Can you find the business by its name?
Search Google Maps for your exact business name and town. If you find it, open the listing and check the phone number, website and location or service area. Make sure it is your business rather than a similarly named one.
If the listing appears by name but not for “electrician near me” or another service search, that is a different problem from a missing profile. Results can vary with the searcher’s location and the query. Google describes local ranking in terms of relevance, distance and prominence; you cannot buy or request a better organic local position. See Google’s local ranking guidance.
Write down the query and location you checked. One search from your own phone is not a complete measure of visibility across your service area.
Check the status in the managing account.
Sign in to the Google account that manages your Business Profile and look for a verification request, pending change, suspension or other notice. Keep the exact message: it determines the next step.
- Verification requested: follow the methods Google offers for that profile. Use Google’s verification instructions; do not assume a website change completes verification.
- Suspended or disabled: check the policy issue and follow Google’s appeal process. Prepare evidence that matches the name and address on the profile, such as your ABN record, photos of signage or a business utility bill. Do not create a replacement profile while an appeal is under review.
- Managed by someone else: use the ownership request process. Check with your team or previous provider before assuming access has been lost.
Do not create another listing just because you cannot find the first one in a service search. Duplicates can make the problem harder to diagnose.
Check eligibility and the facts customers see.
Compare the profile with the way the business actually operates. Review its real business name, appropriate category, phone, hours, website and address or service area. Follow Google’s representation guidelines rather than adding search phrases to the business name.
If you travel to customers and do not receive them at your premises, check the service-area business guidance and address visibility. Do not invent an office or create listings for suburbs where you have no eligible location. An online-only service does not become eligible simply by choosing a service area.
Record each correction and check its status in the profile before making another. Repeated edits without checking what happened make it harder to identify which issue remains.
Open the website link from the profile.
Check that the link opens the intended business website on your phone. Confirm the business name, service information and contact details. Tap the call button and send a test form yourself to see whether the route works. The 12-point website checklist covers the rest of the page a Maps visitor lands on.
If the website recently moved or changed its page addresses, check whether the old link still works. A redirect should lead to the relevant replacement page. A broken link is a website problem you can fix even while a separate profile issue is being reviewed.
Website indexing is a separate check in Search Console. A page appearing in Google’s website results does not prove that the Business Profile is visible in Maps, and the reverse is also true. Our local SEO checklist connects the two without treating them as the same report.
Choose the next action from the evidence.
Missing by name and a profile notice is present.
Follow the verification, ownership or appeal route shown for that profile. Keep the notice and case details together.
Visible by name, weak for service searches.
Check the primary category, services and the service area you actually cover. Add detail to the service page the profile links to, using our service page outline. Be wary of anyone promising a fixed ranking or recovery time.
The profile works but its website link does not.
Correct the destination and map any moved pages to relevant replacements. Use our website changeover checklist.
People reach the site but do not enquire.
Check the offer, mobile contact options and form delivery using the website enquiry guide.
Keep a short record of what you searched, what the profile showed and what you changed. Check again once Google shows the edit as published, rather than treating the edit itself as proof the issue is resolved.