You search for your own business on Google Maps and it isn't there. Or it shows up when you type your exact business name, but not when you search "plumber near me" while standing in your own shop. Meanwhile a competitor across town sits in the top three every time.
The fix almost always starts with your Google Business Profile (the free listing once called Google My Business), which is what Google shows in the map results. Here's how to claim, verify and set it up, and what to check when it still won't appear.
The quick answer
If you only have ten minutes, do these in order:
- Make sure you have a profile at all, and that it's verified. Google says verifying makes your business more likely to show up in search results.
- Set the right primary category. Google says outright that categories affect your local ranking.
- Fill in the basics: address or service area, phone, website, hours.
- Start asking customers for reviews with the review link from your profile.
- Search for your own business by name and look for duplicates or a "suspended" status.
Click paths below are as of October 2026.
First, figure out which problem you have
- You can't find your business on Google at all, even by name. You probably don't have a verified profile, or it has been suspended or removed. Start with claiming and verifying below.
- You show up for your name, but not for "service near me" searches. Your profile exists, so this is about ranking: category, completeness, reviews and distance. Jump to the category and reviews sections.
- You show up in some parts of town but not others. That's usually distance, which you can't change. More on that in the last section.
- Your listing shows the wrong address, hours or phone number. Someone else may control the profile, or there's a duplicate. See the ownership and duplicates sections.
It helps to know how Google decides. Its own page, How Google determines local ranking, says local results are based mainly on three things:
- Relevance: how well your profile matches what someone searched for.
- Distance: how far your business is from the person searching.
- Prominence: how well known your business is, based partly on how many websites link to you and how many reviews you have.
The same page says there's no way to pay Google for a better local ranking. Anyone who promises a guaranteed spot in the map results is guessing at best.
Step 1: Claim or create your profile
A listing may already exist, created by Google or by someone who worked for you years ago. Check before creating a new one.
If a listing already exists but isn't claimed
On a computer, open Google Maps, search for your business name and city, and select it. Then choose Claim this business > Manage now and pick a verification option. On the Google Maps app, the path is About > Claim this business > Manage now. Google's steps are on Add or claim your Business Profile.
If no listing exists
Go to business.google.com/add, select Add your business to Google, and follow the prompts. Enter your real business name as it appears on your sign and paperwork, not "Best Augusta Plumbing Repair Service". Google's guidelines for representing your business say the name should reflect your real-world name, and adding extra keywords or taglines can get the profile suspended.
If someone else already controls it
If the listing says someone else manages it, use the Request access flow at business.google.com/add. The current owner gets an email and has three days to respond; if they don't, you may get the option to claim it yourself. The steps are on Request ownership of a Business Profile.
One warning while you're here: Google says it doesn't charge for Business Profile and will never try to convince you to pay to maintain it. Calls claiming your listing will be "removed unless you verify today" for a fee are scams.
Step 2: Verify the profile
Verification is how Google confirms you actually run the business. Google's verification page says it decides which methods you're offered, and some businesses need more than one. The options include phone or text, email, a live video call, a recorded video, and a postcard mailed to your address.
Video verification is the one that trips people up most. Per Google's video recording instructions, you record it live from your phone through the profile (Get verified > Business video), in one continuous take of at least 30 seconds, with no editing. You need to show three things:
- Where you are: street signs, the building number or nearby businesses, so Google can match the spot to Maps.
- That the business exists: for a storefront, your sign with the same name as your profile on a permanent fixture. For a service-area business, your tools, equipment, branded van or shirts, or business cards.
- That you manage it: something only staff can get to, such as the register, a back room, unlocking the shop, or opening the work van. A service-area business can also show a permit, invoice or utility bill in the business name.
Don't show bank, tax or ID numbers, or other people's faces. Google says review can take up to five business days. If the video is rejected, the reasons appear under Review issues, and the next video needs to include everything from the first one plus what was missing.
A live video call works the same way with a Google representative watching, and only runs during your business hours.
