Why isn't my business showing on Google Maps?

If your business is not showing on Google Maps, check four things in this order: the profile is verified, it has not been suspended, the address is one Google accepts, and the name follows Google's naming rules. Each one has a different fix.

Everything below comes from Google's own help pages, linked at the foot of this page. Where Google gives no timeline, we say so rather than guess.

1. Check the profile is verified

If you created a profile and never finished verifying it, finish that first.

If Google asks you to verify by video, its requirements are specific:

• Film it live. No clip you recorded earlier, no edits, no breaks.
• Make it at least 30 seconds long.
• Record and upload it on your phone, through your Business Profile.
• Keep bank, tax and ID numbers out of shot, and other people's faces too.

If you travel to customers rather than working from a shop or office, Google asks the video to show three things:

• Where you operate: street signs or landmarks at your business address.
• That the business is real: your tools, equipment, business cards or branded clothing.
• That you run it: you doing the work, or opening something only the business has, like your branded van.

Google says the review takes up to 5 business days. If the video is not accepted, Google tells you why, and you can send a new one that covers everything in the first video plus what was missing.

2. Check it has not been suspended

Open Google's appeals tool and sign in with the Google account that manages the profile. For each decision it shows the date, the reason, the policy it says you broke, and whether you can appeal.

Then:

• Fix the problem first. Google says to make sure the profile follows all of its guidelines before you appeal.
• Have your evidence ready: business registration, a licence, a tax certificate or a utility bill. The business name and address on it must match the profile.
• Submit the appeal from the same tool.
• Do not create a new profile for the same business. Google says this directly.

You can appeal each decision once. If it is denied, you can ask for another review only with new evidence. Google gives no timeline. It emails you the decision, and the tool shows the status.

If your whole Google account has been restricted, every profile you manage is suspended with it. Appeal the account first, from the My accounts page, then the profile.

3. Check the address is allowed

• Virtual offices are not eligible. That means an address you rent for post but do not work from. PO boxes and remote mailboxes are not accepted either.
• Co-working spaces count only with your signage, staff there during your opening hours, and customers served in person.
• If you go to customers rather than them coming to you, Google says you should hide your address and set a service area instead.

Google says a service area should generally stay within about two hours' drive of your base.

4. Check the name follows the rules

The name on your profile has to be your real-world business name, the one on your signage, website and paperwork.

Google says adding anything else, such as a tagline, a list of services or a location, could result in the profile being suspended. So "Bennett Plumbing" is fine. "Bennett Plumbing | Emergency Boiler Repairs Leeds" is not.

While you are in there, check your categories. Google's guidance is to use as few as possible, the most specific ones, and to pick categories that finish the sentence "this business is a". A plumber who sometimes fits bathrooms is still a plumber.

What this will not do

Sorting these out makes your profile eligible to show on Maps. Where it appears after that is up to Google, and nobody can promise you a position.

The next thing worth checking is whether your website says the same as your profile: the same name, phone number, area and services.

If your website needs work, ask us for a free preview of a new one. You pay nothing unless you approve it.