Why doesn't my business show up on Google Maps?

How Google ranks local results

Google says it itself: local ranking rests on three families of criteria. Relevance (does your listing match what's being searched?), distance (are you close to the person searching?) and prominence (reviews, mentions, links, listing activity). You can't do anything about distance — that's why your position changes depending on where the customer is standing. Everything else can be worked on.

The most common causes, from the silliest to the subtlest

1. The listing isn't claimed

Google created a listing automatically, and nobody ever claimed it. With no owner, there are no chosen photos, no replies to reviews, often wrong information — and a permanent signal of weakness. Check: if your listing shows "Own this business?", that's job number one.

2. The primary category is badly chosen

"Restaurant" instead of "Pizzeria", "Beauty salon" instead of "Hairdresser": the primary category is the heaviest relevance criterion. A vague or generic category drops you out of the precise searches — the ones that bring customers.

3. The listing is bare-bones

No full opening hours, no description, three photos, not a single service listed: with equal relevance, Google prefers the listing that answers the customer's questions. Every empty field is a point handed to the business next door.

4. Few reviews, or lifeless ones

The number of reviews, their freshness, their rating and your replies all weigh on prominence. Ten reviews, the latest from 2022, with no replies, count for less than forty regular, answered reviews.

5. Inconsistencies in name, address or phone number

A different name on the listing, the website and the directories, an old address still floating around: these contradictions undermine Google's confidence in your very existence.

6. Competition, plain and simple

On a street with eight restaurants, there are only three spots in the local results pack. You can do everything right and still be 5th in some places — which is why it matters to measure point by point instead of guessing.

What can be fixed — and in what order

1. Claim the listing and check name, address, phone number, opening hours.
2. Choose the most precise primary category, add the useful secondary categories.
3. Fill in everything: description, services, recent photos, attributes.
4. Restart the review engine: ask systematically, reply to everything.
5. Measure your position street by street, wait a few weeks, measure again.

That's exactly what 1440° does — measurement first (what is a scan?), fixes next, following the method.

Frequently asked questions

My business shows up for its name, but not for what it does. Why?

That's the classic symptom of a relevance problem: Google knows you exist, but not precisely enough what you do. Categories, services and description are the first levers.

Would paying Google (Google Ads) push my listing up?

Ads buy a temporary presence, for as long as you pay. They fix neither your listing nor your organic ranking — the two jobs are independent, and the second one stays with you.

How long does it take for a fixed listing to climb?

The fixes themselves show up within days; the effect on ranking is measured in weeks. That's why we measure position at regular intervals instead of promising a result by a given date.

My competitor shows up everywhere, what have they got that I don't?

Often nothing magical: a complete listing, regular and answered reviews, recent photos — kept up for a long time. A comparative scan shows precisely where they're ahead of you.