How to get your business on Google Maps in Ireland

When someone searches for a mechanic near them or a cleaner in Naas, the first thing they usually see is a map with a handful of local businesses underneath. Those listings come from Google Business Profile, and getting onto them is free. This guide explains how to set up your profile, how verification works, what to do if you work from home or travel to customers, and the steps that help you show up more often.

What you need before you start

• A Google account. Ideally one tied to the business rather than a personal account someone else controls.
• Your business name, exactly as you trade under it and as it appears on your signage, van or invoices.
• Your address with Eircode, even if you plan to hide it.
• Your phone number and, if you have one, your website address.
• A few real photos: your premises, your van, your team or your work.

Step 1: check whether a listing already exists

Search Google Maps for your business name and town. Google sometimes creates listings automatically, and a previous owner or employee may have made one. If you find it, choose the option to claim or manage the profile rather than creating a duplicate. Duplicates confuse customers and can split your reviews across two listings.

Step 2: create your profile

Go to google.com/business and sign in. You will be asked for your business name and a category. The category matters a lot: choose the one that best describes your main service, such as Plumber, Electrician or Hair salon, rather than something broad. You can add extra categories later for other services you offer.

Step 3: shopfront or service-area business?

Google will ask whether customers visit your location. If you have a shop, salon, café or clinic where people come to you, add your address and it will show on the map. If you travel to your customers, as most tradespeople do, you are a service-area business. You still give Google your address for verification, but you can hide it from the public and instead list the towns or counties you cover.

If you work from home, do not list your home as a shopfront unless you genuinely receive customers there. Google's guidelines expect service-area businesses to hide their address, and listings that break the guidelines can be suspended.

Step 4: verify your business

Verification is how Google confirms that your business is real and that you are allowed to manage it. According to Google's help pages, the options can include phone or text, email, a live video call and a postcard by post. Google decides which options you are offered, and you cannot choose a different one.

Many businesses are now offered video verification, which Google recommends where it is available. You record a short, continuous video through the Business Profile app or website, showing things like your location, signage, equipment, van or business paperwork. For a service-area business, showing the tools of your trade and something that links them to the business name usually makes sense. Google says reviews can take up to five business days. If you are sent a postcard instead, the code typically arrives within 14 days and expires after 30.

Changing your business name, main category or address after verification can trigger another check, so it is worth getting those right first time.

Step 5: complete every section

A half-filled profile works against you. Once you are verified, go through each section:

• Opening hours, including bank holidays, so people do not ring when you are closed.
• Services, with a short description of each.
• Service areas, listing the towns you actually cover.
• A business description in plain language. Say what you do and where, without stuffing in keywords.
• Photos. Add real ones, and keep adding them as you finish jobs.
• Your website. This is where people go to find out more before they ring.

How Google decides who appears

Google says local results are based mainly on three things: relevance (how well your profile matches the search), distance (how far you are from the person searching or the place they named) and prominence (how well known your business is, which takes in reviews, links and how your website performs in search). You cannot change where you are, but you can improve the other two.

• Keep your details identical everywhere: profile, website, Facebook and directories. The same name, phone number and address format.
• Have a website that clearly names your services and the towns you cover. It gives Google far more to match against than the profile alone.
• Collect genuine reviews steadily. Our guide on getting more Google reviews covers what is allowed.
• Reply to reviews, good and bad. It shows you are active and it reassures people reading them.

Common mistakes

• Adding a town or keyword to your business name that is not part of your real name. Google treats this as a guideline breach.
• Using a mobile number on the profile and a different landline on the website.
• Leaving the profile in a former employee's or web designer's account. Make sure you are the owner, not just a manager.
• Creating a second listing because you could not get into the first one. Recover the original instead.

Your profile works best with a website

Your Business Profile gets you onto the map; your website is where people decide. Sitefront sites are built for local search from the start, with your services, towns and business details set up the way Google reads them. See what we build for plumbers, electricians and other tradespeople.