How to Rank Higher on Google Maps

You rank higher on Google Maps by measuring before you fix: find your weak spots, compare yourself with the businesses beating you there, then fix that gap. Weak spots are the places where you're outside Google's top 3 for a search. Start with the spots where you're already 4th to 6th. Tip lists give everyone the same fixes, but on Google Maps in the UK, as of October 2026, the gap differs for each business and each part of town.

Google ranks local results on three things: relevance, distance and prominence. You can change two of them. What people call Google Maps SEO (search engine optimisation) is just working on those two.

Relevance: Relevance is how well your Google Business Profile matches what someone is searching for, so what your profile says you do is yours to change.
Distance: Distance is how far each business is from the customer who's searching, and when a customer doesn't share where they are, Google uses what it knows about their location. You can't move your premises, so this one stays as it is.
Prominence: Prominence is how well known a business is, partly judged on how many websites link to it and how many reviews it has. More reviews and positive ratings can help your business's local ranking.

Which of the two to work on depends on where you're losing, so that's where to start.

Where should you start if you want to rank higher on Google Maps?

The first step to rank higher on Google Maps is finding the places and searches where you miss Google's top 3, so you fix the right gap. You need a claimed and verified Google Business Profile already in place, because a verified business is more likely to show up in search results. Check from many spots across your area, not with one search from your premises, because the results change with where the searcher is. Run that check before you change anything, so you have a starting point to compare with afterwards.

Ranking first outside your own door says nothing about the far side of town. A private window doesn't change that: it hides your search history, not where you're searching from.

Check the searches that bring in work: your main service on its own, that service with each place you cover (checked from spots inside that place), and the jobs that pay best. For example, a dentist in Knaresborough would check "dentist", "dentist Knaresborough" and "emergency dentist". At each spot, note where you show (top 3, 4 to 10, 11 to 20 or not found) and which businesses sit above you.

You can run a free scan on Local Rank Tracker. It searches from every part of your town as a new customer's phone would, with no search history. Every spot is coloured by where you show up, and you can tap any spot to see the full top 20 a customer there would see. One scan is still one moment. Results move over time as well as across town, so a scan shows where you stood on that day, not a fixed score.

Why start with the spots where you rank 4th to 6th?

Start with the spots where you rank 4th to 6th on Google Maps because you already show there, one to three places from the top 3. Distance still counts, though: at a spot far from your premises, a business nearer the searcher may keep its place in the top 3. Getting into Google's top 3 puts you among the three businesses shown with the map, before a customer taps for more results. List your 4th to 6th spots by search, and work on them before the spots where you're outside the top 10 or not found at all.

At 4th you're one place short of the three businesses Google shows with the map, and at 6th you're three places short. At a spot where you're not found, you first have to work out why Google isn't showing you there at all. That's what the next step is for: comparing yourself with the businesses beating you there.

The map's 4 to 10 colour covers every place from 4th to 10th, so a spot where you're 5th looks the same as one where you're 9th. Tap the spot to see your exact place in the full top 20 and the businesses above you.

The example report on Local Rank Tracker's homepage reads "8 spots are one push away. You're 4th to 6th around the harbour." It's labelled "An example report from a free scan", so it shows what a report flags, not a measured result.

You start there because the gap is smaller, not because those spots move first or faster.

What do the businesses beating you have that you don't?

The businesses beating you on Google Maps at a spot are closer to the searcher there or match the search better or are better known. The businesses beating you change from one part of town to the next, so compare yourself with them spot by spot. Those three differences match what Google's local results are mainly based on: relevance, distance and prominence. Distance comes from where your premises are, so the gaps you can work on are how well you match the search and how well known you are.

