What your Google Business Profile needs to show up on Maps

When someone searches for a service near them, Google shows a map with a small set of businesses under it. Most calls go to those few. Google says it decides who appears there on three things: relevance, distance and prominence (Google Business Profile Help).

You can't change distance. You can change the other two, and most of it happens inside your Google Business Profile.

Relevance: tell Google exactly what you do

• Primary category. One of the strongest signals of who Google shows you to. Pick the category that matches what people search for, not how you describe yourself internally.
• Secondary categories. Add the other things you genuinely do. For an engineering client we went from one category to one primary and six secondaries.
• Services. List each service in the words customers use. "Motor rewinding", not an internal job code.
• Description. Plain language: what you do, for whom, and where.

Prominence: show Google you're established

• Reviews. Google says review count and rating feed into local ranking (Google Business Profile Help). Ask every happy customer, with the direct review link, and answer every review.
• Consistent details across the web. Your name, address and phone number should match to the letter on your site, your profile and every directory. Mismatches make Google trust the listing less.
• A fast, clear website linked from the profile. The profile and the site should confirm each other: same name, same number, same services.

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Did you know choosing the wrong category on Google can hide your business from searches?

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Your category tells Google who to show you to. Get it wrong, and you disappear from the searches that matter.

Conversion: make the profile do the selling

Many customers decide from the listing without opening your website. Keep hours accurate, add real photos, turn on calls and messages, and add booking if you take appointments. A bare listing looks like a business that might be closed.

Check it, don't guess

Search your main services from where your customers are, on a phone, logged out. Note who appears in the map pack and where you land. Fix the profile, then check again after a few weeks with the same searches. That before-and-after is the only measure that matters.