How to show up on Google Maps in Suffolk

Search for “plumber” or “café” on your phone in Suffolk and Google usually shows you a map before it shows you any websites. Under the map is a short list of businesses, with their star ratings, opening hours and a button to call.

If your business isn’t in that list, a lot of people searching for exactly what you do will never see you. This guide explains how that list is chosen and what you can do about it.

The short answer

The map and the list come from Google Business Profiles. That’s the free listing Google keeps for each business: name, address, phone number, hours, photos and reviews.

To appear, you need a profile that you’ve claimed and verified, that’s complete and accurate, and that real customers have reviewed. After that, where you show up depends partly on things you can’t change, like how far the person searching is from you.

What Google says it looks at

Google is unusually open about this. Its own help page, Tips to improve your local ranking on Google, names three things:

• Relevance. How well your profile matches what someone searched for. If you’re a dog groomer and your profile only says “pet services”, you’re harder to match.
• Distance. How far your business is from the person searching. You can’t change this, but you can make sure Google knows where you are and which areas you cover.
• How well known you are. Google calls this prominence. It says it takes into account things like how many reviews you have and how many other websites link to you, and that “more reviews and positive ratings can help your business’s local ranking.”

The same page is clear on one more point: “There’s no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google.” Anyone who promises you the top spot for a fee is promising something Google says can’t be bought.

Why distance matters more in Suffolk

Suffolk is spread out, with a lot of countryside between its towns. Because distance counts, someone searching in Southwold is more likely to be shown a café in Southwold than one in Lowestoft.

That works in your favour if you’re the only business of your kind nearby. It works against you if your customers come from a wide area but your profile only says where your workshop is. That’s why it’s worth getting the next part right.

If customers come to you

Make sure your address is exact, and that the pin on the map is in the right place. Rural addresses and new builds are sometimes put in the wrong spot. You can drag the pin when you edit your profile.

If you go to your customers

Plumbers, electricians, gardeners, cleaners and mobile hairdressers are what Google calls service-area businesses. Google’s guidelines say that if you don’t serve customers at your address, you should hide it and set the areas you cover instead. They also say your service area shouldn’t stretch much beyond about two hours’ drive from where you’re based.

So a gardener based near Halesworth could list Halesworth, Southwold, Beccles and Bungay, rather than “all of East Anglia”.

The things you can fix yourself

You don’t need to pay anyone to do most of this. Set aside an hour.

1. Claim and verify your profile. Search for your business name on Google. If a profile already exists, there’ll be an option to claim it. If not, you can create one. Google will ask you to verify that the business is yours. Our guide to setting up your Google Business Profile walks through this.
2. Use your real business name. Google’s guidelines say your name should be the one on your sign, your van and your invoices. Adding words like “Best Plumber Lowestoft” to it breaks Google’s rules, and it isn’t worth the risk to your listing.
3. Pick the right main category. This is the single line that says what you are, such as “Electrician” or “Tea house”. Google asks you to use as few categories as you can, and the most specific one that fits.
4. Fill in everything. Opening hours, holiday hours, phone number, website, services and a plain description of what you do. Gaps make you harder to match and less useful to the person looking.
5. Add real photos. Your shopfront, your work, your team, your van. Photos help people recognise you when they arrive and see what they’re getting.
6. Get reviews from real customers, and reply to them. This is the part most businesses neglect. There’s a whole guide on getting more reviews without being awkward.
7. Make your website agree with your profile. Same name, same address, same phone number, same opening hours. When your website and your profile tell the same story, it’s easier for Google and for customers to trust both.

What not to do

Some shortcuts get sold to small businesses that can hurt more than help.

• Fake or bought reviews. As well as breaking Google’s rules, writing fake reviews, paying someone else to write them, or giving customers money or gifts for positive reviews can break UK consumer law. The Competition and Markets Authority’s guidance for businesses warns this can lead to fines and may be a criminal offence.
• Addresses you don’t really work from. Google’s guidelines say a business must either have a place customers visit, or travel to its customers. A virtual office with nobody there doesn’t count.
• Several profiles for one business. One business, one location, one profile.

How long it takes

Some changes show up quickly. Others, like building up reviews, take months. Google also checks some edits before they go live, so don’t worry if a change doesn’t appear straight away.

The businesses that do well on the map tend to be the ones that keep their profile up to date and ask every happy customer for a review, week after week. It’s steady work, not a trick.

Where your website fits in

Your profile gets people to notice you. Your website is often where they decide whether to call. If someone taps through and finds a slow, confusing site, the work you put into your profile is wasted.

The free website health check looks at your website, not your Google profile. It’ll tell you in plain English what might be putting people off once they arrive. If it’s the map itself you need help with, have a look at getting found on Google.