How to get your business on Google Maps: a UK guide

Short answer: to appear on Google Maps you need a free Google Business Profile. Create it at Google Business, choose your category, add your address or service area, verify the business, then complete every section and ask happy customers for reviews. Your business must meet Google’s eligibility rules, including making in-person contact with customers.

Who can have a Google Business Profile?

Google Business Profiles are for businesses that meet customers in person, either at their own premises or by visiting customers, such as plumbers, cleaners and mobile hairdressers. Google’s eligibility guidelines say online-only businesses are not eligible, and a rented mailbox or virtual office you don’t work from cannot be used as your address.

How do you add your business to Google Maps?

1. Go to Google Business Profile and sign in with a Google account you’ll keep for the business.
2. Enter your business name exactly as customers see it on your van, signage or invoices. Don’t add keywords or town names that aren’t part of the real name.
3. Choose your main category. Pick the one that best describes what you do, for example “Plumber” or “Hair salon”.
4. Add your location or service area. If customers visit you, add your address. If you travel to them, set a service area and hide your address.
5. Add your phone number and website so people can call or find out more.
6. Verify your business. Google will ask you to verify. The method depends on your business, and it can take a few days.
7. Complete your profile with opening hours, services, a description and real photos.

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How do you show up higher on Google Maps?

Google says local results are based mainly on relevance, distance and prominence (Google’s tips to improve local ranking). You can’t change how far a customer is from you, but you can work on the rest:

• Fill in every section of your profile, including services and attributes.
• Get genuine reviews and reply to every one, good or bad.
• Add photos regularly, especially of real jobs.
• Keep your details consistent across your website and directories: same name, phone number and address.
• Have a website with a page for each service and the areas you cover. See our local SEO service.

Read Google’s own guidelines for representing your business before you make changes. Breaking them can get a profile suspended.

How to verify your Google Business Profile

Your business will not show properly on Google Maps until it is verified. Google chooses which verification options you see, based on your business type, location and hours. The main ones are:

Google says reviews can take up to 5 business days. While you wait for a postcard, don’t edit your business name, address or category, and don’t request a new code. Source: Google’s verification help page.

Service-area businesses: should you hide your address?

If customers don’t come to you, Google says you should remove your address and set service areas instead. This applies to most trades, such as plumbers, electricians, roofers and cleaners.

• You can add up to 20 service areas, using towns, cities or postcodes.
• You can’t set a radius around your base. Choose named areas instead.
• Your service area shouldn’t stretch more than about 2 hours’ drive from your base.
• A service-area business can have only one profile for its whole area, not one per town.
• If you serve customers at your premises and travel to them, you can keep your address and add service areas, but only with permanent signage.

Edits to your service area can take up to 48 hours to appear. Source: Google’s service-area guidelines.

What to fill in after you’re verified

A verified profile is only the start. Complete profiles match more searches. Work through this list:

1. Primary category: the one that best describes your main service, such as “Roofing contractor”, not a general one like “Contractor”.
2. Secondary categories: add other services you genuinely offer.
3. Services: list each service with a short, plain description.
4. Business description: say what you do and where, in normal sentences. Don’t stuff keywords.
5. Hours: include holiday hours, and set 24 hours only if you really answer the phone at night.
6. Photos: your logo, cover photo, team, van and real jobs. Add new ones every month.
7. Website link: point it to your homepage or the page for your main service.
8. Updates: post offers, recent jobs or news regularly so the profile looks active.

How Google decides who shows first on Maps

Google says local results are based mainly on three things: relevance (how well your profile matches the search), distance (how far you are from the person searching) and prominence (how well-known your business is, including reviews and links from other websites). Google also says there is no way to pay for a better local ranking. Source: Google’s local ranking help page.

In practice, that means three jobs: complete your profile, get a steady flow of genuine reviews (our guide on how to get more Google reviews has scripts), and build a website with a page for each service and area you cover.

How to see if your profile is bringing in customers

Your Business Profile has a Performance section that shows how people found you and what they did next. Check it once a month and track:

• Calls made from the call button on your profile.
• Website clicks to your site.
• Direction requests, if customers visit you.
• Searches that showed your profile, so you can see which services people look for.

To see profile visits separately in Google Analytics, add a tracking tag (a UTM link) to the website address on your profile, for example ?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=gbp. Visits from your profile will then show up as their own source in GA4, so you can see how many enquiries the profile brings in each month.

If calls and clicks are flat after a few months, the usual fixes are more reviews, better photos and a stronger website page for your main service. Our local SEO checklist walks through each step.

Why isn’t my business showing on Google Maps?

• It isn’t verified yet. Check the status in your Business Profile.
• It has been suspended. See our guide to fixing a suspended Google Business Profile.
• You’re searching from too far away. Distance matters, so test from inside your service area.
• Your category is wrong or too broad.
• Competitors are more prominent. They may have more reviews, photos and links.
• Recent changes are still in review. Edits can take a few days to show.

Google changes how profiles work regularly. Our round-up of Google Business Profile changes in 2026 covers the latest updates.

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