Business not showing on Google Maps: what to check, in order

To find out why a business is not showing on Google Maps, first search Maps for its exact name and town. If it comes up, the business is listed, and what you noticed is where Google places it for a general search, which is a different question. If it does not, the cause is one of a short list that Google's own help names: no Business Profile, a profile that is not verified, one that is suspended or disabled, one that someone else holds, a duplicate, or a business that is not a kind Google's guidelines allow a profile for.

The checks below are Google's own account, in the order that rules each cause out fastest. Each statement comes from the page of Google's that makes it, and where Google says nothing, this page says so. Check 8 is the part that is yours alone: the business's website.

What you see and where to go

1. Is the business really not there?

Two searches look alike and test different things.

• The exact name and the town. This tests whether the business is listed at all.
• What the business sells, such as "plumber near me". This tests where Google places it among every other business of that kind, for that searcher, in that spot.

Run the first one twice.

If the signed-out search finds the business, it is listed. The rest is placement, and Google's page on local results says what that rests on. Local results are "mainly based on relevance, distance, and popularity". The same page says: "There's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google."

Google defines distance as how far each business is from the customer who is searching, so a search from your own desk is not the search a customer makes from across town. This page promises nothing about placement. If neither search finds the business, go on.

2. Is there a profile, and is it verified?

No profile. Google's help says to add the business at business.google.com/add and choose a verification option. Adding or claiming a profile is free of charge.

A place on the map that nobody claimed. Google builds profiles from several sources, so a business can be on the map without its owner having done anything. Google's instructions are to find it on Maps, select "Claim this business", and verify.

A profile that is not verified. Google's pages say three things about it:

• Only verified businesses can show their business info on Maps and Search.
• You need to verify before you can edit the business's details, such as its name or hours.
• Content added to an unverified profile may be rejected.

They do not say an unverified place is always invisible: the steps for claiming one begin with finding it on Maps. Its owner controls nothing on it until it is verified.

How long it takes. Google decides which methods are offered, among phone or text, email, video and a postcard. Its page says they "are automatically determined by Google and can't be changed".

• A postcard: "Most codes arrive within 14 days." While it is on its way, do not edit the name, address or category and do not ask for a new code. Either makes the first code stop working.
• After you complete the steps: Google reviews what you gave it. Reviews "take up to 5 business days", and on rare occasions longer. Some profiles are verified instantly, and one case Google gives is a business that has verified its website in Search Console.
• The "Get verified" button comes back: Google could not completely verify the business. Try again.

3. Is the profile suspended or disabled?

Google's help says a profile that breaks its guidelines "becomes disabled or suspended and won't show to other users on Google" until the issue is resolved. The owner is told by a notification in the Google Account used to manage the profile. So check the account the profile was set up under, which may not be the one you use every day.

To see the reason, open Google's Business Profile appeals tool while signed in to that account. Google's page says it shows the reason for the action and a link to the policy it says was broken.

The same page says not to create a new Business Profile for the same business while an appeal is under review. A second profile is a duplicate, which is check 7. Google Business Profile suspended covers the appeal itself.

4. Does someone else own or manage it?

A profile that a developer, an agency or a former employee set up may be under their Google Account, not yours. The signs, from Google's pages:

• At business.google.com/add, after you choose your business from the list, you get the message "Someone else may manage this Business Profile."
• You look for a "Claim this business" or "Own this business" button and there is none. Google's page says that may mean you already own it, under another account.

Google's route is to request access from the current owner, who then "has 3 days to respond". How to get a Business Profile back goes through it. If the same person also holds the website, taking over a WordPress site when the developer has gone is the other half.

5. Is the business eligible, and set up as the right kind?

Google's eligibility page puts the test in one line: a business must make in-person contact with customers during its stated hours. Among those it lists as not eligible are online-only businesses, lead generation companies, and any business whose address is a P.O. box or a mailbox in a remote location. The guidelines add that a virtual office, a rented mailing address the business does not operate from, is not eligible either.

