Guide
Getting found on Google for local services
When someone types 'plumber near me' or 'dentist in Paddington', Google shows a map with a few businesses on it and then a list of websites. Here's how it chooses them, and what you can do to be one of the names.
By the Fresh Site team. Updated 30 October 2026.
Two places to show up
A local search usually gives two sets of results. Up top there's the map, with a handful of businesses pinned on it. That comes from Google Business Profiles, the free listings Google runs. Below it are the ordinary results, which are websites.
You want to be in both. The map catches people ready to ring now. The website results catch people comparing options, and your website is also one of the things Google looks at when it decides who goes on the map.
How Google decides
Google says local results come down mainly to three things: how relevant you are to the search, how far you are from the person searching, and how well known you are. You can't move your premises, but you can do a lot about the other two.
- Relevance is whether Google can tell that you do the thing being searched for. That comes from your listing and the words on your site.
- Prominence is how established you look: reviews, mentions on other sites, links to yours, and how long you've been around.
Set up your Google Business Profile properly
It's free, and for a local business it's often worth more than anything else on this page. Claim and verify it, then fill in every part that applies to you:
- the main category that fits best (be precise: "Family law attorney", not just "Lawyer"), plus any secondary ones;
- the suburbs you service, if you go to your customers;
- your hours, including public holidays, kept up to date;
- your phone number and a link to your website;
- real photos of your work, your premises and your team;
- your services, written in the words customers use.
Give each service its own page
If you do switchboard upgrades, solar and emergency call-outs, each one deserves a page on your site that explains it in plain English. A single "Services" page with a list of ten things gives Google very little to go on.
The same goes for areas, with care. A page for each area you genuinely work in, saying something true about the work you do there, helps. Fifty copies of one page with the suburb name swapped out does not, and Google is good at spotting it.
Keep your details the same everywhere
Your business name, address and phone number should read exactly the same on your website, your Google listing, Facebook, and directories like Yellow Pages or True Local. When they don't match, Google is less sure it's all the same business.
Reviews
Ask every happy customer for a Google review, and make it easy by sending them the direct link. Reply to them, the good and the bad, briefly and politely. Never buy reviews or write your own: it breaks Google's rules, and in Australia fake reviews can also land you in trouble under consumer law.
A site that works on a phone
Most local searches happen on a phone, often with some urgency. If your site is slow to load, or the phone number is buried, people go back to the results and try the next one. Put the number where a thumb can reach it, keep pages light, and make the contact form short.
What to steer clear of
- Anyone who guarantees the number one spot. Nobody can promise that.
- Stuffing suburb names into every sentence. It reads badly and doesn't work.
- Paying for hundreds of links from unrelated sites.
How long it takes
A properly set up Google Business Profile can start showing within weeks. Climbing the ordinary results usually takes months, and depends on how many others in your area are chasing the same searches. It's steady work rather than a switch you flip.
Every site we build is set up for this from day one. If you'd like us to look at how yours shows up now, get in touch.