How to get your business on Google: website, Maps and content

Google Search and Maps are different presences

A business can have website pages in Search and a Business Profile in Maps. They complement one another, but they are different surfaces. First identify which presence is missing.

A website explains services and projects in depth. A Business Profile supports local discovery and contact. Google's eligibility guidelines cover businesses that receive customers at a physical location or travel to customers. Do not assume an online-only activity qualifies.

1. Use accurate information in your Business Profile

Look for an existing profile before creating another. Follow Google's process for claiming or creating the profile and completing the requested verification. Keep its information consistent with the actual business:

• The real business name, without added keyword strings.
• An appropriate primary category, phone number and address or service area.
• Opening hours, exceptions and a link to the website.
• Current original photos that help customers recognize the business.

Google describes relevance, distance and prominence as key local ranking factors. Completing a profile does not remove the effect of the searcher's location. You cannot pay Google to buy a better organic local position. Read the official explanation.

2. Check whether the website can be discovered and understood

Open your website on a phone and check that service pages are reachable through navigation. Inspect important URLs in Search Console to investigate crawling and indexing. A sitemap can indicate URLs, but it does not compel Google to index them.

Investigate blocks, noindex directives, duplicate URLs and pages that return unexpected content before producing more articles. Explain each service with descriptive headings, original text, delivery scope, process, quotation requirements and contact options.

3. Answer questions that come before the quotation

A maintenance business could explain its inspection process, supported equipment and what a customer should provide before booking. This is an illustrative example; published content must reflect the service actually delivered.

Avoid making many pages that only swap the city name. Explain genuine service coverage and meaningful differences. The semantic search guide shows how to connect related questions and subjects.

4. Track discovery, visits and enquiries

Record a baseline: which pages receive impressions, which queries bring visits, and how customers reach your team. Compare equivalent periods and note seasonality, campaigns or operational changes.

Separate brand-name searches from service searches. Someone who already knows your business has a different need from someone discovering suppliers. Qualified enquiries are a business outcome; a position for one isolated keyword tells only part of the story.

If your website explains too little about what you sell, reviewing its structure, content and organic positioning may be more useful than creating more listings.

Frequently asked questions