You’ve got a website.
You’ve created a Google Business Profile.
You’ve even searched for yourself three times just to make absolutely sure.
And yet Google appears to have decided your business doesn’t exist.
Frustrating?
Very.
Unusual?
Not really.
There are plenty of reasons why a business might not appear prominently in Google Search or Google Maps — and thankfully, most of them can be investigated.
Before you start repeatedly Googling your own company name from every phone in the office, here are ten things worth checking.
1. Is your Google Business Profile verified?
Let’s start with the obvious one.
If you’ve created or claimed a Google Business Profile but haven’t completed the verification process, your visibility can be limited.
Verification helps Google establish that you’re actually authorised to represent the business.
If you’re having problems appearing in Maps or local results, check that:
- the profile has been claimed
- verification has been completed
- there are no outstanding requests from Google
- you’re signed into the correct Google account
It sounds basic, but it’s an easy one to overlook.
2. Your business information is incomplete or inaccurate
Google is trying to match searches with relevant businesses.
That becomes rather difficult if your profile contains half the information it needs.
Check details such as:
- business name
- address or service area
- telephone number
- website
- opening hours
- business category
- services
- business description
Accuracy matters too.
If your website says one thing, your Business Profile says another and an old directory listing has an address you left four years ago, you’re creating unnecessary confusion.
The goal isn’t to plaster your address across the internet 400 times.
It’s to make your important business information clear and consistent.
3. You’ve chosen the wrong business category
Your primary Google Business Profile category helps describe what your business actually is.
And that matters.
If you’re a web design agency but your primary category suggests something much broader or unrelated, Google has less useful information when trying to match you with relevant searches.
Choose the category that most accurately represents the core business.
Additional categories can then describe other important services where appropriate.
But don’t treat categories like lottery tickets and select everything remotely connected to what you do.
More isn’t automatically better.
Accuracy beats enthusiasm.
4. You’re searching from the wrong location
This catches people out constantly.
You search:
“web design agency Chelmsford”
Your colleague searches the same thing.
You get different results.
Nothing mysterious is happening.
Local search is, unsurprisingly, local.
Where somebody is searching from can influence the businesses they see.
A company may appear prominently for somebody two miles away but much less prominently for somebody twenty miles away.
This is one reason constantly Googling your own keywords isn’t a particularly reliable way to measure SEO performance.
Your own personalised results, location and previous activity can all make manual checking misleading.
5. Your website doesn’t strongly support the service you want to rank for
A Google Business Profile doesn’t exist in complete isolation.
Your website matters too.
Imagine you’re trying to appear for:
“commercial photographer Chelmsford”
But your website barely mentions commercial photography.
There’s no dedicated service page.
There are no relevant case studies.
The homepage vaguely says you offer “creative solutions”.
You’re making Google’s job unnecessarily difficult.
Your website should clearly explain:
- what you do
- who you do it for
- where relevant, where you operate
- what experience or evidence supports that service
That doesn’t mean writing “commercial photographer Chelmsford” into every paragraph until everybody feels slightly unwell.
It means creating genuinely useful, relevant pages.
6. Your business is new
Sometimes the answer is simply time.
A newly created business profile or recently updated website may not instantly appear exactly where you expect.
Google needs time to discover, process and evaluate information.
This can be particularly noticeable if you’re competing against established businesses that have years of:
- reviews
- website content
- links
- brand searches
- local mentions
- customer activity
There isn’t a legitimate “make us number one by Friday” button.
Unfortunately.
If there were, SEO agencies would have considerably shorter meetings.
7. Your competitors are simply stronger
Sometimes nothing is technically wrong.
You’re just operating in a competitive market.
Your competitors may have:
- more relevant reviews
- better optimised websites
- stronger local reputations
- better content
- more authoritative links
- more established brands
If ten businesses are competing for limited visibility, not everybody can occupy the same position.
This is where competitor analysis becomes useful.
Instead of asking:
“Why does Google hate us?”
ask:
“What are the businesses currently performing well doing better?”
Much more useful question.
8. You don’t have enough reviews — or you ignore the ones you have
Reviews serve two audiences.
Potential customers read them.
Google can also use review information as part of its understanding of local businesses.
A business with a healthy stream of genuine customer feedback gives people more confidence than one with two reviews, both written in 2018.
Make asking for reviews part of your normal process.
And respond to them.
Not with a robotic:
“Thank you for your valued feedback.”
Use a real response.
If somebody took the time to say something thoughtful about your business, it’s worth taking thirty seconds to acknowledge it properly.
9. Your profile has been suspended or restricted
If your profile suddenly disappears, check whether Google has raised a policy issue.
Problems can arise when profiles don’t comply with Google’s guidelines.
Examples might include:
- misleading business names
- incorrect addresses
- ineligible locations
- duplicate profiles
- misrepresentation
If something has been suspended, don’t immediately create another profile and hope for the best.
That can make the situation messier.
Understand why the issue occurred and follow the appropriate reinstatement process.
10. You’re expecting to rank for something too broad
This is another common problem.
A business in Essex searches:
“marketing agency UK”
It doesn’t appear.
Panic ensues.
But broad national searches can be extremely competitive and may have completely different intent from local ones.
If most of your customers are local or regional, searches such as:
- service + town
- service + county
- service near me
may be more commercially useful anyway.
You don’t necessarily need to rank everywhere.
You need to be visible where the right customers are looking.
How does Google decide which local businesses to show?
There isn’t a single magic ranking factor.
Broadly, Google is trying to understand three things:
Relevance
How closely does your business match what the person is looking for?
Distance
How close is your business to the location involved in the search?
Prominence
How established or well-known does the business appear to be?
That’s why local SEO isn’t simply a case of changing one setting in your Google Business Profile.
Your profile, website, reviews, reputation and wider online presence all contribute to the picture.
Can you pay Google to improve your local organic ranking?
No.
You can advertise through Google Ads, of course.
But that’s different from organic local rankings.
Anyone guaranteeing that they can pay Google to move your Business Profile to number one should trigger a fairly loud alarm bell.
What should you check first?
If your business isn’t appearing where you think it should, we’d start with:
- Business Profile verification
- correct business information
- the right category
- website relevance
- technical indexing problems
- reviews
- competitor strength
- the location you’re actually targeting
That usually gives you a much clearer picture of what’s happening.
Don’t optimise for Google at the expense of customers
This is worth remembering.
The goal isn’t to create a Google Business Profile that pleases an algorithm while looking ridiculous to humans.
Your profile should help potential customers understand:
- who you are
- what you do
- where you are
- when you’re available
- why people recommend you
- how to contact you
If those things are clear, useful and accurate, you’re heading in the right direction.
Still struggling to get found?
Local search problems often involve more than one thing.
The website may need work.
The Business Profile may need improving.
The content may not properly explain your services.
Or you might simply be competing in a particularly difficult market.
At Break17, we look at SEO, website design, content and digital marketing together rather than treating them as separate problems.
If your business seems strangely invisible on Google, talk to Break17.
We’ll help you work out why.