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Straight answers

Why am I not showing up on Google Maps?

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The usual causes, roughly in order of likelihood: your profile is not verified, your primary category is wrong, you are physically further from the searcher than your competitors, you have too few recent reviews to compete, or your listing has been suspended without you noticing. Proximity is the one nobody can fix, and it explains more invisibility than any other factor.

Check these in order

  1. Is it verified?An unverified profile barely competes. Verification is free and it is the prerequisite for everything else.
  2. Is the primary category right?"Contractor" and "Roofing contractor" are different searches with different competitors. Being one category off can make you invisible for the term you care about.
  3. How far away is the person searching?Map results are heavily distance-weighted. If you are 20 minutes outside town, you will struggle against businesses in the center for searches made downtown, and no amount of optimization changes your address.
  4. Do you have recent reviews?Competing against businesses with 80 recent reviews when you have four from 2023 is an uphill fight regardless of how good your profile is.
  5. Is it suspended?Suspensions happen quietly, often after a name change, an address edit, or keyword-stuffing the business name. Check for a notice in the dashboard.
  6. Are you searching from your own office?Your own results are personalized and will flatter you. Check in an incognito window, or better, ask somebody across town.

The proximity problem, and what to do about it

You cannot move your business, but you can widen what you rank for and where. Genuinely distinct pages for each town you serve, service-area settings configured properly, and content answering questions specific to those areas all extend your reach beyond the radius your address gives you for free. It is slower than a settings fix, and it is the only real answer.

If you serve customers at their location rather than yours, make sure you are set up as a service-area business — and keep a residential address hidden while doing it.

Related reading

Google Business Profile & Local SEO

The full optimization checklist.

Service areas

How we build genuinely local pages.

Find out what your market is actually worth.

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Or reach Kai directly: (272) 394-5885 · kai@sallesmedia.com