How to Add a Business to Google Maps
- How to Create a Google Business Profile
- Google Business Profile Verification Methods Explained
- Choosing Google Business Profile Categories
- Service Area Business vs Storefront on Google
KNOWLEDGE BASE
Google Maps
Most people think of Google Maps as a map. For a local business it is nothing of the sort. It's a business directory, built from listing data rather than web pages, that happens to render itself as a map — and it is the single most consequential surface in local search.
Google Maps Guides
Each guide is split into a four-part series.
What Is a Google Business Profile
- Google Business Profile Attributes Explained
- How Google Business Profile Posts Work
- Google Business Profile Photos and Videos
- Reading Google Business Profile Performance Insights
How Google Maps Ranking Works
- Relevance Distance and Prominence in Google Maps
- Do Reviews Affect Google Maps Ranking
- Why Google Maps Rankings Change by Location
- Keywords in a Google Business Name Explained
What Is Google Maps?
Google Maps is a web mapping platform offering satellite imagery, street-level photography, route planning and — crucially for any local business — a searchable index of places. That index is what matters here. It is built from business listings, user contributions and third-party data, and it is a different index from the one that ranks web pages.
Two indexes, one search box.
When someone searches locally, Google can answer from its web index or its places index. The map results come from the second one. Which means your website — its content, its links, its technical health — has far less influence there than most agencies imply. The listing does the work.
Users are a data source, and you don't control them.
Photos, reviews, corrections, suggested edits, opening-hours reports. Maps is partly built by the public. Information about your business can change without you touching anything, and often without you noticing.
Distance is a first-class input, and it isn't negotiable.
Relevance can be improved. Prominence can be earned. Proximity is simply where the searcher happens to be standing. That's why a business can rank first outside its own door and vanish two miles away — and why one "ranking" number is meaningless.
Reference
Wikipedia: Google Maps
The reference article on Google Maps — its mapping platform, place index, and the user contributions that feed it.
Read the full article →For a large share of local searches the destination is never a website. It's a pin, a set of hours, a photo, and a route.
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