When someone in Alenquer searches for "barber" or "garage" on their phone, the first thing they see is not a website. It is a map with three or four businesses, star ratings, opening hours and a call button. Those results come from Google Business Profile, the listing that appears in Search and on Maps. For a local business in the Oeste region, from Torres Vedras to Lourinhã, that listing is often the first point of contact, and the website is the second.
This post covers how Google decides who shows up, what you can do in the listing without paying anyone, and where the website fits in.
How Google decides who shows up
Google's help pages say local results are based mainly on three factors:
- Relevance: how well the listing matches what the person searched for.
- Distance: how far the business is from the person searching.
- Prominence: how well known the business is, measured partly by how many websites link to it and by its reviews.
They also say something worth repeating: there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. Anyone selling you "first place on Maps" is selling ads or promises.
You cannot control distance. Relevance and prominence depend, to a large extent, on a complete, accurate listing with real reviews.
Step one: claim and verify the listing
It is common for a business to appear on Maps already without the owner having the listing in their name. The first step is to claim it and verify it, to prove you represent the business. Without verification, you do not control what it shows.
Google may ask you to verify by phone or text, by email, by live video call, by a recorded video or by postcard. The owner does not choose: the available methods depend on the type of business, the region and the public information that exists. Once you complete the steps, the review can take up to five business days. It is worth doing calmly, not the day before you open.
The rules that make listings disappear
Google's guidelines are short and worth reading. These are the ones I see ignored most often:
- The name is the real name. No "X Barbers Alenquer Cheap Cuts". Taglines, place names and services do not belong in the name. It looks like it helps; it can cost you the listing.
- One listing per location. Two listings for the same address are not allowed. If you have two shops, each gets its own.
- A real address. Virtual offices and mailboxes elsewhere are not accepted. The listing is for a place where customers can be served during the stated hours.
- If you go to the customer, hide the address. A plumber, a builder or a cleaning service working from home should hide the address and set a service area instead.
Service areas in practice
A service area is set by towns or postcodes, up to 20 of them, not by a radius on the map. Google asks that the whole area stay within roughly two hours' drive of your base. A builder in Alenquer who works in Torres Vedras, Sobral de Monte Agraço, Arruda dos Vinhos and Vila Franca de Xira lists those places, not "all of Portugal".
A complete listing
Google is blunt about it: listings with complete and accurate information are more likely to show up. In practice that means:
- The right category. The main one should describe the business, not everything it does.
- Opening hours, always up to date. Including when you close for the holidays. A customer who finds the door shut at a time Google said you were open will not trust the listing again.
- Phone number and a link to the website. The link has to work. I have found at least one business in the region with directories pointing to a domain that does not load, and a dead address is worse than none.
- Real photos. The front of the building, for anyone looking for the door. The inside, the work, the team. Phone photos in good light beat stock images.
Reviews: ask, reply, never buy
Reviews count towards prominence, and Google says more reviews and good ratings can help. The clean way to get them is to ask: Google lets you create a link or a QR code for customers to leave a review, which can go on the receipt, on a card at the counter or in a booking confirmation message.
Replying is part of it too, especially to reviews where there is a question to answer or a problem to fix. A calm reply to a bad review says more to readers than ten identical thank-yous.
What you must not do, under Google Maps' rules:
- Offer discounts, freebies or money in exchange for reviews.
- Ask only the customers you know were happy.
- Pressure customers to review on the spot, or tell them what to write.
Where the website comes in
I will not promise that a website puts you ahead on Maps. Google does not publish that rule, and I will not make it up. What I do know is what happens next: someone sees the listing, wants to know more and taps "Website". At that point the site has to do the job the listing cannot.
- Say the same as the listing. The same name, address, phone number and hours. If they do not match, the customer does not know which to believe.
- Show what the listing does not. The full list of services, prices where you have them, the towns you cover, and a way to book or order.
- Work on a phone. People coming from Maps are almost always on a phone: a call button, a directions link, a light page.
I wrote more about that in what a local business website actually needs.
Quick checklist
- Listing claimed and verified.
- Real name, with no keywords or place names.
- Address shown, or hidden with a service area if you work at customers' premises.
- Category, hours, phone number and website link all correct.
- Real photos, refreshed now and then.
- A review link or QR code, and replies to reviews.
- A website that says the same as the listing.
If you run a business in the Oeste region and want your listing and your website reviewed together, you can get in touch. Quite often, half an hour of fixes to the listing is worth more than anything else.