Then there is the kind of profile, from Google's page on service areas:

The rules that matter most to a business that cannot find itself:

• A business with no permanent on-site signage is not eligible as a storefront and should be listed as a service-area business.
• A service-area business gets one profile for the whole area it serves. It may set up to 20 service areas, by city or postal code and not as a radius, reaching no more than about 2 hours of driving time from where it is based.

6. Is the information complete and accurate?

Google's page on local results says a business with complete and accurate info is more likely to show up in local search results, and that a profile with inaccurate info "might not show up for relevant searches in your area".

It lists what a business can do, and this is the whole list:

• Verify the business.
• Keep its information complete and up to date: the full address if customers visit, the hours, including special hours, the category, and attributes such as parking.
• Reply to reviews.
• Add photos and videos.
• For a retail store in an eligible country, add in-store products.

The page then explains its three factors. Its summary sentence says "popularity", and the section under it is still headed "Prominence".

Asking for reviews has rules. Google's policy for Maps forbids offering anything in exchange for a review and forbids asking only satisfied customers. In the United States, the FTC's rule on consumer reviews (16 CFR Part 465, in effect since October 21, 2024) makes it a violation, at § 465.4, to give an incentive conditioned on a review expressing a particular sentiment. Asking every customer for an honest review, with nothing offered, stays inside both. That summarizes the texts and is not legal advice.

7. Is there a duplicate, or has the business moved or changed its name?

Google's page on duplicates is blunt: one profile for each business, and a profile considered a duplicate "won't show on Google Search or Maps".

A second profile made by mistake is removed from your account, which leaves the verified one alone. Two profiles for one business on Maps are merged by reporting it on Google Maps. Two distinct businesses at one address may each have a profile if their names and signage differ.

A move. Google gives two instructions, for two kinds of business. Its page on duplicates says to update the address on the existing profile and not create a new one. Its policy overview says that for businesses whose physical identity is tied to the customer's experience (its examples are dining, lodging and entertainment venues), the existing profile is marked permanently closed and a new one is created at the new location. A profile whose address changes after it was verified must be verified again.

A new name. The guidelines allow a name to be edited when the change is minor, with the proper nouns, the services described in the name and the category unchanged. A bigger change makes it, in Google's words, "a new business": the old profile is marked closed and a new one is made.

8. What the website has to do with it

The name. Google's guidelines say the name on the profile should reflect the business's real-world name, as used consistently on its storefront, website and stationery. A site that calls the business one thing while the profile and the sign call it another is the mismatch to fix. Name, address and phone on a WordPress site shows how to keep them in one place.

Google reads the site. Its page on where profile information comes from names crawled web content, with a business's official website as the example. So the site should say plainly what the business is, where it is and when it is open. LocalBusiness markup on WordPress covers saying the same details in structured data.

The site has to be readable. Under the profile's website field, Google's page on editing a profile says to make sure Googlebot is not blocked on the site. Why a WordPress site is not showing up on Google goes through what blocks it, and the page indexing check reads one address and reports what would keep it out.

Links. All that Google's local results page says about websites is in its definition of prominence: it is also based on how many websites link to the business. The page says nothing about where the business's own site stands in web results, and nothing about directories. No Google page opened for this guide says a business's listings elsewhere must match.

The website's side of this list is what WP Ministry's local SEO service works on.

9. None of the above

The profile is verified, in good standing, the only one, the right kind and complete. A signed-out search for the name and town finds it, and it still does not appear when someone searches for what it sells. Then nothing is broken. What is shown for a given search, to a given person, in a given place is Google's own choice, and Google says it keeps the details of that system confidential.

What an owner can do is what check 6 lists: keep every detail true and current, reply to reviews, add photos, and keep the website saying the same things. What an owner cannot do is change where the searcher is standing, or ask or pay Google for a different place. Google's page on working with third parties says the same of anyone you hire: they "can't promise nor directly influence your business's ranking on Google Search or Maps through any special means".

Google documents one more reason to keep the profile accurate. Its guide to generative AI features in Search says AI responses can include information about local businesses, and that a Business Profile can help a business be visible in them. That is Google's statement about its own AI features.