Do you have a “local business or service and want your customers to find you more easily online? Increasing your visibility by making your”business appear on Google Maps is simple. In a few steps, people will immediately find your address, phone number, and website, ensuring you have a good online presence and increasing traffic to your business.
Having a Google My Business listing allows customers to find your business, even if it’s small and local, like a hair salon or a restaurant. This way, you’ll have the opportunity to increase sales and be easily reachable even without a website.
Thanks to the presence on maps, when someone searches in your area for a “business in your category, your complete profile will appear in” the search results. That’s why it’s important that the data is up-to-date and correct, from the phone number to the website, if available.
This way, it will take just one click to know everything about your company and find your business within the maps, thanks to Google My Business.
Want to know how to use this tool and how to appear on Google Maps for free? In this article, you’ll find a guide with all the complete information you need.
What is Google Maps and Why is it Useful for Your Business?
If you have a shop, restaurant, or company, adding your business to Google Maps is especially useful for local search, when users expect to find a service or precise directions near the area where they live.
You may not know this, but 76% of people who perform specific internet searches about a company or a shop near where they live, end up visiting the place within the next 24 hours.
That’s why adding your business to Google Maps and the search engine for free is crucial to grow your business.
How Much Does it Cost to Appear on Google Maps: Let’s See Together
If you want your company’s listing, with its name and complete profile, to be included in Google Maps, first you need to know that adding to Google My Business has no cost and therefore, being on Google Maps is free.
Discover How to Add Your Business to Google Maps for Free
To make your business appear on Google Maps at no cost, the steps are very simple. Just add your business directly to your Google My Business profile.
However, before doing this operation, it’s good to claim your Google listing by checking all the information contained about your business.
To do this, you have two ways, depending on whether you already have an account or need to proceed with registration.
How to Create a Google Listing Without a Google My Business Account
If you don’t already have a Google My Business account, no problem. Appearing on Google Maps will be a piece of cake, you’ll simply need to proceed with registration.
Google will guide you through the process, but you will need to enter the following information about your property only once:
- your business name;
- the address;
- the category of the shop or service;
- a phone number;
- the website if you have one.
With the Knowledge Local Panel, users have at their fingertips a rich source of information, making every exploration more informed and every decision more conscious.
How to Create a Google Listing if You Already Have Google My Business
Do you already have a Google My Business account but don’t know how to appear on Google Maps? The procedure is simple! You just need to search using your business name, or your store name, by entering it in the Google Maps search bar.
After claiming the profile, you’ll just need to proceed with the business verification by the user, and you can do this in different ways:
- by phone call;
- SMS
- via email;
- with video registration;
- by video call;
- by postcard.
After completing the verification and inserting the page related to your business within Google Maps, the listing will be published and the complete information about your company or service will be shown on Google Maps.
Everything You Need to Include in Your Google Maps Listing
Often, to appear in Google Maps searches, it’s not enough to claim the business profile, but it’s necessary to optimize your business listing as much as possible to make it more visible to potential customers.
One of the tricks to increase your success on maps and Google Maps search engines is to include a series of specific information, such as store hours with any holidays and closing days, or for example, a menu if you have a restaurant.
This way, the results offered by Google will be more relevant and will be shown to the right users.
Another way to optimize the search is to use certain keywords in the profile Google My Business. This way, your business will be displayed to customers in the search engine and on maps relevantly, appearing among the pertinent results.
To complete the data with more information, you can also include other details related to the location in the listing, such as:
- photos related to your business on Google Maps;
- email;
- any responses to user reviews;
And if Your Business Doesn’t Appear on Google Maps? Find Out How to Solve the Problem
Now that you know how to appear on Google Maps and create a profile on Google My Business, you should know that sometimes the service, store, or business may not appear on maps. There are various reasons related to problems with listing insertion or business profile verification.
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to solve the problem and make your business page visible again in Google Maps searches.
First, Perform a Verification Check of the Business Profile
To appear on Google Maps, it’s necessary to have previously verified the business profile of your activity to make it visible on Google Maps.
