Business not showing on Google Maps? Start with a signed-out search for your name

Business Profile ID: in the profile, More, Business Profile settings, Advanced settings. It's the unique identifier for the listing, and the one Google support asks for.

Place ID: a textual identifier that uniquely identifies a place on Google Maps. Look it up with Google's public Place ID Finder (developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/examples/places-placeid-finder). Place IDs can change over time, and Google recommends refreshing stored ones that are more than 12 months old.

To link to the listing from a website or email signature, use a Maps URL with the place ID, which Google calls the best guarantee of linking to the right place:

https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Example+Plumbing+Chelmsford&query_place_id=PLACE_ID

Business Profile API access has to be requested through the GBP API contact form and approved. A project showing a quota of 0 QPM hasn't been approved yet.

The Business Information API returns a location's metadata. The readMask parameter is required:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  "https://mybusinessbusinessinformation.googleapis.com/v1/locations/LOCATION_ID?readMask=name,title,metadata"

• placeId: populated if the location appears on Google Maps. Google populates it when the location appears on Google Maps, so an empty value points to a listing problem rather than a ranking one.
• mapsUri: a link to the location on Maps.
• duplicateLocation: the location resource this one duplicates.
• hasPendingEdits: some of the location's properties are in the edit pending state.
• hasVoiceOfMerchant: if false, call locations.getVoiceOfMerchantState on the Verifications API.

The action that call returns lines up with the owner checks on this page:

• verify: verification isn't finished (boxes 4 and 5).
• resolveOwnershipConflict: "This location duplicates another location that is in good standing" (boxes 3 and 6).
• complyWithGuidelines, with recommendationReason BUSINESS_LOCATION_SUSPENDED or BUSINESS_LOCATION_DISABLED: suspended or disabled, which goes to appeal.
• waitForVoiceOfMerchant: "The location is under review for quality purposes". Wait.

Search Console: if you've verified the website in Search Console, Google can in some cases verify the Business Profile instantly. Search Console has no report on Maps or Business Profile visibility, so it can't tell you why a listing is missing. Website indexing problems are a different job, covered in our guide to a website not showing on Google.

LocalBusiness structured data: markup on the website can tell Google about opening hours, departments and similar details, and you can test it with the Rich Results Test. It doesn't create or verify a Business Profile, so it won't put a missing business on the map.

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "LocalBusiness",
  "name": "Example Plumbing",
  "url": "https://www.example.co.uk",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "addressLocality": "Chelmsford",
    "addressCountry": "GB"
  }
}
</script>

Keep the name, address and phone number in the markup identical to the profile.