How the map chooses three businesses
Google says it ranks local results on three factors:
- Relevance: how well your profile matches what was searched.
- Distance: how far you are from the searcher, or from the place named in the search.
- Prominence: how well known your business is, online and off. Reviews, links, articles and your site's own ranking feed it.
You cannot move your premises, so the work is on relevance and prominence. The steps below follow that order.
1. Claim and verify the profile
Search for your business on Google Maps. If a profile exists, claim it. If not, create one at business.google.com. Google then asks you to verify that you run the business, by a method it chooses: often a short video of the premises, sometimes another method. An unverified profile ranks poorly and can be edited by anyone.
2. Choose the primary category carefully
The primary category is the strongest relevance signal on the profile. Search your main service in your city and look at the categories of the businesses in the top three: that is what Google considers relevant for that search. Add secondary categories only for services you actually offer.
3. Fill in every field
- Name: your real business name, exactly as on your sign. Adding a city or a keyword breaks Google's guidelines and can get the profile suspended.
- Services and products: each one listed, in your customers' words.
- Hours: including special hours for Ramadan, Eid and public holidays, set before they start.
- Description: up to 750 characters on what you do and for whom, without links or promotions.
- Phone and website: a number that is answered, and a link to the page that matches the profile.
4. Get the address and the pin right
Many Moroccan addresses have no street number and are written in several ways: the residence first, the lotissement, the district, in French or Arabic. Pick one way of writing yours and use it everywhere, on the profile, the site and every directory. Then check the pin sits on the right building. In a medina or a large residence, describe the nearest gate or landmark and add a photo of the entrance.
If you serve customers at their address and do not receive them, set a service area and hide the address, which Google allows.
5. Add real photos
Photos of the front, the inside, the team and the work help customers choose and show Google the profile is active. Replace them when the place changes. Stock images do not help.
6. Build a steady flow of reviews
Reviews feed prominence and decide many clicks. Ask every satisfied customer, at the moment they are satisfied, with the direct review link from your profile. Answer every review, good and bad, briefly and politely.
Do not buy reviews, write them yourself or offer rewards for them. Google's content policy for Maps prohibits it, removes such reviews and can restrict the profile.
7. Keep your name, address and phone consistent online
Google cross-checks your name, address and phone across the web. List your business on the Moroccan directories and platforms your customers use, with exactly the same details as the profile, and correct old listings with a former address or number.
8. Give the profile a page to point to
Link the profile to a page on your site that names the service and the city, shows the same address and phone, and answers what customers ask. A site that ranks in the normal results also strengthens the profile's prominence.
9. Track calls, not just positions
The profile's Performance report shows searches, calls, direction requests and website clicks. Check it monthly. A rise in calls matters more than a position on a map that changes with every searcher's location.
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