Why Is My Business Not Showing Up On Google? [And How To Fix It]

Did you know that 86% of people look up a business location on Google Maps? 

As Google continues to dominate local searches, it’s imperative that your website and online listings are optimized for this search engine to help current and potential customers find you and book your services.

If you’re having trouble showing up on Google search results for your services—even after creating a Google My Business (GMB) account—keep reading to uncover the most common issues and how to fix them.

1. Your Google My Business Isn’t Verified

Opening a GMB account isn’t enough to rank and appear on search results. The first step to boosting your chances of showing up on Google Maps is to verify your business. 

Don’t know whether or not your business is verified? Start by Googling it. If you see the text, “Own this business?” underneath your listing, you’re not verified. 

How To Fix It: 

You can verify a GMB listing by mail, phone, or email. Some businesses are also eligible for instant or bulk verification. 

Since most verifications are done through mail, here are the steps you should follow: 

You may need to wait a few minutes for your verification to process. Avoid any delays with verification by not making any changes to your business address, name, category, or requesting another code. If you don’t receive a postcard after 14 days, contact support.google.com/business.

2. You’re Missing Proper Citations

Help Google discover, define, and rank your business for appropriate search queries by using the right category and description on your GMB account. You also want to double-check your business citations which include your company’s name, address, website, and phone number on all local directories, apps, and listings. In addition to Google Maps, you also want to check listings like Yelp, Facebook, Apple Maps, Yahoo, Bing, etc. 

How To Fix It: 

With so many listings and directories out there, periodically checking and updating them for accuracy can be time-consuming. Use a tool like GoSite’s Local Listing Report to quickly scan all the listings your business is mentioned in, check their status, submit missing citations, and make any necessary changes.  

3. Your Website Domain Is New 

If your website domain or GMB listing is fairly new (about a year or less) patience is key. You’re competing with much more established businesses that most likely have solid location authority on Google Maps, a good amount of positive reviews, and citations from multiple listings, apps, and relevant sites. 

How To Fix It: 

To help your business gain some traction and eventually compete with other listing, start by: 

• Requesting reviews from as many satisfied customers as you can. 
• Joining your local business association to gain backlinks to your site. 
• Cross-promoting your site with a local non-profit organization or another small business. 
• Continuously updating your website and GMB account with fresh content. 
• Using relevant keywords when describing your business and services online. 

4. Your Business Has Moved

Another common reason why you may have trouble ranking is if you’ve recently moved and haven’t yet updated your GMB and other online listings. Customers and online searchers can be quite proactive—if they notice a wrong address, hours, or contact information, they might flag your business. When this happens, Google can suspend your listing and remove it from search results. 

How To Fix It: 

Be quick about updating any changes to your basic information including business name, address, phone number, website URL, and hours of operation on GMB. We also recommend running another local listings report to make bulk updates to all of your listings. 

For any change of address or business name, you may need to re-verify your business on Google. 

5. Your Website Isn’t Optimized

Your website can also influence your business’s searchability on both Google Maps and Search. The content you post on your website will let Google know who you are, identify what services you provide, and help you build prominence in your area. If your website is not optimized for Google, you could be hindering your chances of ranking.

How To Fix It: 

Check that your website is added to Google Search Console and indexed. If you’ve recently made changes to your site, use Google’s URL Inspection Tool to have your page re-crawled. 

Make sure your website contains all the basic features including a descriptive homepage, and establish a cadence to refresh and manage your site’s content. 

6. Your Google My Business Was Suspended

There are many reasons why Google may suspend your listing. To make matters worse, if your listing is suspended, Google won’t tell you why. The best approach in this case is to avoid making some common mistakes altogether. 

To prevent a suspension of your local listing, make sure you don’t: 

• Stuff keywords into your business name field. Refrain from adding services, hours of operation, or location in this section.
• List a business address if your customers can’t visit the location—for example, a P.O. Box or a virtual office.
• Verify multiple listings for the same business.
• Use a forwarding URL. The URL you list should be your website domain and not a landing page.

How To Fix It: 

If you’ve cross-referenced the list above and still haven’t been able to get your listing up and running, be sure to check out these guidelines or contact Google directly. 

By fixing some of these common mistakes, you’re giving your business a good chance of appearing on Google Maps and Search for your services. For more tips on how to boost your presence online—including social media best practices—download our guide below!