Step 3: Storefront or service-area business?
- A storefront has an address where customers come to you: a shop, office or clinic.
- A service-area business goes to the customer: plumbers, cleaners, mobile IT support, landscapers.
- A hybrid does both, like an auto shop that also does roadside calls.
Google's guidelines say that if you're a service-area business, you should hide your address from customers. A plumber working out of a house in Augusta shouldn't show that house on the map. Instead, list the areas you serve.
To set it up, go to your profile and select Edit profile > Location. Next to "Service area", select edit and add the cities or ZIP codes you cover, then save. Google allows up to 20 service areas and says the overall area generally shouldn't be more than about two hours' drive from your base (Manage your service areas). You can't draw a radius. On the same Location screen you can turn off showing your business address.
Two rules that cause suspensions: P.O. boxes and virtual offices aren't eligible addresses, and you shouldn't create separate profiles for each town you serve. One business, one location, one profile.
Step 4: Choose the right primary category
If you change only one thing, change this. Google's category help page says it plainly: "The categories you select affect your local ranking on Google." Of the three ranking factors, relevance is the one you control most directly, and your primary category is the clearest thing on the profile telling Google what you are.
The trick is to pick the category that finishes the sentence "This business is a..." rather than one for every service you offer. A business that is a "Computer repair service" shouldn't pick "Computer store" because it sometimes sells a laptop. Google's guidelines say to use as few categories as possible and never to use categories as keywords.
To change it: go to your profile, select Edit profile, then edit next to Business category. Type in the Primary category box and pick from the list (you can't invent your own). Add a few additional categories for genuine secondary services with Add another category, then Save.
Step 5: Fill in hours, holiday hours and photos
Google's ranking page says a complete profile helps you match more searches, and it specifically mentions business hours "including special store hours".
Regular and holiday hours
Set your regular customer-facing hours under Edit profile > Hours. For holidays, select the pencil next to Special hours, pick a suggested holiday or Add a date, then mark it Closed or enter the hours (How to set Special hours). Special hours only show if your main hours are set to Open with main hours. For a closure of seven days or more, mark the business Temporarily closed instead.
Photos
Add real photos: the outside of your building from the direction customers arrive, the inside, your team, your work, your van. Google's photo guidelines ask for JPG or PNG files between 10 KB and 5 MB, in focus and well lit, without heavy filters or AI edits. Photos only show once the profile is verified, and can take 24 to 48 hours to appear after review.
While you're in Edit profile, also check the phone number, website, description and opening date. Google reviews edits before they go live, so changes aren't always instant.
Step 6: Get reviews (the right way)
Reviews feed prominence: Google's ranking page says more reviews and positive ratings can improve your local ranking.
Get your review link and QR code
On a computer, go to your Business Profile and select Read reviews > Get more reviews (the share icon). Copy the link, or right-click the QR code and Save image as (Create a Google link or QR code to request reviews). Google says the QR code can only be generated from a computer browser, not a phone.
Put the link in your invoice email, your email signature and your follow-up text after a job. Print the QR code on receipts or a counter card.
What not to do
Google's Maps content policy bans offering payment, discounts or free goods or services in exchange for reviews, so "10% off your next visit for a review" is out, even if you don't ask for five stars. The same policy says you can't selectively ask only the customers you expect to be happy (often called review gating), discourage negative reviews, or tell people what to write. Reviews that come from incentives get removed, and the profile can be restricted.
Asking every customer, with no strings attached, is fine.
Reply to reviews
Go to your profile, select Read reviews, then the reply icon next to a review (Manage customer reviews). Replies are public and appear under your business name. Thank people briefly for good reviews. For a bad one, stay calm, acknowledge the problem, and offer to sort it out offline; future customers are reading your reply more than the complaint. If a review breaks Google's policies (spam, a competitor, someone who was never a customer), flag it rather than arguing in public.