When you find the text “Own this business?” at the bottom of the profile, it means that your business page hasn’t been verified.
In this case, I suggest you check that you have correctly completed this process.
Verify the Location Authority of the Company Information
If your company has low visibility on Google Maps, the reason may also be related to the authority of the information and data entered within the listing.
These are, in fact, fundamental for visibility in search results and are relevant for positioning on Google Maps.
If your business has relevance, notoriety, and a good reputation, users will be able to find you from a greater distance, while if you haven’t taken good care of the information entered and the profile, your store and your business will hardly be displayed.
Check That the Listing Hasn’t Been Suspended by Google
If your company’s profile has no visibility on Google and potential customers can’t find you on Maps in search results, a verification is necessary to check if your Google Maps listing is blocked.
Indeed, Google suspends “companies that don’t” respect its general rules when inserting information. So, please read them carefully more than once and follow them!
What does suspension of the Google Maps listing mean?
If people can no longer see your company’s account with name, address, photos, and phone number, one of the problems could be that your business listing has been suspended by Google to combat spam and fraud.
So what are the actions to verify and check that your business on Google Maps hasn’t been blocked?
Here’s how you can understand if the profile is suspended on Maps
Understanding if your Google My Business account is suspended is easy, as Google communicates the interruption of your activity directly via email, to the registered address.
Before creating your profile, read the guidelines, as there are a series of violations to pay attention to during management.
Why is the Google Maps listing suspended? I’ll explain it to you right away
Now that you know how to appear on Google Maps and how to add your business to Google My Business, I’ll explain why your listing might get suspended.
There can be several reasons behind this Google action, such as:
- in the “URL of your website, there’s a” redirect to another domain.
- Keywords have been added to the business name field;
- if you conduct your business at the customer’s home (for example, providing assistance), you must have a page for your headquarters indicating an area of competence.
- You have multiple verified listings on Google My Business for the same business;
- your business is not eligible. In this case, not being an allowed type in the Google My Business service, the listing could be suspended;
- you’ve used a virtual office or a P.O. box for Google;
- you’ve created a Google listing for an online business, but you don’t have a physical store.
Partial suspension: what to do?
In case of a temporary suspension, the business will still be displayed to users in searches and may appear on Google Maps. In this case, ranking and online presence will not have been damaged.
However, the partial suspension will indicate that the “business is not verified and you won’t be able to manage customer reviews on Google or modify information related to the” business.
What to do in this case? You’ll just need to verify the profile again and prove that the “business is real, to be able to modify data such as name, menu, address, and website of the” company.
Total suspension: what to do?
When your business listing undergoes a total suspension, it won’t be displayed to users in Google search results or on Google Maps. In this case, your online visibility will be penalized.
What does the suspension entail? Even when the business name is typed into the search engine, it won’t appear.
All you can do is request a free reinstatement from Google, by filling out one of the forms Google provides as needed.
Local pack: a tool to boost your business
As we’ve seen, adding your business to Google Maps allows you to increase your online presence and is functional for business, especially for SMEs.
Specifically for these, Google has made available the Local Pack, a tool that, when integrated with SEO strategy and included in every SEO consultation, allows you to further enhance your digital marketing activity.
When a user, in fact, types a geographically localized intent in the search bar, Google’s “algorithm responds with the appropriate results in the SERP, where at the top of the page are all those entities that best respond to the specific request of the” user.
What are Local Packs for? Find out now
Local pack refers to the block of localized information, which contains businesses that meet the needs of the searcher and are within their radius of action.
While this tool used to include a larger number of results, today it’s also defined as Local 3-Pack, as only the top three relevant results are provided in ranking and in an extended format.
Boost Your Business with Google Maps
If your company, bar, or store isn’t on Google Maps today, it means your business doesn’t exist for the majority of potential customers.
It is, in fact, a fundamental tool that allows you, by optimizing your information, to be visible to the largest number of people living in your area.
That’s why, just like e-commerce, Google My Business is one of the fundamental elements for increasing business, even if your local activity is small and newly established.
Want to know how to build a winning marketing strategy for your business and attract new customers? Contact us!
