Understanding Google Maps SEO for Nashville Businesses

Google decides which businesses appear in Maps and in the map results on Search mainly by three things: how relevant a business is to the search, how far it is from the searcher, and how prominent it is. That is Google’s own description in its help page on how local results are ranked, which also states plainly that “there’s no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google.” Maps SEO is the work of improving the two factors you can influence and being accurate about the one you cannot.

The three factors in Google’s words

Google’s page summarizes local results as “mainly based on relevance, distance, and popularity,” then explains each factor:

• Relevance is “how well a Business Profile matches what someone is searching for.” Google’s advice is to “provide complete and detailed business info.”
• Distance “refers to how far each business is from the customer who’s searching.” If the searcher does not share their location, “Google uses what it knows about their location.”
• Prominence “means how well-known a business is,” and it is “also based on info like how many websites link to your business and how many reviews you have.” Google adds that “more reviews and positive ratings can help your business’s local ranking.”

Of the three, relevance is the factor you have the most influence over, through the information you give Google. Prominence you can build over time. Distance is set by where your business is and where the searcher is.

Distance: what you can and cannot change

Distance explains why Maps results differ from one searcher to another. Two people searching “coffee shop” from different parts of Nashville see different results, because each is closer to different shops. A business that appears first when you search from your own counter may not appear at all for someone a few miles away. Neither result is wrong; they are answers to different searchers.

You cannot change your distance from a searcher, and attempts to fake it create real risk:

• Your address has to be real. Google’s guidelines for representing your business say that a virtual office, a mailing address where the business does not operate, “isn’t eligible for a Business Profile.” Remote mailboxes and PO boxes are not acceptable either.
• The map pin has to be right. Check that the map pin points to your actual business location. A misplaced pin can send customers to the wrong part of a property or produce poor directions.
• Service-area businesses hide the address instead of moving it. If you visit customers rather than receiving them, Google tells you to remove your address from your profile. More on this below.

What you can do is make it easy for nearby searchers to recognize you: an accurate address, correct hours, and a profile that matches what you actually offer.

Relevance: what your profile says you are

Relevance is the factor you control most directly, and Google ties it to the information you give it: how well a profile “matches what someone is searching for.” Several profile fields help Google understand what the business is and offers. Category and service information are part of that description; Google’s category help gives the example that a “Pizza restaurant” might be shown for searches for restaurants, Italian restaurants, or pizza. The business name is different. It is a policy constraint, not a lever: Google’s guidelines say it “should reflect your business’s real-world name, as used consistently on your storefront, website, stationery, and as known to customers,” so adding service words or a neighborhood to match searches breaks the rule and puts the profile at risk of suspension.

How to set up each of those fields well is a profile-management task. For ranking, the point is that together they describe your business completely and accurately, and that your website says the same thing.

Prominence: what the rest of the web says about you

Prominence is the factor you build over time rather than set. Google names two inputs directly, the reviews and the links described above. Both have to be earned. Google treats incentives for reviews as fake content, and its spam policies class paid links intended to manipulate rankings as link spam; legitimate sponsorships and advertising should be qualified with a sponsored or nofollow attribute. For organic prominence, the route that lasts is genuine reviews and editorial mentions.

Google’s ranking page does not mention directory listings. Keeping your name, address, phone number, and hours the same across the web still matters, for a practical reason: customers use those listings, and conflicting information sends them to the wrong place or the wrong number.

Service-area businesses in a metro area

Plumbers, cleaners, contractors, and other businesses that travel to customers are service-area businesses in Google’s terms. Google’s service area help sets out how they work:

• Remove the address if you do not serve customers there: “If you don’t serve customers at your business address, remove your address from your Business Profile.”
• Set up to 20 service areas based on the cities, postal codes, or other areas you serve.
• Keep the overall area within about two hours of driving time from where the business is based.
• Hybrid businesses, which serve customers at a storefront and also travel to them, can show the storefront address and set a service area.

Around Nashville, the areas you list are separate places. Google’s own location list for advertisers treats Nashville, Franklin, Brentwood, Murfreesboro, and Hendersonville as separate cities, and Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford, Sumner, and Wilson as separate counties. A Nashville company that also works in Franklin and Murfreesboro lists each city it serves, rather than relying on “Nashville” to cover them, and stays within the 20-area and two-hour limits. Hiding your address changes what customers see, not where your business is based, and listing an area you do not serve misleads the customers who find you there.

Map results and web results are two different lists

The map results with pins, and Google Maps itself, rank Business Profiles. The regular web results below rank web pages. A business can appear in one and not the other.

That distinction keeps effort in the right place. Your profile information, reviews, and links drive the map results as Google describes them. Your website’s content and quality determine how its pages rank in web results, on their own merits. A strong website helps customers who click through, but Google’s local ranking page does not describe website content as a map ranking factor.

How to check where you actually appear

Because distance changes the results, a single search from your office tells you little. To see your real position:

• Search from several locations in the area you serve, or use a rank-checking tool that simulates searches from multiple points on a map. Expect your position to change from one point to the next.
• Check the searches people use to find you. Your Business Profile performance report shows the search terms that led to your profile, along with call-button clicks, direction requests, and website clicks.
• Compare like with like. Look at the same months year over year, so that seasonal changes are not mistaken for trends.

Put your effort into accurate information and real reputation, and accept that distance will always shape who sees you. A business that is clear about what it is, honest about where it is, and well regarded by its customers has done what Google’s own description of local ranking asks for.