To rank in Google Maps and the local results on Google Search, you need a verified Google Business Profile with the right primary category, complete and accurate details, steady genuine reviews and regular photos and updates. Google ranks local results on three factors: relevance to the search, distance from the searcher and the prominence of the business. You can influence relevance and prominence.
How does Google rank local results?
Google uses relevance, distance and prominence, as explained in its help article on how local ranking works. Relevance is how well your profile matches the search. Distance is how far you are from the searcher or the location in the query. Prominence is how well known you are, based on reviews, links, mentions across the web and your overall search presence. Paying Google does not improve local ranking.
Who can have a Business Profile?
A business qualifies if it makes in-person contact with customers during its stated hours, either at its own location or by visiting them. A coaching centre in Kota, a school in Lucknow or a study-abroad office in Chandigarh qualifies. An online-only course business without a place customers visit does not. Each branch with its own staffed location can have its own profile.
Read Google's guidelines for representing your business before you start. Breaking them can get a profile suspended.
How do you verify your profile?
Claim or create the profile at business.google.com, then follow the verification method Google offers. Depending on the business, this may be a video recording of your premises and signage, a phone call or text, an email or a live video call; some businesses still receive a postcard. You cannot choose any method you like; Google decides which are available. Make sure the signage, address and name shown in a video match the profile exactly.
How do you choose categories?
Pick the primary category that most precisely describes your main business, then add a few secondary categories for other genuine services. The primary category has the most influence on which searches you appear for. A JEE coaching centre might use a primary category such as "Coaching center" and add "Tutoring service" only if it also offers that. Do not add categories for services you do not provide.
Which details should be complete?
Fill in every field that applies, and keep it identical to your website and other listings; see NAP consistency.
| Field | Tip |
|---|---|
| Business name | Your real-world name only, as on your signage |
| Address or service area | Exact address; hide it if you only visit customers |
| Phone | A local or mobile number that is answered |
| Website | The page for that branch, not just the home page |
| Hours | Include special hours for holidays like Diwali |
| Services or products | Courses with short descriptions and, where useful, fees in ₹ |
| Description | What you offer and who it is for, in plain words |
How do you get more reviews?
Ask every genuine customer, for example students and parents after admission or results, and make it easy with the review link from your profile. Reply to reviews, both positive and negative, politely and without sharing personal details.
Do not offer discounts, gifts or fee waivers in exchange for reviews, do not post reviews from staff or family, do not buy reviews and do not ask only happy customers while steering unhappy ones elsewhere. Google's policies prohibit incentivised and fake reviews, and it can remove reviews, restrict new ones or suspend the profile.
Do posts and photos help?
Yes, they keep the profile current and give searchers reasons to choose you. Upload real photos of your building, entrance, classrooms, labs and team, and add new ones regularly. Use posts for admissions, new batches, events, results announcements and offers. Avoid stock images and text-heavy banners.
Common mistakes
- Adding keywords or city names to the business name, such as "Best IAS Coaching in Delhi"; this breaks Google's guidelines.
- Creating profiles for virtual offices or addresses with no staff.
- Duplicate profiles for the same location.
- Outdated hours, phone numbers or a closed branch still showing as open.
- Linking every branch to the home page instead of a branch page.
Checklist
- Profile claimed and verified for each staffed location.
- Precise primary category and relevant secondary categories.
- Name, address and phone identical everywhere.
- Hours, services and description complete.
- A steady flow of genuine reviews with replies.
- Fresh photos and posts every month.
- A matching branch page on your website with LocalBusiness structured data.
Spider does not audit Business Profiles directly, but a page audit of each branch page checks its structured data, titles and speed, and rank tracking shows how your local pages perform in search over time.
Check this on your own site
Spider's free check tests this and about 100 other things on any page, and links each problem to a guide like this one.
