How to rank higher on Google Maps

Ranking on Google Maps isn't a dark art, and there's no button to press. Google has told us the three things it weighs, and the winners are simply the businesses that do the fundamentals better than the ones nearby. Here's how each factor works, and what to actually do about it.

The three ranking factors

• Relevance. How well your profile matches what someone searched for. Driven by your primary category, the services and products you list, and a genuine description.
• Distance.How close your business is to the searcher (or the area they searched). You can't change where you are — but accurate location settings and, for mobile businesses, correct service-area settings matter.
• Prominence. How well-known and established you are — shaped by your reviews, your presence and consistency across the web, and how complete and active your profile is.

Levers for relevance

1. Nail your primary category. This is one of the strongest signals. Pick the single most accurate category for what you do; add secondary categories only where they genuinely apply.
2. Complete every field. Services, products, attributes, hours, and a description written for humans (not stuffed with keywords).
3. Keep your name honest. Your real business name only — adding keywords can trigger a suspension, not a boost.

Levers for prominence

1. Earn genuine reviews, steadily. Volume, recency, rating and your responses all count. See how to get more Google reviews.
2. Be consistent everywhere. Your name, address and phone number should match exactly across your website, social profiles and directories.
3. Stay active. Fresh photos, accurate hours, and regular updates signal a live, cared-for business.

If you're not appearing at all

Ranking low is different from being invisible. If you don't show up even when you scroll or zoom in, that's a separate problem — see why your business isn't showing on Google Maps.