Maps Help

Why add your listing with the Local Business Centre?

It's simple: the Local Business Centre gives you the most control over the way your business listing appears in Google Maps. Since more people search for businesses online than anywhere else, it's important to make sure your business listing can be easily found on Google.com and Google Maps. When you submit and verify information through the Local Business Centre, you provide the most authoritative information for your business listing.

Watch a video about adding your business to Google Maps.

How it works

Each business listing in Google Maps is in fact a giant 'cluster' of information that we get from a few different places: Yellow Pages, for example, as well as other third-party providers. However, the basic information that you submit through the Local Business Centre is the information that we trust the most. This means that it will appear instead of any basic information that we get from anywhere else. To make sure the basic information you submit is accurate, we'll ask you to verify it first by contacting you at your business address or phone number.

You can add other information to your listing too — such as a description of your business, for example, as well as photos, reviews or information about hours and parking costs — that will also appear above similar information from other providers.

Before you get started, there are a few things to keep in mind:

• Right now, the Google Local Business Centre is available for businesses in only certain countries.
  To find out if your country is one of them, check the drop-down menu in the top right-hand corner of the Local Business Centre sign-up page.
• It's free.
  Adding your listing to the Local Business Centre is free, and Google doesn't accept payment to include particular listings or sites in our search results. However, we do offer locally-targeted advertising through our AdWords programme.
• Every business listing must have a postal address.
  Usually this is the physical address of your business, but certain businesses may wish to use a PO Box. For example, if you wish to keep the physical location of your business private, or if your business provides a service at various locations (like a cleaning service).
• There shouldn't be more than one listing per physical location.
  Even if you're a doctor who is a cardiologist and a chiropractor or a service that covers multiple towns, you shouldn't have two listings. Instead, use the description of your business or categories to explain the different services your business offers.

Its a good idea to read the Local Business Centre quality guidelines to make sure that your listing will be approved to appear in Google Maps.

To start creating your free listing, go to the Local Business Centre and sign in with your Google account. If you don't already have a Google account, click Create a new Google account to get one. You can also use an AdWords login and password, if you have one.

What if I already see my listing in Google Maps?

If your listing is already in Google Maps, claiming it through the Local Business Centre will give you full control over how your listing appears. In other words, once you verify that you are the business owner, the information that you submit will replace the information from third parties that already appears in Google Maps. You'll be able to make your listing better with more useful information, as well as photos and video. Other users will no longer be able to edit your listing.

To claim your listing, search for it in Google Maps. When you've found it:

1. Click on the name of your business in the search results in the left-hand panel of Google Maps.
2. Click Edit in the white info bubble that appears on the map and then click Claim your business as pictured below. If the info bubble doesn't have an Edit link, click more info, then Add or edit your business. This prompts you to submit your business information as a new listing.



3. Three options appear. You can:
   • Edit the information in the listing.
   • Suspend it to stop it from appearing on Google Maps.
   • Add your business as a new listing, if you realise that the business you're trying to claim isn't yours.

     

4. For each of these options, we'll ask you to verify that you are the business owner.

Even if you don't search for your business first, when you submit basic information about your listing to the Local Business Centre, we'll let you know if there's already a listing with the information you submitted. You'll then have two options, as shown below:

• You can claim that listing, and take control of the information about your business that appears in Google Maps. It prevents you from creating a duplicate listing, which might confuse others trying to find information about your business.
• Add your business as a new listing if the other listing we show isn't the one you were trying to add.

In both cases, you'll need to verify your listing before it will appear in Google Maps.