.
What decides where you show
Google says local results are based mainly on relevance, distance, and how well known a business is, which it calls prominence. Read Google's tips on local ranking. Distance is the one you cannot change: when someone searches for an electrician near me, Google uses where they are standing. No words on a profile or a website make a business show for every search like that. Relevance and prominence you can work on, with a complete profile, the right category, a clear website and steady reviews.
Where your website fits
Your profile gets you seen; your website helps people choose you. Link the profile to your website, and make sure the website names your services and the towns you work in, with the same name, number and hours as the profile. That is what we set up with every site: read about our Google Business Profile setup.
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