Google business profile optimisation means making your listing match what people search for, placing it correctly on the map, and building the reviews and mentions that make Google trust it. Google itself says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and prominence, which its help page also calls popularity. When we compared 720 Google Maps listings across 36 Australian searches on 24 September 2026, the top 3 had a median of 66 reviews against 31 for positions 4 to 20, but reviews alone did not decide who came first.
This guide shows what the top 3 had in common, what did not matter, and which popular tactics break Google’s rules. Every recommendation is tied to Google’s own documentation, and the checklist near the end is the order we would do the work in.
Key findings
- Across 36 searches (6 trades and professions in 6 cities), the top 3 on Google Maps had a median of 66 reviews and positions 4 to 20 had 31. The #1 listing had the most reviews on the page in only 4 of the 36 searches.
- 44% of top 3 listings had both the city and the service in their business name, against 20% below them. Google’s guidelines do not allow that unless it is the real-world name.
- When we moved the searcher from “somewhere in Australia” to the city centre, only 29 of 90 top 3 spots stayed the same. Distance reshuffles the map more than anything you can edit.
- A website, opening hours and a claimed listing were on 96% to 99% of top 3 listings, and on 93% to 97% of the rest. They are the entry ticket, not the edge.
- In our shared AI study, the map pack #1 was named by at least one AI assistant in 15 of 22 searches. Google AI Mode named 36% of map pack businesses, the most of any assistant.
What Google says decides your Google Maps ranking
Google’s help page on how to improve your local ranking is short and more useful than most of the advice written about it. It names three factors:
- Relevance: “how well a Business Profile matches what someone is searching for.” Google says to “provide complete and detailed business info” so it can match you to the right searches.
- Distance: “how far each business is from the customer who’s searching.” If the searcher does not share a location, Google uses what it knows about where they are.
- Prominence: “how well-known a business is.” Google says this is based partly on “how many websites link to your business and how many reviews you have”, and that “more reviews and positive ratings can help your business’s local ranking.”
The same page makes one point that saves a lot of money: “There’s no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google.” Anyone selling you a guaranteed spot in the map pack is selling something Google says does not exist. Google Ads can put you above the map results, but that is advertising, labelled as sponsored, not ranking.
So Google business profile optimisation has three parts. Make the profile relevant and complete, get the location settings right, and build prominence over time through reviews and mentions on other websites. Our SEO agency service treats the profile as part of the same job as the website, because the website is one of the things that makes the profile prominent.
What we measured across 720 Google Maps listings
On 24 September 2026 we searched Google Maps for six kinds of business (family lawyer, builder, electrician, plumber, dentist and accountant) in six places (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and the Gold Coast). Each search was made from the city centre, in English, and we kept the top 20 results. That gave 36 searches and 720 listings, which we split into the top 3 (108 listings) and positions 4 to 20 (612 listings).
| What we checked | Top 3 (108) | Positions 4 to 20 (612) | #1 only (36) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median number of reviews | 66 | 31 | 86 |
| Median star rating | 4.9 | 4.9 | 4.9 |
| Rated 4.5 or higher | 94% | 82% | 97% |
| 100 or more reviews | 41% | 27% | 47% |
| Fewer than 20 reviews | 25% | 40% | 14% |
| Primary category matches the search | 92% | 88% | 94% |
| Name contains the city | 52% | 29% | 61% |
| Name contains the city and the service | 44% | 20% | 53% |
| Median photos on the listing | 23.5 | 14 | 24 |
| Has a website link | 97% | 94% | 94% |
| Opening hours listed | 99% | 97% | 100% |
| Claimed by the business | 96% | 93% | 97% |
| Median distance from the city centre | 0.4 km | 0.5 km | 0.4 km |
| Within 1 km of the city centre | 85% | 67% | not calculated |
The chart pulls out the traits where the gap was biggest, next to the ones that barely moved.
Reviews matter, but more is not the whole story
The top 3 had about twice the reviews of the listings below them, which fits Google’s own statement about prominence. But look at the exceptions. The #1 listing had the most reviews on the page in only 4 of the 36 searches. A quarter of the top 3 listings (27 of 108) had fewer than 20 reviews, and 18 had fewer than 10. And 35 of the 108 top 3 listings had fewer reviews than the typical listing ranked below them in the same search.
