How to rank on Google Maps with your Google Business Profile

When someone searches "roofer near me" or "Indian takeaway Brentwood", Google shows a map with a handful of businesses under it. Getting into that list is often worth more than any other bit of marketing a local business does. If you want to know how to rank on Google Maps, it starts and mostly ends with your Google Business Profile.

Nobody can guarantee you a spot. Anyone who does is guessing or fibbing. But most profiles I look at are half-finished, so doing it properly puts you ahead of a lot of your competition.

What Google says decides local rankings

Google's own help pages say local results are based mainly on three things:

• RelevanceHow well your profile matches what someone searched for.
• DistanceHow far your business is from the searcher, or from the place they searched for.
• ProminenceHow well known your business is, including reviews and what's on the web about you.

Google also says that a complete, accurate profile helps, and that you can't pay for a better organic ranking. Everything below feeds relevance or prominence.

Step 1: claim and verify your profile

Go to business.google.com, search for your business and claim it, or create it if it doesn't exist. Google will ask you to verify, which can be by video, phone, email or post depending on what it offers you. An unverified profile won't perform properly, so get this done first.

Step 2: use your real business name

This is where people get into trouble. Google's guidelines say your profile name should match your real-world business name, as used on your signs, vans and paperwork.

• Fine: "Smith & Sons Plumbing"
• Not fine: "Smith & Sons Plumbing | Emergency Plumber Brentwood Essex 24/7"

Stuffing keywords into your name breaks the rules. Competitors can suggest edits to remove it, and Google can suspend profiles that break its guidelines. A suspended profile disappears from Maps. Not worth the risk.

Step 3: choose the right categories

Your primary category is one of the strongest relevance signals you control.

1. Pick the most specific primary category that describes your main business. "Electrician", not "Contractor".
2. Add secondary categories only for things you genuinely do as a core service.
3. Search your main keyword and look at what categories the top competitors use. There are tools that show this, or you can check by viewing their profile.
4. Don't add every vaguely related category. It muddies what you are.

Step 4: add your services and description

• Add each service you offer. Use Google's suggested ones where they fit, and add custom ones where they don't.
• Write a short, plain description for each service.
• Write your business description: what you do, the areas you cover, what makes you different. Write it for people, not robots. No keyword lists, no links, no shouting.
• Fill in attributes that apply, such as wheelchair accessible entrance or online appointments.

Step 5: get your address, area and hours right

• If customers come to you, show your address.
• If you go to them, set a service area and hide your address. Google's guidelines don't allow you to list a home address as a shopfront if you don't serve customers there.
• Make your name, address and phone match your website exactly.
• Set accurate opening hours. Add special hours for bank holidays and Christmas.

Wrong hours are a fast way to lose a customer and get a grumpy review.

Step 6: add real photos, and keep adding them

• Logo and cover photo.
• Your work: before and after, finished jobs, dishes, products.
• Your premises inside and out, so people recognise it when they arrive.
• You and your team. People like to see who's turning up.
• Your van or vehicles with branding.

Use real photos, not stock images. Add a few new ones every month.

Step 7: use posts

Google Business Profile posts let you share offers, events and updates. Google doesn't say posts directly lift rankings, but they show your profile is active and give searchers a reason to pick you. Ideas:

• A recent job with a photo.
• A seasonal offer.
• New opening hours over the holidays.
• A new service.

If you're already making social posts, reuse them here. My guide on what to post on social media has plenty of ideas that work on both.

Step 8: questions and answers

Where Google shows the questions and answers feature on your profile, anyone can ask a question and anyone can answer it. Keep an eye on it so a random stranger isn't answering for you. Reply quickly and accurately. Google has been changing how Q&A works, so check what your profile currently shows.

Step 9: get more reviews and reply to them

Google says review count and rating can affect local ranking, and that replying to reviews shows customers you value them. Reviews feed prominence, and they're what persuades people to ring you rather than the next one down.

• Ask every happy customer, soon after the job.
• Send your direct review link by text or email.
• Reply to every review, including the bad ones, calmly.
• Never buy reviews, offer incentives or filter who you ask.

There's a full walkthrough in how to get more Google reviews.

Step 10: back it up with your website

Your profile links to your website, and Google looks at both. A fast site with clear service pages and matching contact details helps your relevance and prominence. The rest of the off-profile work is in my local SEO checklist.

What to avoid (suspension risks)

• Keywords or locations stuffed into your business name.
• Fake addresses, virtual offices or PO boxes used as a location.
• Multiple profiles for the same business at the same address.
• Fake, bought or incentivised reviews.
• Posting misleading offers or content.

If your profile does get suspended, fix whatever broke the guidelines first, then request reinstatement through Google.

How to tell if it's working

Your Google Business Profile has a performance section. Check it every month for:

• Searches: the search terms people used to find you.
• Calls made from your profile.
• Website clicks.
• Direction requests, if customers come to you.
• Messages and bookings, if you've turned those on.

Rankings on Maps change depending on where the searcher is standing, so checking from your own office only tells you part of the story. Watch the trend in calls and clicks instead. That's the bit that pays the bills.

A simple monthly routine

1. Add a post and a few new photos.
2. Reply to every new review.
3. Check your hours and any holiday changes.
4. Check for suggested edits from Google or the public, and accept or reject them.
5. Look at the performance numbers and note anything odd.

It's twenty minutes a month. Most of your competitors won't bother, which is exactly why it's worth doing.

What about distance?

You can't change where your business is, and Google won't show a business miles away when a closer, relevant one exists. That's why a shop in the next town over can outrank you for searches made near them. What you can do:

• Set an accurate service area if you travel to customers.
• Build useful pages on your website for the main towns you cover, with real jobs and local detail.
• Earn reviews from customers in those areas, which often mention the place naturally.

Accept that you'll be stronger close to home. That's normal, and it's where most of your easiest customers are anyway.

How I can help

My Google Business Profile set-up and optimisation covers categories, services, description, photos, posts and opening hours, done properly and within Google's rules. It's £100, paid once, with a £25-a-month website, so your profile and site work together.

Sort my Google profile