You used to be on the map. Now you're not. It's stressful, especially if a chunk of your enquiries came through it. Here's the diagnostic order we work through when clients call us about this.
1. Is the profile actually verified?
Open your Google Business Profile (search your business name on Google, click "Manage your profile" if you're logged in). The first thing to check: is it verified? Unverified profiles don't appear in the map pack, full stop.
Verification is usually done by postcard, phone or video call. If you never completed it, that's why you're missing.
2. Has Google marked the profile as closed?
It happens. Maybe a customer reported you as permanently closed. Maybe Google's algorithm noticed you didn't reply to messages for three months. The fix is to flag it through the support flow in your profile dashboard, with proof that you're open. It usually clears within a few days.
3. Is the primary category right?
Categories are the single biggest "relevance" signal. If your primary category is "Business Service" rather than "Plumber," you'll lose to every plumber in your area for plumber searches.
Look at the businesses that do appear in the map pack for your target search. What category have they picked? Match that as your primary, then use secondary categories for the related stuff.
4. Does your name/address/phone match everywhere?
Google trusts businesses whose details are consistent across the internet. If your phone number is one digit different on Facebook and Yell, that erodes trust. Pick the canonical version and make sure your website, your Google profile, your social channels and any directories all match exactly.
5. Are your reviews thin, old or unanswered?
Reviews are a prominence signal, and recency matters more than total count. A business with five new reviews this month often outranks one with 50 reviews from two years ago. If you've gone months without a new review, the algorithm gradually weights you down.
Easiest fix: ask your last 20 happy customers, by text, with a direct one-tap review link. Our spoke piece on how to get more Google reviews covers this.
6. Has the business name been edited recently?
If someone (you, an employee, a previous owner, a "marketing agency") added keywords to your business name on the profile — e.g. "Joe's Plumbing — Best 24/7 Emergency Plumber Manchester" — Google often penalises this by suppressing the listing. Edit it back to your real, exact business name.
7. Has Google's algorithm just shuffled?
Google updates the local algorithm regularly. Small ranking dips and recoveries within a fortnight are normal and don't need action. Bigger drops that last more than three weeks are usually one of the six things above.
8. Did your website lose authority?
Your map ranking is influenced by the strength of your website too. If you recently migrated, lost a chunk of pages, broke a load of internal links, or your hosting started serving slow/broken pages, that can drag the profile down with it. Run your site through Search Console and see if anything's broken.
If you've tried all of this
If you've genuinely worked through the list and nothing's moved in a month, it's worth having someone audit the whole local setup properly. Often it's a combination of small things rather than one big one. Our local SEO service exists for exactly this kind of triage. The bigger picture is in the pillar guide: local SEO for small businesses.