Step 7: Keep your details consistent everywhere
Your business name, address and phone number (often shortened to NAP) should match everywhere they appear: your website, your Google profile, Facebook, Yelp, Apple Maps, Bing Places, the chamber of commerce directory, industry listings.
Google's ranking page doesn't spell out "directory consistency" as a factor. It does say prominence is based on what Google knows about your business from across the web, including links. Matching details everywhere is cheap insurance, and it stops customers calling a dead number.
Write your official name, address, phone and website in one note, search your business name plus any old address or phone number, and update each listing you find. Pick one format ("Suite 4" or "#4", with or without "LLC") and use it everywhere.
On your website, put the same name, address (if you're a storefront) and phone in the footer or contact page. Adding LocalBusiness schema markup is a useful extra that spells those details out for search engines.
When separate location or service-area pages make sense
If you serve several towns, it's tempting to make a page for each: "IT support in Augusta", "IT support in Evans", "IT support in Grovetown", each the same text with the town name swapped. Don't. Google's spam policies list "multiple domain names or pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page" as doorway abuse.
A location page earns its place when it has something genuinely specific to say:
- You have a real second office or shop there (which also gets its own verified profile).
- The service is actually different in that area: different regulations, a different team, a different kind of customer.
- You have real local detail: jobs you've done there (described generally if clients haven't agreed to be named), local issues you deal with, how scheduling works for that area.
If all you can say is "we also serve Evans", put that in a service-area list on one page and in your Google profile's service areas. One strong page beats ten thin ones. Our on-page SEO guide covers how to make a single service page work hard.
Step 8: Check the Performance report
Once you're verified, Google shows you how people find and use the profile. On a computer, go to your Business Profile and select Performance, then choose a date range and Apply. In the Google Maps app, tap Business at the bottom right, then See more next to Performance (Understand your Business Profile performance).
The useful numbers for a small business:
- Searches: the actual terms people used to find you. If nobody finds you for your main service, revisit your category and description.
- Views: unique people who saw your profile on Search and Maps (counted once per person per day).
- Calls, website clicks and directions: the actions that turn into customers.
Check it monthly, and pair it with Google Search Console.
Why you still might not show up
Distance
Map results depend heavily on where the person searching is. If you're in west Augusta, someone searching from across the river in North Augusta may see businesses closer to them first. That's normal, and no setting changes it. When you test, search from a few locations, or ask a friend in another part of town to check, rather than only from your own office.
The profile is suspended
If your listing vanished, or you can see it but can't edit it, it may be suspended for a guideline problem: keywords in the name, an ineligible address, or a service-area business showing a home address. Google's suspended profiles page links to the appeals tool, which shows the reason and whether you can appeal. Fix the problem first, then appeal with documents like a business license or utility bill that match the profile's name and address. You can only appeal once per decision, and Google says not to create a new profile for the same business while it's suspended.
Duplicate listings
Two profiles for the same business split your reviews and confuse Google about which one is real. If you made a duplicate yourself, you can remove it from your account without affecting the verified one; just be sure you remove the right one, because its content goes with it. If a duplicate exists on Maps that you don't control, report it with Maps' suggest-an-edit option so the two can be merged (Resolve duplicate profiles).
Address problems
A P.O. box, virtual office or shared coworking address isn't eligible, and a pin dropped in the wrong spot can put you blocks from where you really are. Check the map pin on your profile and fix it under Edit profile > Location. If you moved, update the address rather than creating a new profile.
Weak prominence
If everything is correct and you still rank below competitors, it's often reviews and reputation. Google ties prominence to reviews, ratings and links, so a competitor with years of reviews and mentions in local news has a head start. That gap closes slowly, by asking every customer for a review and earning real links from local organizations.
When to get help
Most of this is an afternoon's work. Get help if:
- Your profile is suspended and your appeal was turned down.
- A former employee, agency or web designer owns the profile and won't respond.
- You have several locations or a mix of storefront and service-area work and aren't sure how to set the profiles up without breaking the rules.
If you'd like a second pair of eyes on your listing and website together, our SEO and local search service can help.
