Get your business found on Google Maps

When someone nearby searches

Search for a pharmacy, a printer or a mechanic on a phone and Google answers with a map and a short list of businesses, above the websites. That list comes from Google Business Profiles, and the businesses in it get the calls, the direction requests and the visits. A profile is free to set up; what it earns depends on how complete and how active it is.

How Google picks the businesses it shows

Google names three factors for local results (Google Business Profile Help):

Places on the map are earned this way alone; paid ads appear in their own slots, labelled as sponsored.

Set up the profile completely

1. Claim and verify. Create the profile at business.google.com, or claim the one Google built from public data, then verify it by the method Google offers, often a short video of the premises. Verified profiles are more likely to show in results.
2. Name, address and phone. The name as it reads on the signboard, the full address customers can visit, and a phone number that gets answered. A business that visits its customers can keep its address private and list service areas.
3. Categories. One primary category that names the business precisely, such as "Printing service" or "Hardware store", then secondary categories for the rest of what it does.
4. Hours. Regular hours, plus special hours for holidays, so every visitor arrives during opening time.
5. Description, services and products. Up to 750 characters on what the business does and who it serves, then each service or product, with a price where possible.
6. Attributes. Details such as parking, Wi-Fi, accessibility and payment options.

Photos of the real place

People judge a place by its photos before they visit. Upload a logo and a cover photo, then pictures of the outside so visitors recognise the entrance, the inside, the team and the products. Google asks for real, well-lit photos: JPG or PNG, between 10 KB and 5 MB, at 720 × 720 pixels or more (photo guidelines).

Reviews: ask every customer, answer every review

Reviews feed prominence, and they are the first thing many people read. A steady flow beats a burst: ask every customer after the job, with a short review link or a QR code at the till and on receipts, and reply to each review, critical ones included, calmly and with a fix.

Keep the profile active

• Posts: offers, events and updates, published from the profile.
• Photos: new stock, finished work and the seasons, added through the year.
• Hours: updated for holidays and changes before they happen.
• Products and services: prices and availability kept current.

The profile’s performance view shows how people found the business: the searches it appeared in, calls, direction requests and website clicks, month by month.

Make the website agree

Google cross-checks a profile against the rest of the web. The name, address and phone number should read the same on the website, social pages and directories, and a location page on the website, with the address, a map and the opening hours, gives search engines one clear source. Search Console then shows which local searches bring visitors to that page.

• Google MapsBusiness Profile
• Search Consolelocal searches
• Google Analyticsvisits from the profile

A checklist for this week

• Profile claimed and verified
• Primary category set, secondary categories added
• Name, address and phone identical on the profile, the website and social pages
• Regular and holiday hours entered
• Description, services and products filled in
• Logo, cover and real photos of the outside, the inside, the team and the products
• A review link or QR code at the till and on receipts
• Every review answered

We set up and run profiles through Local SEO & Google Maps.

Sources

• Google Business Profile Help: Tips to improve your local ranking on Google
• Google Business Profile Help: Business Profile photo and video guidelines
• Google Maps: User contributed content policy