Who runs my Google Business Profile?

It stays yours. Nobody else should own the listing for your business. Bindingstone lines it up with the site so the two say the same thing, name for name and number for number, and helps when something on it needs changing. The reviews, the photos and the phone number are yours, and they stay yours.

Do I need an office in the town to be on its map?

No. A business that drives to its customers can be on the map for a town without a storefront there. Set the towns you work in as service areas on your Google Business Profile, up to 20 of them, and hide your address if you work from home. A page on your site for that town gives the listing something to match.

How many reviews do I need to get into the map pack?

There's no set number. Reviews are weighed against the other businesses on the same map, so the count that matters is what the businesses already on it have. The way to get them is to ask after every finished job, with a link straight to your listing, and to keep asking. Bought reviews get a listing suspended.

Is the map pack the same as local SEO?

It's part of it. Local SEO is showing up when someone in a town searches for your work, and the map pack is where most people tap first. The same three things get you onto both the map and the list underneath: a page for that service in that town, a listing that matches, and real reviews.

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How do I get into the Google map pack?

The map pack is the three businesses Google shows on the map before the list. Getting in takes a page on your website for that service in that town, a Google Business Profile listing that matches your website name for name and number for number, and reviews from real finished jobs. It's where most people tap first, and it's a different list in every town.

What the map pack is

Search for your work and Google shows a map with three businesses on it before anything else. That's the map pack, and it's where most people tap first.

Each business in it is a Google Business Profile listing, with its name, its rating, its review count and a button to call. The three change from town to town, because Google builds the map from where the person searching is standing, the same way it builds the list underneath.

What gets a business in

Getting in comes down to three things. A page on your website for that service in that town. A listing that matches your website, name for name and number for number. And reviews.

The page tells Google you do that work there. The listing gives Google a business to put on the map, with a phone number and a pin, and the website saying the same thing is what makes the listing believable. The reviews tell Google, and the person searching, which of the businesses that work there is worth showing.

The page on your website

The map pack looks like it's all about the listing, and the listing is only one of the three. Google reads the listing and the website together. A listing for a business whose site has a page for that town has more behind it than one whose site never mentions the town.

Say you do garage floors out of Hudson. Someone in Woodbury, 13 miles west on I-94, searches for garage floor coating and gets a map with three businesses on it. A page on your site for garage floor coating in Woodbury is how Google learns you work there. The listing then has a page to match.

The listing and the reviews

Your Google Business Profile listing needs the same business name, the same phone number and the same list of towns as your website. Add the towns you work in as service areas; Google lets you list up to 20. Fill in the services and the hours, and keep it that way when something changes.

Reviews come from finished jobs. Ask every one, with a link straight to your Google listing so the customer doesn't have to hunt for it. Google suspends listings for bought reviews, and a suspended listing is off every map.

One customer's before and after

A concrete coating company

River Falls, Wisconsin. Same 81 days before and after we rebuilt their site.

more often on Google 3,864 to 22,885: 5.9x
more visits from Google 106 to 284: 2.7x
Towns they show up in Wisconsin and Minnesota: 27

What this means for you

Pick one town you work in that isn't your home town and search for your work there. If you're not on the map, check the three things in order: is there a page on your site for that service in that town, does your listing match the site exactly, and when did you last ask a finished job for a review.

Bindingstone builds and runs the site that gets you onto that map in the towns you drive to. We line your Google listing up with it so the two say the same thing, and the lead system asks every finished job for a review, with a link straight to your listing.

Keep reading

Learn What is local SEO for contractors? Showing up when someone in a town searches for your work, not just where your shop is. Three things, and none of them are ads. Read more Learn Will my business show up in AI answers? What Google's AI answers, ChatGPT and the rest pull from, and how a contractor's page gets quoted for a job in a town. Read more How it works Live in about ten days What you send, what we build, and what happens every month after. Read more

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