Why is my business not showing up on Google Maps?

Who publishes this: OfficeStaff.ai helps local businesses get found on Google, trusted through reviews and booked through their website and past customers.

Published 26 September 20264 minute read

By Greg Hamlyn. Part of our guide to Reach.

The short answer

Because your Google ranking is not one number, it is a different result for every place a customer is standing.

You can sit in the top three at your own front door and vanish two suburbs away. Most owners have never seen this, because the only place they ever check is their own desk.

The Yellow Pages have not gone anywhere

Think about how people used to find a plumber. They opened the Yellow Pages, looked at the first big ad, maybe the second, and rang it. Almost nobody worked their way down to the little one at the bottom of the page.

Google Maps is the same thing with a different cover. When somebody searches, Google shows three businesses on the map. Most people ring one of those three and never scroll. They only look further if all three have bad reviews.

The difference is that the Yellow Pages showed everyone in town the same page. Google shows a different page to every person, depending on where their phone is.

Want to see where you actually turn up across your area, not just at your front door? Get your Free 3R check.

Why your ranking changes street by street

Search for what you do while standing in your own carpark and you will probably look great. Google knows where you are, you are nearby, and there you are.

Walk two suburbs over and search the same thing. The three businesses on the map may be completely different, and yours may not be there at all.

This is why the single number some agencies report to you is close to meaningless. "You rank number two" is not an answer to anything unless it comes with where. The only way to see the truth is to check a grid of points spread across the area you actually serve, and look at what Google shows at each one.

When you do that you get a map, not a score. Green where you are in the top three, red where you are nowhere. Most owners find a small green patch around their address and red everywhere else, and they have been paying for marketing the whole time.

The address thing almost nobody mentions

I keep running into this, and it surprises people.

A business with a real street address on its Google profile tends to hold up far better across an area than a business without one. I have looked at listings where a business with an address and very few reviews was still beating a business with a much stronger review profile that had no address showing.

That matters enormously if you are a mobile or service area business, because Google lets you hide your address, and plenty of operators do. It is worth knowing that the hidden address is not free. You are trading it for reach.

That is not a reason to publish your home address if you work out of your house. It is a reason to know what it is costing you, and to work harder on everything else if you decide to keep it hidden.

What people try first, and why it does not work

Most owners, when they realise they have a problem, go and add some keywords to their website. Or they buy a package of directory listings. Or they pay for ads, which works exactly as long as you keep paying.

None of that touches the thing that decides the map result. The map is mostly about your Google profile itself, how complete and current it is, how close you are, and your reviews.

So the usual first move is to spend money on the website while the profile sits there with the wrong hours, three photos from 2019 and a category that does not match what the business actually does.

What to actually do

Look at your profile before you spend a dollar anywhere else. Hours, including public holidays. Every service you offer, written the way customers say it. Photos from this year. The right primary category.

Post something. An open profile that has not been touched in two years looks closed.

Get your reviews moving, because review count and score feed into the map result as well as into whether someone rings you.

And see your actual map before you accept anyone's report. If a provider cannot show you where you turn up across your service area, they are not working on the thing that makes your phone ring.

The bit that comes after being found

Getting found is only the start. The moment a customer sees you on that map, they do the next thing automatically, which is compare you to the other two.

That is where reviews decide it. How many Google reviews does a business need?

About the author

Greg Hamlyn

Greg Hamlyn started out on the tools. He and his late wife Wendy then built their first business from $200,000 a year to well over $1 million in the first year, with no extra mechanics. He has been working with business owners since 2003. He co-founded OfficeStaff with Nick Lock to help Australian service businesses get more reviews, answer every customer and show up on Google. He will tell you if you are not a fit. Based on the Gold Coast.

How many Google reviews does a business need?

There is no magic number. What matters is having more reviews than the businesses you are compared to, some recent ones, and a reply under every one.

Frequently asked questions

Why does my business show up for me but not for my customers?

Because Google gives a different answer depending on where the person searching is standing. Checking from your own desk shows you the best possible version of your ranking.

Does a Google Business Profile cost anything?

No. The profile is free. What costs money is somebody keeping it current.

Should you hide your address if you work from home?

You can, and Google allows it for service area businesses. Just know it tends to reduce how far you reach, so everything else has to work harder.

How often should you post?

Often enough that the profile never looks abandoned. One that has not been touched in two years reads as closed.