You get on Google Maps through your Google Business Profile, because the map listing and the profile are the same thing. Claim it, get it verified, pick the category that matches the work you actually do, and add your phone number, your hours and the towns you serve. Then keep it alive every week with photos, posts and reviews, because Google shows the profiles it trusts.
The same search, 25 minutes apart
At the end of September I searched “drama schools near me” from Georgetown for a kids’ program I work with. They came up second of three on the map, and Google’s AI answer at the top named them first.
About 25 minutes later I ran the same search again and they weren’t on the map at all.
I’ve stopped trusting a single search since then, so now I check over a few days, during business hours, before I tell anyone they’re showing up.
Is Google Maps separate from my Google Business Profile?
No, it’s one listing. When you set up a Google Business Profile, that’s the card people see on Maps with your name, your stars, your hours and the button to call you. So if you’re not on Maps, the fix is on your profile. There isn’t a separate Maps account to sign up for.
If you haven’t verified yet, start there, because an unverified profile won’t show up for much of anything. I wrote about what else I check first in why your Google Business Profile isn’t showing up.
What does Google look at on my profile?
The first thing I look at is the category, because the category is what classifies you on Google. Mine was set to a general business category and not website designer, which is the work I actually do. I changed it, Google rejected the change, and I appealed with my business registration and my insurance papers. It was approved the next day.
Sometimes the category you want doesn’t exist. When I went to add one for the kids’ program, Google doesn’t offer “acting school” at all, so you pick the closest one Google does have.
The next thing is your service area. I had eight towns on mine, from Guelph out to Mississauga, which spread me so thin I didn’t rank anywhere. I took Brampton and Mississauga off at the end of September, and I’m cutting it down to the towns I actually work in, so Georgetown, Halton Hills, Acton, Erin and Milton.
And then your phone number, which sounds too simple to matter. The kids’ program didn’t have a phone number on their profile when I started. Their calls from Google were zero or one a month. Once the number went on, they got 8 calls through the profile in September.
What if Google shows the wrong listing for my business?
This one gave us a little bit of grief. A contractor I work with had an old listing that nobody had ever claimed, with a slightly different version of their business name. When we verified the real profile, Google treated it as a brand new business, so now there were two. For a while, searching their own name brought up the old listing, and the exact name brought up a company with a similar name in New York.
It took about three weeks after verification before the right profile was the one people saw when they searched for them. In the first 30 days their profile views went from 9 to 56, and 30 of those 56 came from Maps.
If you’ve ever had a listing before, even one you didn’t make, search your business name on Google Maps before you verify anything. Make sure the name on the profile matches your truck, your cards and your website exactly. If there are two, ask Google to remove the old one, and expect it to take a while.
How long does it take to show up on Google Maps?
A proper rebuild takes about 90 days. You make one or two changes a week, not everything in one night, because a dead profile that suddenly changes all at once looks like spam to Google. Profiles get flagged for that.
I’m in those same 90 days on my own profile right now, one or two changes a week, the same way I’d do it for you.
If you’d rather know where you stand before you change anything, the Free Online Audit is where I look you up the way a customer in Milton or Halton Hills would and tell you what to fix first. If you want someone to handle it every week, this is how I do Google Business Profile management in Halton Hills. And if you’re thinking about running ads to get seen faster, read should I run ads before my website and Google profile are fixed first.