How to Get Your Business on Google Maps

When someone searches for "electrician near me" or "hair salon in Rondebosch", Google usually shows a map with a handful of local businesses before any normal search results. Those listings come from Google Business Profiles — and setting one up is free.

For a local business, it's one of the highest-value things you can do online. Here is how to get on the map, step by step, and how to make your listing work once it's there.

What a Google Business Profile is

A Google Business Profile is the free listing that appears on Google Maps and in local search results. It shows your business name, category, location or service area, phone number, website, opening hours, photos and reviews. Customers can call you, get directions or visit your website straight from it.

Before you start

• A Google account — ideally one created for the business, so it is not tied to a single person’s personal email.
• Your exact business name, as customers know it.
• Your phone number and, if you have one, your website address.
• Your opening hours.
• A few good photos: your work, your premises or your team.

Step 1: Create your profile

Go to google.com/business and sign in with your Google account. Enter your business name. If Google suggests an existing listing with your name, check it: it may already exist and need to be claimed rather than created again.

Step 2: Choose your category

Your primary category is one of the most important choices you'll make. Pick the most specific option that describes your main business — "Plumber" rather than "Contractor", "Nail salon" rather than "Beauty". You can add secondary categories later for other services you offer.

Step 3: Add your location or service area

If customers visit you — a shop, restaurant, salon or office — add your street address so it appears on the map. If you go to your customers instead, like most trades, cleaners and mobile services, you can set your business up as a service-area business. That lets you list the suburbs or towns you cover without showing your address publicly, which is ideal if you work from home.

Step 4: Add your contact details and website

Add the phone number customers should call and your website address. Your listing and your website work together: the profile gets you seen, and the website is where people go to check your services, prices and work before they contact you. If you don't have a website yet, you can still create a profile and add the link later.

Step 5: Verify your business

Google needs to confirm your business is real before your profile goes fully live. The verification options vary by business and location — they can include a phone call or text message, an email, a short video showing your business and its location or tools, or a postcard with a code. Google decides which methods to offer you, so follow the steps shown in your account.

Verification can take anything from a few minutes to several days. Don't change your business name or address while it's in progress, as that can restart the process.

Step 6: Complete your profile properly

A half-empty profile looks abandoned. Once you're verified, fill in everything that applies:

• Opening hours, including special hours for public holidays.
• Your services or products, with short descriptions.
• A business description written for customers, in plain language.
• Photos: your work, your premises, your team, your vehicles. Add new ones regularly.
• Attributes such as wheelchair access or payment methods, where relevant.

Step 7: Ask for reviews — and reply to them

Reviews are one of the biggest factors in whether people choose you from the map. After a job goes well, ask the customer to leave a review — your profile gives you a short link you can send on WhatsApp. Reply to every review, positive or negative, politely and briefly. Never buy reviews or write fake ones; they break Google's rules and can get your listing removed.

Step 8: Keep your details consistent everywhere

Your business name, phone number and address (or service area) should match everywhere: your website, your Google profile, Facebook, directories and invoices. Consistent details help Google trust that the information is accurate — and stop customers from calling an old number.

How your website helps your Maps listing

Google uses information from your website to understand what you do and where. A site that clearly lists your services, the areas you serve and your contact details strengthens your profile, and gives people who find you on Maps a reason to choose you. When we build a website, we can set up your Google Business Profile along the way — and like the rest of your accounts, it stays in your name.

This matters most for local service businesses. Our pages on websites for cleaning services, websites for mechanics and websites for restaurants show how we structure sites for businesses that depend on local searches.

Common mistakes

• Adding keywords or town names to your business name — it breaks Google’s guidelines.
• Using a personal Google account that nobody else in the business can access.
• Setting it up once and never updating hours, photos or services.
• Ignoring reviews, especially negative ones.

Next step: give your listing somewhere to send people

A Google Business Profile gets you found; a website gets you chosen. If you don't have a site yet, our One Page website (R1,800, live in about 2 days) is the quickest way to give your listing a professional home. Read more about websites for small businesses, or get started now — there's no deposit, and you only pay once your site is live.