Getting found on Google Maps: the local search basics that bring people through the door

For a business with a physical address, the most valuable page on the internet may not be your website. It is your Google Business Profile — the card that appears on the map and in the right-hand panel when someone searches your name or your trade nearby.

Claim it and fill it completely

Verify the profile, choose the most precise primary category, and fill in hours, phone, website, services and a real description. Incomplete profiles are easy to skip; complete ones look like a business that is open and cares.

Photos and reviews do the selling

• Add real photos of the place, the team and the work — and add new ones regularly.
• Ask every satisfied customer for a review, with a direct link, the same day.
• Reply to every review, the good ones briefly and the bad ones calmly and specifically.
• Never buy reviews: it breaks Google's rules and customers can tell.

Make your website agree with the map

Your name, address and phone number should be written identically on your website, your profile and every directory you appear in. Give each service its own page, mention the neighbourhoods you serve, and make sure the site loads quickly on a phone — that is where these searches happen.

Measure what matters

Your profile shows how many people called, asked for directions or visited your site from it. Watch those three numbers monthly. They tell you more about local marketing than any ranking report.

Local search rewards the businesses that look most alive. An afternoon on your profile is the best-paid afternoon of the month.