Field Guide — Local Search
How to get my business on Google Maps
Getting on the map is free and takes about an hour. Ranking on it takes longer — and depends on a handful of signals you fully control. Here's the whole sequence, in order.
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Before you start: check whether a listing already exists
Google often creates listings on its own from public records and user suggestions. Search your exact business name in Google Maps first. If you find a listing you don't control, don't create a second one — duplicates split your reviews and can get both suspended. Claim the existing one instead (there's an "Own this business?" link on the listing).
Step 01
Create or claim your Google Business Profile
Go to business.google.com and sign in with a Google account you plan to keep long-term. Enter your exact, real-world business name — no keywords tacked on ("Smith Plumbing", not "Smith Plumbing — Best Cheap Plumber"). Adding keywords to your name is the most common reason profiles get suspended later.
If customers visit your location, add your address. If you go to them (plumbers, mobile groomers), choose a service area and hide your home address instead.
Step 02
Verify the profile
Unverified profiles don't show publicly. Google will offer one or more methods — video recording, phone, email, or postcard — depending on your business type. Video verification is now the most common: you'll record your storefront, signage, and proof you work there. Verification usually resolves within a few business days. Nothing else on this list matters until it's done.
Step 03
Pick the category customers actually search
Your primary category is the single strongest ranking signal you control. Choose what customers type, not how you describe yourself internally — a Pilates studio filed as "Gym" competes against every gym in town and loses the Pilates searches it should own. Add secondary categories for your other real services. To sanity-check your choice, look at what category the businesses ranking above you use.
Step 04
Complete every field — hours, services, photos
Half-finished profiles rank like half-finished businesses. Add your hours (including holiday hours when they change), phone number, website, and a written description that names your services and your town in natural sentences. List each service with a price or price range where you can. Add real photos — exterior, interior, work in progress — not stock images. Businesses with complete, current profiles consistently outrank sparse ones.
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On the map but still not showing up?
Being listed and being found are different things. The free check asks real AI engines the questions your customers ask and shows you exactly where you're missing.
Run my free visibility checkStep 05
Start a steady stream of reviews
Maps favors businesses with recent, steady reviews that mention actual services — not a burst of ten followed by silence. Ask happy customers right after the job, while it's fresh. A few new reviews a month, answered by you, beats a hundred stale ones. Never buy reviews or offer discounts for them; both can get the profile removed.
Step 06
Make your other listings match, exactly
Google cross-checks your name, address, and phone number against Yelp, Facebook, Apple Maps, Bing, and local directories. If one says "Suite 4" and another says "Ste 4", or an old phone number lingers anywhere, Google's confidence in your data drops — and so does your rank. Claim the major directories and make every field identical to your website.
Step 07
Back it up with your website
Your website and your profile reinforce each other. Your homepage should say what you do, where you do it, and what it costs in plain language — the same way your profile does. A site that names your services and town in its title tag, and marks up your address and hours with local-business structured data, makes Google's job easy.
The part most guides skip: Maps isn't the only map anymore
A growing share of "who should I call" questions now go to ChatGPT and Gemini instead of the Maps box. Those answers draw on the same signals — categories, reviews, listings, website content — but the results aren't identical. It's entirely possible to rank on Maps and never be recommended by AI. Doing the seven steps above helps both, but only checking Google means you're reading half the scoreboard.
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Run a free check and we'll ask real AI engines the questions your customers ask, show you the raw answers, and flag which of these steps is holding you back. No sign-up required to see your score.
Run my free visibility checkOne honest caveat: none of this is instant. Verification takes days, reviews take months, and ranking settles over weeks. What matters is doing the steps in order — and knowing which one is actually yours to fix first.