How to rank on Google Maps in South Africa.

How to list your business on Google and Google Maps

1. Go to business.google.com and sign in with a Google account the business owns (not a staff member's personal account).
2. Search for your business. If it already exists, claim it; if not, create it.
3. Enter your exact business name, the way it appears on your signage and invoices.
4. Choose your primary category, the one that best describes your main service.
5. Add your address, or set up a service area with the address hidden if you go to your customers.
6. Add your phone number and website.
7. Verify. Google will offer a method, often a short video showing your business, equipment or signage.
8. Complete everything else: hours, services, description, photos and attributes.

How Google ranks the map

Google's own local ranking guidance names three factors:

• Relevance: how well your profile matches the search. Categories, services and description do most of the work.
• Distance: how far you are from the searcher or the area in the search. You cannot change it, so target the areas where you can win.
• Prominence: how well known you are. Google says this is based on things like how many websites link to you and how many reviews you have, and that more reviews and positive ratings can help.

12 changes that move Maps rankings

1. Set the primary category to your main money service.
2. Add every secondary category that is accurate.
3. List all your services, with short descriptions.
4. Write a plain description of what you do and where. No keyword stuffing.
5. Upload real photos of your work, team, vehicles and premises, and add new ones regularly.
6. Keep hours right, including public holidays.
7. Post updates, offers or recent jobs on the profile.
8. Answer the questions customers ask, on the profile itself.
9. Ask every happy customer for a review, and reply to every review.
10. Make your name, address and phone identical on your website and every directory. Our SA directory list covers the ones that count.
11. Build a page on your website for each area you serve, and link your profile to the right one.
12. Earn local links: suppliers, associations, sponsorships and local press.

Getting more reviews, the right way

Ask at the moment the customer is happiest, usually right after the job is done, with a direct link to your review form. Reply to every review, good or bad, briefly and politely. Google's review policies forbid paying for reviews or offering incentives such as discounts in exchange for them, and reviews must reflect a genuine experience. Ask every customer, not only the ones you expect to be happy.

Mistakes that hold businesses back

• Keywords in the business name. "Joe's Plumbing Cape Town Best Plumber" breaks Google's guidelines and can get the profile suspended.
• Virtual office addresses. Google wants real premises where you meet customers, or a service-area profile.
• Duplicate listings. Two profiles for one business split reviews and trust.
• A staff member owns the profile. When they leave, so does your access.
• Set and forget. Profiles that never change lose ground to competitors that post, add photos and collect reviews every month.