How to get found on Google Maps: a step-by-step guide for local businesses
Set up and look after your Google Business Profile so customers in your area find you, call you and visit you.
ToBrand team · 7 min read
When someone nearby searches for "bakery near me" or "CA in Kothrud", Google shows a map with three businesses under it. Those three get most of the calls. The listing behind each pin is a Google Business Profile, and it is free. This guide shows how to set yours up properly and keep it working.
1. Claim and verify your profile
Search for your business name on Google Maps. If a listing already exists, choose "Claim this business"; if not, add it at business.google.com. Google then verifies that you are the owner, usually by a short video of your shop and signboard, a phone call or a postcard. Until it is verified, your edits don't show.
2. Get the basics exactly right
- Name: your real business name as it appears on your signboard. Adding keywords ("Best Bakery Pune") breaks Google's rules and can get the profile suspended.
- Address and service area: a shop or office shows its address. If you visit customers instead (plumbers, tutors, caterers), hide the address and set the areas you serve.
- Phone and WhatsApp: a number that is answered during opening hours.
- Hours: include holiday hours for Diwali, Ganesh Chaturthi and other closures. Wrong hours lead to bad reviews.
- Website: link the page that matches the listing, for example your Pune branch page rather than the home page.
Use the same name, address and phone everywhere: your website, JustDial, IndiaMART, Facebook. Google trusts details that match across the web.
3. Choose the right categories
The primary category is the strongest signal on the profile. Pick the one closest to what people search for ("Dental clinic", not "Health"). Add a few secondary categories for other things you genuinely offer. Look at the top three businesses for your main search and note the categories they use.
4. Add photos and keep adding them
Upload your logo, a cover photo, the outside of your shop (so people recognise it when they arrive), the inside, your team and your work. Real photos taken on a phone in good light beat stock images. Add new ones every month: it shows the business is active.
5. Ask every happy customer for a review
Reviews are one of the main reasons a business ranks and gets chosen. Make asking easy:
- Copy your review link from the profile ("Ask for reviews") and send it on WhatsApp after a job is done.
- Put a QR code to the link at the billing counter.
- Reply to every review, good or bad, politely and within a few days. A calm reply to a bad review reassures the next customer.
Never buy reviews or offer discounts in exchange for them. It breaks Google's policies and fake reviews get removed, sometimes with the profile.
6. Use posts, products and Q&A
Posts work like short updates: an offer, a new menu, an event. Add your main services or products with prices where you can. Answer the questions people ask on your profile, and add the common ones yourself with clear answers.
7. Connect the profile to your website
Your website should back up the listing: the same name, address and phone on every page, a page for each area you serve, a map, and structured data (LocalBusiness schema) that tells Google these details in its own format. A slow or broken website can hold a good profile back. Run our free SEO check to see where yours stands.
Common mistakes that hide you
- Keywords stuffed into the business name.
- Two profiles for the same place (merge or remove the duplicate).
- A virtual office or a PO box as the address.
- Wrong or missing opening hours.
- Months without a new photo, post or review reply.
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