Short answer: Google orders local results by relevance, distance and prominence, and says there’s “no way to request or pay for a better local ranking”. You can’t move your business closer to every customer. You can make your Business Profile complete and accurate, get more reviews and reply to them, and give other sites reasons to mention you. This checklist has 12 steps you can do yourself, each with the Google page behind it.
How Google decides who shows first on the map
Google’s Business Profile Help describes three factors:
- Relevance: “how well a Business Profile matches what someone is searching for”. Complete, detailed information helps Google match you to more searches.
- Distance: how far your business is from the person searching. If they don’t share their location, Google uses what it knows about it.
- Prominence: how well known your business is. Google bases it partly on “how many websites link to your business and how many reviews you have”.
Distance explains why your position changes when you search from home, from the office or from across town. It isn’t a fault in your profile, and no setting fixes it. The checklist works on the other two.
Source: Google Business Profile Help, “Tips to improve your local ranking on Google”, read October 17, 2026.
Your Business Profile
- Claim and verify your profile. Search for your business name and city on Google, or add the business if it isn’t there. Google says verifying tells it “you’re authorized to represent the business, so it’s more likely to show up in search results”. Google decides which verification methods you get: phone, text, email or video, depending on your business.
- Use your real business name, and nothing else. The name should match your sign, your website and your stationery. Adding a tagline, a service or a location to the name breaks Google’s guidelines and “could result in the suspension of your Business Profile”.
- Choose the most specific primary category. Google says the categories you pick “affect your local ranking”. Choose “Nail salon”, not “Salon”. Add a few extra categories only for real departments, never one per service. Google’s test: the category completes the sentence “this business is a”, not “this business has a”.
- Give a precise address, or a service area. If customers come to you, use your full street address and keep a permanent sign there. If you go to them, like a plumber or a cleaning service, hide the address. Then set up to 20 service areas by city or ZIP code, within about 2 hours’ drive of your base. A virtual office isn’t eligible for a profile.
- Use a local phone number and your own website. Google asks for a number under your direct control, local rather than a call center when possible. The website should be the one for that location, not a link that redirects somewhere else.
- Keep your hours right, holidays included. Set your regular hours, and set special hours for holidays and temporary changes. Google suggests confirming holiday hours even when they’re the same as usual, so customers know they’re accurate.
- Fill in the description, attributes and services. The description has up to 750 characters. Google asks for what you offer, what makes you different and how long you’ve been open, with no links and no prices or promotions. Attributes such as parking or Wi-Fi and your list of services complete the picture. Retail stores can also show their in-store products.
- Add real photos, starting with the outside. An exterior photo helps people recognize the place when they arrive. Google recommends JPG or PNG files between 10 KB and 5 MB, 720 by 720 pixels, in focus and without heavy filters. Videos can run up to 30 seconds. Photos only show once the profile is verified.
Sources: Google Business Profile Help pages on verification, the guidelines for representing your business, categories, service areas, special hours, editing the profile, and photos and videos. Read October 17, 2026.
Reviews
- Ask every customer for a review. Google says “more reviews and positive ratings can help your business’s local ranking”. Ask everyone, the same way, with your review link or QR code, and offer nothing in return. Google’s policy bans incentives and asking only the customers you expect to be happy. Our guide on how to get more Google reviews has the steps and a message you can copy.
- Reply to every review, the bad ones too. Replying is one of Google’s own tips to improve your local ranking. For negative reviews, our guide on how to respond to negative reviews has templates ready to copy.
Sources: Google Business Profile Help, “Tips to improve your local ranking on Google”; Google Maps, “Prohibited & restricted content”. Read October 17, 2026.
Your website and the rest of the web
- Make your website say what your profile says. The same business name, address and phone number, and a page for each main service and area you work in. Relevance depends on Google understanding what you do. Your website is where you get to explain it in full, in English and in Spanish if you serve both.
- Earn mentions from local sites. Prominence counts how many websites link to your business. Think of local press, your chamber of commerce, suppliers, associations and events you sponsor. Never pay for links: Google’s spam policies list “exchanging money for links, or posts that contain links” as link spam.
Sources: Google Business Profile Help, “Tips to improve your local ranking on Google”; Google Search Central, “Spam policies for Google web search”. Read October 17, 2026.
What can push your profile down or get it suspended
- Keywords in the business name. Google can suspend the profile.
- A virtual office or a mailbox as your address. Neither is eligible. A coworking desk only counts if it has signage, receives customers and has your staff there during business hours.
- Fake, paid or employee reviews. Google removes them, and its policy also bans asking only happy customers.
- Bought links. They break Google’s spam policies.
- Anyone who promises a position. Google says there’s no way to pay for a better local ranking.
Editing your category can also send you back through verification, so change it on purpose, not to test.
Sources: Google Business Profile Help, “Guidelines for representing your business on Google”, “Manage your business category” and “Tips to improve your local ranking on Google”; Google Maps, “Prohibited & restricted content”. Read October 17, 2026.
Quick answers about Google Maps rankings
Can I pay Google to rank higher on Google Maps?
No. Google says “there’s no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google”. The local results depend on relevance, distance and prominence.
Why does my business show up in a different position for each person?
Because distance is one of the three factors. Google measures how far each business is from the person searching, or uses what it knows about their location if they don’t share it.
Do reviews help me rank higher on Google Maps?
Yes, according to Google: prominence is based partly on how many reviews you have, and “more reviews and positive ratings can help your business’s local ranking”. Replying to reviews is also on Google’s list of tips.
Can I show up in a city where I don’t have an office?
If you travel to your customers, you can list up to 20 service areas, within about 2 hours’ drive of your base. A virtual office in that city isn’t eligible for a profile.
How long until changes to my profile show?
Google reviews edits before they go live, and service area changes can take up to 48 hours to appear. Google doesn’t publish how long a change takes to affect your ranking.
Want us to work through this list for you?
This checklist is the work our local SEO service does every month, in English and Spanish, with a report of what changed. If you prefer that we do it for you, book a 20-minute call.
Sources
- Google Business Profile Help, “Tips to improve your local ranking on Google”, read October 17, 2026.
- Google Business Profile Help, “Guidelines for representing your business on Google”, read October 17, 2026.
- Google Business Profile Help, “Verify your business on Google”, read October 17, 2026.
- Google Business Profile Help, “Manage your business category”, read October 17, 2026.
- Google Business Profile Help, “Manage your service areas for service-area & hybrid businesses”, read October 17, 2026.
- Google Business Profile Help, “How to set Special hours”, read October 17, 2026.
- Google Business Profile Help, “Edit your Business Profile”, read October 17, 2026.
- Google Business Profile Help, “Manage your Business Profile photos & videos”, read October 17, 2026.
- Google Maps, “Prohibited & restricted content”, read October 17, 2026.
- Google Search Central, “Spam policies for Google web search”, read October 17, 2026.