How to get your Chennai business on Google Maps: a Google Business Profile guide

When someone in Velachery searches "AC service near me" or "tailor in T. Nagar", the first thing they see is a map with three businesses under it. Those come from Google Business Profiles, not websites. The profile is free, and most small businesses in Chennai either do not have one or have one that is half filled in. That is the opportunity.

How Google decides who appears

Google states the three factors plainly in its own help centre, in Tips to improve your local ranking:

• Relevance: how well a Business Profile matches what someone is searching for.
• Distance: how far each business is from the customer who is searching.
• Prominence: how well-known a business is.

You cannot move your shop closer to every customer. You can make the profile relevant by describing exactly what you do, and you can build prominence over time with reviews, photos and a real website that the profile links to.

Step 1: add or claim the profile

Google's own steps, from Add or claim your Business Profile:

1. Go to business.google.com/add and choose to add your business.
2. Enter the business details as the prompts ask.
3. Pick a verification option and complete it.

If your business already appears on Google Maps (customers sometimes add it), search for it, choose Claim this business, then Manage now, and verify. Verification is what turns a listing Google guessed at into one you control.

Step 2: the name, exactly as customers know it

This is where most profiles go wrong. Google's guidelines for representing your business say your name should reflect your business's real-world name, as used consistently on your storefront, website, stationery, and as known to customers.

So the name is Sri Murugan Silks, not "Sri Murugan Silks Best Saree Shop T Nagar Chennai". Stuffing keywords into the name is against the guidelines and is one of the commonest reasons profiles get suspended. The words that describe what you sell belong in the category, the description and the services list.

Step 3: category, description and services

• Primary category: the single most specific description of the business. Google advises choosing the fewest number of categories it takes to describe your overall core business.
• Description: plain sentences about what you do, who for, and where. Write it for a customer, not for Google.
• Services or products: list each one. This is where "AC gas refilling", "bridal blouse stitching" or "e-commerce website development" goes.
• Hours: accurate, including Sunday and holiday changes. Google lists accurate hours as a ranking tip, and a customer who arrives to a closed shutter does not come back.
• Phone and website: the number that is actually answered, and a website that loads fast on a phone.

Step 4: if customers do not come to you

Plumbers, electricians, tutors who travel, caterers, developers: these are service-area businesses. Google says that if you are a service-area business, you should hide your business address from customers and set a service area instead.

From Manage your service areas: you can have up to 20 service areas, set by city, postal code or another area rather than a radius, and the overall area shouldn't be more than about 2 hours of driving time from where your business is based. For a Chennai business that means listing the neighbourhoods you genuinely serve, such as Adyar, Velachery, Tambaram and OMR, not all of Tamil Nadu.

Step 5: photos

Real photos of the shopfront, the inside, the team, the work and the products. Google lists posting photos and videos among its tips. A phone photo in good daylight beats a stock image every time, because customers can tell.

Step 6: reviews, the honest way

Reviews are the strongest thing a small business can add to prominence, and the easiest to get wrong.

• Ask every happy customer. Google lets you create a link or QR code to request reviews; see Tips to get more reviews. Send the link on WhatsApp right after a job goes well, or print the QR code at the counter.
• Never offer anything for a review. Google's words: offering incentives, like free or discounted goods or services, in exchange for customers to post reviews, change reviews, or remove negative reviews is considered fake and misleading content and is strictly prohibited.
• Reply, especially to the bad ones. Keep replies clear, polite and short, acknowledge the problem, and say what you did about it. The next customer reads your reply more carefully than the complaint.

Step 7: connect it to a website that converts

The profile gets you seen; the website is where a customer decides. A profile that links to a slow, outdated or broken site wastes the click. At minimum the site should load quickly on a phone, say clearly what you do and where, show real work, and make calling or WhatsApp one tap. The small business website page describes what that looks like.

Mistakes that get profiles suspended

• Keywords or locations added to the business name.
• A virtual office, a co-working desk you do not use, or a relative's address used as a storefront.
• More than one profile for the same business at the same place.
• Reviews bought, swapped with other businesses, or written by staff.
• Showing an address customers cannot actually visit instead of setting a service area.

Questions people ask

Sources

1. Tips to improve your local ranking on Google — relevance, distance, prominence
2. Add or claim your Business Profile
3. Guidelines for representing your business on Google — business name, categories, service-area businesses
4. Manage your service areas — up to 20 areas, about 2 hours driving time
5. Tips to get more reviews — review links, incentives prohibited, replying