How do I rank higher on Google Maps?

Forest City Green

To rank higher on Google Maps, work on the two ranking factors Google names that you can influence: relevance and prominence. The third, your distance from the person searching, you cannot change. In practice that means the most specific primary category, every field filled in, current hours, real photos, and more reviews with a reply to each. Google says local ranking cannot be bought.

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What are the Google Maps ranking factors?

Google names three factors: relevance, distance and prominence, although the line that opens its section on ranking factors now calls the third one popularity. It keeps the details confidential and says there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. Anyone quoting exact weights, or guaranteeing first place on Maps, is claiming more than Google itself will say, and I will not promise you a position either.

Only two of the three are yours to work on:

Relevance: how well your profile matches what was searched. Yours to fix, through the category and complete details
Prominence: how well known you are, based partly on your reviews and on how many other websites link to you. Yours to build, slowly
Distance: how far you are from the person searching, or from where Google thinks they are. Nothing you do changes it

Start with the category, the name and the service areas

Google says the categories you choose affect your local ranking. Pick the most specific primary category that describes the whole business, using Google's test: it should finish the sentence “this business is a”, not “this business has a”. Google's own example is Nail salon rather than Salon; for a trade, it means your trade rather than a broad option like Contractor. Keep secondary categories to a few, never one per service and never as keywords, and decide before you edit, because changing a category can mean verifying the business again.

The name should be exactly what is on your sign, your website and your paperwork. A trade or a town is fine when it is genuinely part of that name. What the guidelines rule out is adding locations, service words, hours, phone numbers or taglines on top of it, and doing so can get the profile suspended. I will not stuff keywords into a profile name for anyone; it puts the whole listing at risk for a gain nobody can promise.

If you work from home and go to your customers, remove the address and list service areas instead: up to 20, by city or postal code, never as a radius, and within about two hours' drive of your base. A London plumber might list London, St. Thomas, Strathroy and Ingersoll. That tells customers where you work, but Google does not say it overrides distance, so listing a town is not the same as ranking there.

How do reviews and replies help you move up?

Reviews are the part of prominence you can work on every week. Google says how many reviews you have counts toward prominence, that more reviews and positive ratings can help your local ranking, and it lists responding to reviews among its ways to improve ranking, without saying a reply counts in itself. How to ask for reviews within Google's rules, how to reply, and what gets a profile restricted are covered in the answer on getting more Google reviews.

Keep hours, photos and your website in step with the profile

Complete and accurate profiles are more likely to show up in local results, and wrong details can keep you out of searches you should appear in. Photos are on Google's own list of ways to improve local ranking. They should be in focus, well lit and free of heavy filters, so the van, the crew and finished jobs beat any stock image, and an exterior shot helps customers recognise the place if they come to you.

Your website feeds the profile too. Google builds profile information partly from the business's own site, can pick up category information from it, and counts links from other websites toward prominence. What the site has to match, and how, is covered on the local SEO page. The free audit I run checks that match.

Hours are the detail to keep checking:

Regular hours set to when customers can actually reach you
Special hours for every statutory holiday, confirmed even when nothing changes
Special hours for a closure of up to six days, so the regular hours stay untouched
Temporarily closed, not special hours, for a closure of seven days or more, such as a two-week shutdown
No hours at all if you work only by appointment

What gets a profile suspended?

Google can suspend a profile that breaks its guidelines, and each shortcut below breaks one. The business names are invented to show the pattern.

“Smith Plumbing London 24/7 Drain Cleaning” when the van says Smith Plumbing: a location, a service and hours added to the name
A virtual office in St. Thomas, rented to appear there; neither it, a P.O. box nor a remote mailbox is eligible
A co-working desk with no permanent sign, none of your own staff and no customers during business hours
A separate profile for each nearby town, when a service-area business gets one profile for its whole area

An existing profile, checked in one sitting, in this order

Check	Why it matters
Confirm the profile is verified	Replies to reviews and photos only work once it is
Set the most specific primary category	Categories affect local ranking; editing one may mean verifying again
Use the name on your sign, nothing added	Added words can get the profile suspended
Hide a home address and list service areas	Up to 20, by city or postal code, never a radius
Set regular hours and holiday hours	Confirm holidays even when the hours do not change
Add real photos; keep links and prices out of the description	Photos should show reality; descriptions cannot carry links or be about prices and sales
Reply to reviews and match your website to the profile	Replies are on Google's list of ranking tips; your site feeds the profile

Questions people ask

How do I get a suspended Google Business Profile back?

Appeal it with Google and attach evidence that the business is what the profile says: an official business registration, a business licence, tax certificates, or a utility bill such as phone, electricity or internet. The name and address on those documents should match the profile. Do not create a new profile for the same business while the appeal is under review; Google emails its decision.

How long does it take to rank higher on Google Maps?

Google does not give a timeline for ranking changes. Some edits show quickly: service-area changes can take up to 48 hours to appear, and new photos 24 to 48 hours. A category change can take longer if Google asks you to verify again. Reviews are the slow part, because they arrive one customer at a time, so plan in months rather than days.

Do Google Business Profile posts help my ranking?

Google does not say they do. Its list of ways to improve local ranking covers verifying the business, complete and accurate details, replying to reviews, photos and videos, and in-store products for retailers; posts are not on it. Care Plus at $99 a month includes one post a month, but I would not sell it to you as a ranking lever.

Why do I rank in one part of London but not another?

Because distance is one of Google's three factors, and it is measured from the person searching, or from where Google thinks they are. Someone in Byron and someone in Old East Village get different nearest businesses. To see what customers see, search on your phone with location on while you are at jobs across the city, not from your own shop or home.

Can I pay to show up at the top of Google Maps?

You can pay to appear as an ad, but not to move your profile up the unpaid results. Ads in Google Maps show as square pins or next to a Sponsored label, and they sit apart from the ranking this page is about. Paying for ads does not change your category, your reviews or your distance from the person searching.