Why isn't my business showing on Google Maps?

First, make sure it is actually missing

Google personalises Maps results by where you are. Searching for your own business from home, ten miles away, and not seeing it proves very little — Google is showing what is useful to someone standing where you are standing.

The right test is to search the service you provide, from the area you want to be found in, in a private window while signed out. Searching your exact business name and finding it only proves Google knows you exist. It does not mean anyone looking for what you sell will find you.

The nine reasons, most common first

1. The profile is not verified. Unverified profiles show in limited ways or not at all. This is the single most common cause and the easiest to fix.
2. There are duplicate profiles. If someone created a listing years ago and you created another, Google splits the signals between them and neither wins. They need claiming and merging.
3. The primary category is wrong or too vague. 'Business' does not compete with 'plumber'. Your primary category carries more weight than every secondary one combined.
4. The address breaks Google's rules. Google requires a real, staffed presence at the address during stated hours. PO boxes, virtual offices and a relative's house all lead to suspension.
5. You serve customers at their location but show an address. If you travel to clients, hide the address and set a service area. Showing an address you do not staff is a violation.
6. The profile is suspended and you have not noticed. Google does not always make this obvious. Open your profile and look for any suspension or reverification notice.
7. Opening hours are missing or stale. An empty schedule signals an abandoned listing, and Google favours profiles that look maintained.
8. There are no reviews at all. Google does not penalise having none, but between two similar businesses the one with recent reviews wins.
9. The listing is simply too new. A newly verified profile takes weeks to settle. If everything is correct and it has been a fortnight, the answer is usually to wait.

The ten-minute version

Open your Google Business Profile and check three things in this order: that it says verified, that the primary category is exactly what you do, and that opening hours are complete. Those three account for most cases where a real business does not appear.

Then search your business name plus your town and look for more than one listing. Duplicates are silent and damaging, because they divide your reviews and signals between two profiles competing with each other.

What will not fix it

Posting to your profile daily does not compensate for the wrong primary category. Adding twenty secondary categories does not either. And nobody can sell you a guaranteed position in the local map pack — that product does not exist.

If someone offers it, they are selling either ads, which are labelled as ads and are a different thing entirely, or nothing at all.

Frequently asked questions