To improve your Google Business Profile rankings at a spot, these are the six things to compare with each business beating you there:

Categories: The categories you select on your Google Business Profile affect your local ranking, so compare the primary category of each business beating you with yours. Pick the one that best describes your business ("Nail salon" rather than "Salon", for example).
A complete profile: Businesses with complete and accurate information are more likely to show up in local search results, so compare the hours, services and phone number of each business beating you with yours.
Reviews: Compare the reviews of each business beating you with yours: how many it has, its star rating, how recent the latest ones are and whether it replies to them.
Photos: Look at the photos on the profiles of the businesses beating you, such as shots of their premises, their team and their work, and set them against what yours shows.
Your website: Check whether each business beating you has a website on its Google profile and which services and places that website covers, then look at yours the same way.
The sites customers check: Customers look up businesses on sites like Checkatrade and Yell as well as on Google, so note which of the businesses beating you are listed there and whether you are.

One tap in a Local Rank Tracker report switches the map to any competitor, at no extra cost, so you see exactly where that business beats you. The report's "Why they're winning" part puts your Google profile against the top 3 on reviews, photos, categories and website. The to-do list turns that into what to fix first, covering reviews, photos, categories, your website and the sites customers check, on every scan, free. "Reviews against the top 3" goes further on reviews: how fast you and the top 3 get them, how many get a reply and what customers mention (8 credits; it isn't part of the free scan).

Whatever the comparison shows, fix the gap that's actually there first: that's how you rank higher on Google Maps at the spots you're losing.

Can anyone guarantee a Google Maps ranking?

No, nobody can guarantee a Google Maps ranking, because Google doesn't sell local rankings or take requests for a better one. The order also changes with where each customer searches from and with what other businesses do, and nobody selling a guarantee controls either of those. Google's own help page on local ranking states it flatly: "There's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google."

Three shortcuts to a higher local search ranking break the guidelines for a Google Business Profile, and each one has a version that's allowed:

Rewarding customers for reviews: Giving customers free or discounted goods or services for a review, or for changing or removing a bad one, "is considered fake engagement and is strictly prohibited". Asking for a review is still allowed: "you can ask customers to visit a Google link or scan a QR code."
Extra words in your business name: Adding words to your Google Business Profile name that aren't part of your real name breaks the name rule: "Including unnecessary information in your business name isn't permitted, and could result in the suspension of your Business Profile." The allowed name is the one customers already know, which "should reflect your business' real-world name, as used consistently on your shopfront, website, stationery and as known to customers."
A category for every service: A Google Business Profile category isn't a place for search words: "Do not use categories solely as keywords or to describe attributes of your business." The allowed version is in the same guidelines: "Choose the fewest number of categories that it takes to describe your overall core business."

How do you know your changes worked?

You know whether your Google Maps changes worked by running the same check again afterwards and comparing it spot by spot with the check before. The same check means the same searches, the same area and spots and the same device, with the date of your change noted in between. The two numbers to compare are top 3 share, the share of spots where you're in Google's top 3, and average position, your usual place at the spots where you show up in the top 20. With Local Rank Tracker, one free scan a month covers your whole town, village or postcode district, up to 81 spots, with the full report and no card needed.

Your change isn't the only one between two checks. Other businesses in your town are changing things too: they get new reviews and edit their profiles. Google makes updates of its own. If you climb at a spot, the climb coincided with your change. It doesn't prove the change caused it.

Look first at the spots where you were 4th to 6th before the change. Tap each one to see who's above you now.

On a paid plan, you get "did it work?" results. Local Rank Tracker keeps track of what you change, whether you tick off a to-do on your report or add a change of your own, like new photos or a new page on your website. Your weekly check runs the same search over the same spots again, so before and after compare fairly. You see your top 3 share before and after each change, with any edits Google made to your profile in between, and get an email when the result is in. The results show what happened after each change rather than claiming one change did it, because rankings also move for reasons nobody controls, like a competitor's changes.

To keep the searches, the area and the gap between checks the same, see how to track your Google Maps rankings over time.

A check can't say how long a change takes to show, and some changes don't move your place at all. It does show where you stand today, before your next change: Google Maps optimisation is a loop of checking, changing and checking again, not a one-off job.