How to Add your Business to Google Maps
Friday, July 9th, 2010
When you search for a local business in your area, you may have noticed that Google often shows a map of your local area along with a list of businesses in that area.
For example, if I am looking for restaurants in Edinburgh (where I live) and enter “Edinburgh Restaurants” into Google, the first thing I see after the sponsored ads is the map.

You can see that the map is right at the top of the listings and there are 7 businesses listed. Clicking on the link below these businesses will show more listings.
If you have been wondering how to add your business to Google Maps, you will be pleased to know this this is very easy to do and it is also completely free. You can also do this regardless of whether or not you have a website.
For this to work you really need to either have a physical business like a shop or a restaurant, or an office, or if you are running a home business you need to be happy to add your home address and telephone number into your listing. You do have the option of hiding the address so that it is not displayed on your listing, but this may mean that your listing is ranked as highly as it would be with an address.
Here are the steps to add your business to Google Maps:
1) Visit the Add your Business page.
2) Sign in with your Google account, or create a new account if you don’t have one.
3) Click the button to add your listing
4) Fill in your details – this includes your address, website URL (optional), telephone number, email address and business description
5) You then have the option of adding photos, opening hours, payment option, videos and more.
6) Finally, before your listing goes live you need to verify your listing. This can be done by phone, SMS or postcard.
That’s it – very easy to do! If you have your own business you need to make sure that you do this asap to increase your visibility.
To improve the ranking of your Google Places listing you should make sure that:
- You have claimed your listing.
- You have verified your listing.
- You have filled out your profile with as much relevant information as possible.
- You have the correct categories selected
- You include your main keywords in your listing. (but don’t over do it and keyword stuff!)






