Local SEO

How to Get Your Business on Google Maps

Owen Measures · 28 Jul 2026 · 4 min read

When someone nearby searches for what you do, Google shows a map with three businesses in it, above the normal results. That block is where a large share of local enquiries come from, and getting into it is the highest value thing most local businesses can do.

Here is how, in order, with an honest note about what each step is worth.

Step 1: Create or claim your profile

Your presence on Google Maps comes from a free Google Business Profile, not from your website. That surprises people who have just spent money on a site and seen nothing change.

Go to the Google Business Profile site and either create a listing or claim an existing one, since Google sometimes generates a basic entry automatically. Use your actual business name. Do not pad it with keywords, because that breaches the guidelines and can get the listing suspended.

Step 2: Verify it

Google needs to confirm you exist. Verification is usually by postcard, phone or video depending on your business type, and it can take a couple of weeks by post.

Until you verify, you will not properly appear. Start this early, because everything else waits on it.

Step 3: Fill in every field, including the ones people skip

A complete profile ranks better and wins more clicks than a half filled one, and most are half filled.

Get your address or service area right, your phone number, your opening hours, and your website. Choose the primary category carefully because it carries real weight; mine is Website designer. Then add every secondary category and service that genuinely applies.

Keep your name, address and phone number identical everywhere online. Inconsistency across directories quietly undermines local rankings and it accumulates over years without anyone noticing.

Step 4: Photographs, services and posts

Profiles with real photographs get noticeably more clicks and calls. Add your logo, a cover image, and pictures of actual work rather than stock. A phone camera is fine.

List your services individually rather than lumping them together, and use the Posts feature occasionally. An active profile beats a dormant one.

Step 5: Reviews, and this is the one that matters

If you only do one thing from this list, do this.

Review volume is among the strongest signals for local pack placement, and it is also what makes someone choose you over the business listed next to you. It is the hardest thing to fake and the easiest to earn, which is presumably why Google leans on it.

Ask every satisfied customer, at the moment they are pleased, and send the direct link so it takes one tap. Reply to each one, including the awkward ones, because how you handle a complaint is read carefully by everyone who comes after.

Most small businesses are badly under-invested here. Making it a habit rather than an occasional campaign is what moves you up.

How long does it take?

You can appear on Maps within days of verifying. Getting into the top three takes longer and depends on your review count, how complete the profile is, and how close you happen to be to whoever is searching.

That last factor is worth accepting rather than fighting. Proximity is weighted heavily, so you will find it far easier to rank near your own premises than two towns over.

Where your website fits

Not in the map block, which is driven by the profile. Your website's job starts when someone taps through, and at that point they are checking whether you do their specific thing, whether you look real, and how to contact you without effort.

You need both, and they do different jobs. My SEO work covers the profile alongside the site from Foundation level, free with every build, because doing one without the other leaves most of the value on the table.

If you want help getting the profile and the site working together, get in touch or call 01634 984929.

Frequently asked questions

Is Google Business Profile free?

Completely, to set up and to run. It is the most valuable free marketing tool a local business has and the one most likely to be sitting half finished.

Do I need a website to appear on Maps?

No, but you should have one. The profile gets you seen; the website is where people decide. Mine start at £800, listed on the pricing page.

How many reviews do I need?

More than whoever is currently above you. There is no threshold, just a ranking. I have 157 across Google, Facebook, Trustpilot and Wix, which took years rather than a campaign.

Can I rank in a town I am not based in?

In the map block, rarely, because distance is weighted too heavily. In the standard results below it, yes, with a page that genuinely earns it.