How do I get my business into the Google Maps pack?

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If you are asking, “How do I get my business into the Google Maps pack?”, there are a few important areas worth looking at first.

There can be numerous reasons why one business appears prominently in Google Maps while another business struggles to show up. However, in my experience, three areas regularly make a big difference:

1. Giving Google clearer signals about what your business does.
2. Building more trust through customer feedback and reviews.
3. Building stronger local authority around your business.

None of these is a magic switch. But getting these three areas right can give Google much better information about your business and help you compete with other local companies.

1. Improve Your Relevance to Google

The first thing to look at is relevance.

Google needs to clearly understand what your business does, what services you offer and where those services fit.

One of the easiest places to start is your Google Business Profile categories.

Google allows businesses to select a primary category along with additional categories that are relevant to the business. Depending on your trade or industry, there may only be a few suitable categories, while other businesses may have considerably more available.

What surprises me is how many businesses I audit that have selected just one category, or perhaps two, even though several others could accurately describe the services they provide.

Your categories are only the beginning.

You should then make sure the services listed within your Google Business Profile support those categories.

Rather than filling your profile with duplicated or irrelevant services, choose the services that genuinely represent what customers are looking for.

Then make sure the same services appear on your website.

For example, if your Google Business Profile tells Google that you provide a particular service, but your website barely mentions that service, you are giving Google mixed signals.

Your Google Business Profile and website should support each other.

That means having relevant category or service information on the website and linking visitors from your Google Business Profile to the most appropriate page rather than automatically sending everyone to your homepage.

For many businesses in smaller cities, you may not need hundreds of pages.

A well-built page covering a particular category, with the important services naturally included within the content, can often provide Google with the extra relevance it needs.

In larger and more competitive markets, however, you may need more detailed category and individual service pages to compete.

The important point is consistency.

Your categories, services, Google Business Profile and website should all tell Google the same story.

2. Build More Trust With Customer Feedback

The second area is trust.

One of the best ways of building trust with Google is allowing your own customers to provide information about the experience they had with your business.

That means reviews.

But I prefer to think of them as customer feedback rather than simply asking people for a five-star review.

Instead of saying:

“Can you leave us a review?”

Make the process easier for the customer.

You could send a message after completing the job saying something along the lines of:

“Thanks for choosing us. If you have a moment, could you leave some feedback explaining the problem you had, what we did to solve it and how you found the service?”

That produces something far more useful than:

“Highly recommended.”

Detailed feedback gives future customers context.

It also gives Google more information about the types of work your company actually carries out.

Make leaving that feedback as easy as possible.

You can include your review link or QR code on invoices, email signatures or follow-up emails and messages. You could also send a simple reminder a few days after completing the job.

The easier you make it, the more likely customers are to respond.

And there is another important benefit.

Reviews are today's digital word of mouth.

Imagine somebody comparing two local companies.

One company has been trading for 14 years but has only seven reviews.

Another has been trading for five years and has 66 detailed reviews from customers describing the work they had done and the experience they received.

Which one feels safer to contact?

That can be particularly frustrating when the company with very few reviews is spending money advertising to bring people to its website and Google Business Profile.

They have paid to attract the prospect and then potentially lose that prospect because another company's profile creates more trust.

If you are unsure where your own profile may be losing ground, my free Google Business Profile audit is designed to help identify some of those gaps.

3. Build More Local Authority

The third area is local authority.

Google doesn't look at your business in isolation. It can also find information about your company elsewhere online.

Business directories are one example.

Having accurate references to your business name, address, phone number, services and website on reputable directories can help reinforce the information Google already has about you.

But I particularly like genuinely local connections.

Think about organisations such as:

• Local Chambers of Commerce
• Trade associations
• Business networking groups
• Schools
• Charities
• Local sports clubs
• Community organisations

These connections make sense because they show that your business genuinely operates within and contributes to the local community.

For example, rather than simply sponsoring something and receiving nothing more than a thank-you, you may be able to support a school, charity or sporting organisation with your services.

In return, they may be happy to mention your business on their website with your company name, logo and a link back to your website.

The key is that these should be real relationships.

You are not simply trying to manufacture hundreds of random links from websites around the world.

A handful of genuine local mentions can make far more sense for a local service business.

You are effectively building a trail around the internet that confirms:

“This company is here, this is what they do, and these local organisations know them.”

That supports the wider picture you are trying to create with your website and Google Business Profile.

Bringing the Three Areas Together

Getting into the Google Maps pack isn't normally about finding one secret setting.

It is about making your business easier for Google to understand and trust.

Start by checking your relevance.

Are you using the right Google Business Profile categories? Are your services properly listed? Does your website support what you are telling Google?

Then look at trust.

Are customers regularly leaving useful feedback, or have you got seven reviews while your competitors have 50, 60 or 100?

Finally, look at your local authority.

Does the rest of the internet provide evidence that you are a genuine local company connected to your area?

These three areas alone will not explain every Google Maps ranking problem, but they give you a strong place to start.

If you want to go deeper into the additional things you can check and improve yourself, I've put together a free Google Business Profile masterclass covering more of the tweaks that can help strengthen your profile.