Your business does not show up on Google Maps because Google ranks map results on three things: how well your profile matches what was searched, how close you are to the person searching, and how well known you are. If you are missing from the map, you are losing on at least one of them. Google says this plainly on its own help page, and it adds one line worth reading twice: there is no way to request or pay for a better spot.
If you are missing from the map, you are losing on at least one of them.
That is good news, not bad. It means the fix is work, not money, and most of the work is stuff you can do yourself in an afternoon. Here is what each of the three actually means, and where businesses in Quincy and Hannibal usually go wrong.
Relevance: does your profile say what you do?
Relevance is how well your Google Business Profile matches the words somebody typed. Google's advice here is short: give it complete, detailed business information.
A profile that says "contractor" is competing with every plumber, roofer, and handyman in the county. A profile that says "tree service" is competing with tree services.
The two places this goes wrong are categories and services. Your primary category should be the thing you actually do, not the broadest label you could defend. Google's own guidelines say to pick the fewest categories it takes to describe your core business. A profile that says "contractor" is competing with every plumber, roofer, and handyman in the county. A profile that says "tree service" is competing with tree services.
Then fill in the services list under that category. Every service you leave blank is a search you have opted out of.
Distance: does Google know where you work?
Distance is how far you are from the person searching, or from the town they typed. You cannot move your shop, but you can absolutely get this setting wrong, and service businesses get it wrong constantly.
If you drive to the customer, Google's rule is that you hide your address and list a service area instead.
If you drive to the customer instead of the customer coming to you, Google's rule is that you hide your address and list a service area instead. That is not optional. Google says a business with no storefront must hide its address, and a profile that breaks the guidelines can be suspended. Once the address is hidden, the service area is what Google uses, so list the towns you actually cover. If you did not enter one, Google picked a default for you, and it may not be the area you want.
Two more traps in this bucket. A P.O. box or a rented mailbox is not an address Google will accept. And if you have ever set up a second profile for the same business, or a family member did years ago, Google treats duplicates as a violation. One business, one profile.
Prominence: does anyone besides you know you exist?
Prominence is how well known your business is, and this is the one nobody can fake. Google builds it from what it finds about you across the web: reviews, links, articles, directories, and your website's own standing in regular search results.
Google is direct about reviews: count and score both factor in.
Google is direct about reviews: count and score both factor into local ranking. A business with forty reviews and a 4.8 average has an edge over a business with three reviews, all else equal. Ask every happy customer. Reply to every review, including the bad ones, because the reply is public and future customers read it.
The other half of prominence is your website. Google's help page says your position in regular web results is also a factor, which is why a Facebook page alone leaves you short. A site that clearly states what you do and where you do it is part of what makes the map listing rank. We wrote about that separately, but the short version is that the two feed each other.
Before any of that: is the profile even verified?
The most common reason we find when a business is invisible on Maps is the simplest one. The profile was never claimed, or it was claimed and never verified. Google lists verification as its first step for a reason. An unverified profile tells Google nobody is responsible for it, and it will not show up the way a verified one does.
An unverified profile tells Google nobody is responsible for it.
Search your business name on Google. If the listing says "Own this business?" it is unclaimed. If you claimed it but never finished verification, there is a banner at the top of your profile telling you so.
What to do this week
Work through these in order. Most take minutes.
- Verify the profile. Nothing else matters until this is done.
- Set your primary category to the specific thing you do.
- Fill in the services list under it.
- If you drive to customers, hide the address and list every town you serve.
- Check for duplicate profiles and get rid of them.
- Put in real hours and keep them current, including holidays.
- Add photos of your own work. Google prefers real photos to stock.
- Ask your last ten customers for a review, and reply to every one that comes in.
- Make sure your website says what you do and what towns you cover, in plain text a search engine can read.
Where we come in
Every website we build includes getting your Google Business Profile set up and linked, or cleaned up if it already exists. The site itself ships with the local business markup, service-area pages, and page titles that feed the prominence side. That is included, not an upsell.
We do not promise a position on the map, because Google does not sell one and nobody honest will.
If you would rather somebody kept an eye on it every month, checking the listing, watching the reviews, and fixing the directory entries that drift, that is what our SEO retainer does. We do not promise a position on the map, because Google does not sell one and nobody honest will. What we can show you is the work, every month, and what changed because of it.
If you want to know where your business stands right now, get in touch. We will look at your listing and tell you which of the three you are losing on.