Google Maps SEO: how to rank higher on Google Maps

What is Google Maps SEO?

Google Maps SEO is the work of getting your business shown higher on Google Maps and in the map results on an ordinary Google search. Google's page "Tips to improve your local ranking on Google" says local results are "mainly based on relevance, distance and popularity", and that there's "no way to request or pay for a better local ranking".

Before you change anything, see where you stand now. A free Google Maps rank check searches from 25 spots around your business and shows the result on a map, with no sign-up. Keep it: it is the "before" you'll compare every change against.

Google Maps SEO is the map side of local SEO. Your website's place in the ordinary results is the other side, and our local SEO guide for small businesses covers how the two fit together.

How Google decides who shows on the map

Google's help page names three factors. Its headline sentence calls the third one popularity, and the definition underneath calls it prominence. They are the same thing.

• Relevance: "Relevance is how well a Business Profile matches what someone is searching for." Complete, accurate details, the right categories and a full list of services help Google match you.
• Distance: "Distance refers to how far each business is from the customer who's searching." You can't change this one.
• Prominence: "Prominence means how well-known a business is." Google says this is based partly on how many websites link to your business and how many reviews you have, and that "More reviews and positive ratings can help your business's local ranking."

Earlier versions of this post also listed your position in Google's web results under prominence. Google's UK page, checked on 22 October 2026, no longer says that, so we've taken it out. Anything sold as a secret fourth factor is best treated with caution.

What to fix first

Most Google Maps ranking problems look like one of a handful of patterns. Match what you see to the factor behind it, and start there.

The table is our reading of Google's three factors, not a rule Google publishes. It tells you where to look first. Then check the same searches from the same spots before and after each change, so you are comparing like with like.

Why your rank depends on where the searcher stands

Distance has a big side effect that catches a lot of owners out. There isn't one Google Maps ranking for "plumber". There is a different answer for every spot a person might be standing when they search.

You might be first in the map results on your own street, fourth half a mile away, and missing entirely on the other side of town.

When you check from your own premises, you are seeing your best case. The box of three businesses on a normal Google search works the same way, as our guide to the Google 3-pack shows.

We measured how far this goes on 22 October 2026. We searched "plumber" on Google Maps (desktop, google.co.uk, through DataForSEO's Google Maps results) from five spots on a 7.2 km line through Portsmouth, each between 1.6 and 2.1 km from the last.

Fifteen different listings filled the fifteen top-three places, and none of them came up at any of the other four spots.

Google returned only 3 to 10 listings at each spot, so this shows who led close by, not a full ranking. We've left the businesses' names out. It is one search on one morning, but it makes the point: a plumber can lead the map on one side of a city and not appear on the other.

This is the idea behind grid tracking. Instead of one reading, you check the same search from a grid of points spread over your area and see the rank at each one. The result looks like a map with a number on each point, and it shows at a glance where you are strong and where you drop out.

Kerbrank works this way: our guide to reading your map explains how to interpret one, and the 14-day free trial checks every search you choose, every week. If you are comparing tools, what a local rank tracker does covers the options.

Even without a tool, you can get a rough picture by asking friends or customers in different parts of town to search and send you a screenshot.

Dashboard · MapExample

Relevance: tell Google exactly what you do

This is the part of Google Maps SEO where you have the most control.

• Primary category. Make it match the service most customers come for. It tends to decide which searches you're considered for.
• Secondary categories for other things you genuinely do.
• Services with descriptions and prices, written in the words customers type.
• A complete profile: hours, description, attributes, photos. Our guide to Google Business Profile optimisation goes through each section.
• A website that agrees with your profile, with a page for each main service and your name, address and phone written the same way as on Google.
• Honest reviews. Google counts them under prominence (below), and what customers write in their own words tells future customers what you do.

A useful test: search your main service and look at the top three. Compare their categories and services with yours. If they are all "emergency plumber" and you are "plumber", that is worth thinking about.

Distance: the part you can't move

You can't change where your premises are, and you can't change where your customers are standing. What you can do is avoid mistakes that make distance work against you.

• Don't use a virtual office or a mailbox to appear in another town. Google's guidelines say a virtual office isn't eligible for a Business Profile, and it tends to end in suspension.
• If you're a service-area business, hide your address, as Google's guidelines ask, and keep your service area realistic: the guidelines say it shouldn't stretch beyond about two hours' drive from where you're based. Google still tends to rank you from the address you verified with, so covering a county on paper doesn't mean you'll show across it.
• Pick your battles. Improving relevance and prominence tends to widen the area where you show up. It won't make you first on the far side of a city. Focus on the areas where your customers actually are.
• Don't add your town to searches when you check. Many people just type "plumber" and let Google use their location. Checking with the town name gives a flatter, less realistic answer.

Prominence: reviews, links and reputation

Prominence is how well known you are. Google's page names two things it is partly based on: links from other websites and your reviews.

• Reviews. Aim for a steady flow: ask every customer for an honest review, and reply to them. Google's content policy says businesses shouldn't "request that specific content be included", or "selectively solicit positive reviews from customers". Google's page says replying shows you value customers' feedback. See how to get more Google reviews for a message you can copy.
• Links from other websites. Local press, your trade body, suppliers, sponsorship of a local club, a listing on the directories people in your trade use. Each one is a website that links to your business.
• A website worth linking to. Google's current page doesn't list your website's own ranking as a factor. A site with a page per service is still what local press, suppliers and directories link to, and it's where customers check you out before they ring.
• Consistent details everywhere. The same name, address and phone across directories is widely thought to help, and it stops customers ringing an old number.

A plan, week by week

1. Week one: check your primary category against the top three. Fix your services, hours and description.
2. Week two: find and deal with duplicate or old listings, and make your details match across your website and main directories.
3. Week three: set up a direct review link and start asking every customer for an honest review.
4. Week four: check your rank from several points across your area, not just from your door. Note where you drop out.
5. Every month after: add photos, reply to reviews, and recheck the same searches from the same points so you can compare like with like.

Changes to relevance can show fairly quickly. Prominence takes months. Measure the same way each time, so a change in your rank is easier to read.

Common questions