The pattern changed a lot by trade. Builders were the clearest case: the top 3 and the rest both had a median of 13.5 reviews, so review count did nothing to separate them. Dentists sat at the other end, where the top 3 had a median of 282 reviews.
| Search | Top 3 median reviews | Positions 4 to 20 median reviews | Top 3 names with city and service | Positions 4 to 20 names with city and service |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Family lawyer | 81 | 47 | 44% | 16% |
| Builder | 14 | 14 | 22% | 9% |
| Electrician | 89 | 26 | 33% | 10% |
| Plumber | 107 | 57 | 50% | 35% |
| Dentist | 282 | 107 | 72% | 32% |
| Accountant | 57 | 16 | 39% | 16% |
Star ratings barely separated anyone. The median was 4.9 in both groups. What did show up was the floor: 94% of the top 3 were rated 4.5 or higher, against 82% of the rest, and a few listings with no rating at all almost never made the top 3. A strong rating seems to be something you need, not something that lifts you further once you have it.
The practical lesson is to ask every customer, every time, in a way that is allowed. Google’s page on getting more reviews says you can send customers a review link or QR code, and that offering “free or discounted goods or services” in exchange for reviews “is strictly prohibited”. Australian law points the same way: the ACCC’s guidance on online reviews says it is against the law for a business to create fake or misleading reviews, and warns that incentives for positive reviews risk breaching the law. For how to build the habit into a job, see our guides on reviews and reputation for builders and how installers get more Google reviews.
Distance: the Google Maps ranking factor you cannot optimise
We ran the same 36 searches twice. The first time the searcher was set to “Australia” with no finer location. The second time each search came from the city centre. For the 30 searches we could compare, only 29 of the 90 top 3 spots were held by the same business both times, and the #1 was the same in just 9 of 30.
That is distance at work, and it is why your ranking looks different from your office, your home and your customer’s kitchen. It also produced one odd result. With no finer location, “builder perth” returned builders in Perth, Tasmania, which is why we excluded the Perth searches from that comparison and used the city centre searches for everything else in this article.
When the searcher was pinned to the centre of the city, 85% of the top 3 sat within 1 km, against 67% of the rest. For plumbers the gap was widest: a median of 0.6 km for the top 3 against 3.2 km for the rest. And when the searcher’s location was vague, reviews mattered more. In the Australia-wide run, the top 3 had a median of 188 reviews against 97 below them, a much bigger gap than in the city centre run.
You cannot move your business closer to every customer, and Google’s guidelines stop you faking it. The guidelines for representing your business on Google say to use “a precise, accurate address and/or service area”, that PO boxes and remote mailboxes are not acceptable, and that a service-area business “should have one profile for the central office or location with a designated service area”. If you visit customers rather than having them visit you, Google says to remove your address and set a service area, and that the service area generally should not extend farther than about two hours of driving from your base. What you can do is make sure the pin is right and the service area is honest.
The business name problem: keyword-stuffed names
This is the uncomfortable finding. In 26 of the 36 searches, at least one of the top 3 had a name containing both the city and the service, such as the pattern “Plumber Sydney” or “Family Lawyers Brisbane”. Among the #1 listings it was 19 of 36. Some of those will be the business’s genuine registered name, and plenty of long-standing firms are named that way. We cannot tell which are real from the data. But the gap between the top 3 (44%) and the rest (20%) is too big to ignore, and 50 of the 720 listings had a city or service phrase tacked on after a dash or a vertical bar.
Google’s rule is clear. Your name “should reflect your business’ real-world name, as used consistently on your shopfront, website, stationery and as known to customers.” It lists “service or product information” and “location information” among the things your name must not include, and says adding unnecessary information “could result in the suspension of your Business Profile.”
So do not rename your listing to “Your Name Plumbing Sydney 24/7”. A suspended profile can drop out of Maps altogether, which costs far more than any ranking gain. If your real, registered business name already contains your city and trade, use it consistently everywhere, including your signage and website. If a competitor has stuffed their name, Google Maps lets anyone suggest an edit to a listing. It is slow and it does not always work, but it is the approach that follows the rules.
Categories, photos, hours and the rest
Primary category. The top 3 had a primary category that matched the search in 92% of cases, against 88% below. Where it did not match, it was usually a close cousin, such as “Tax preparation service” for an accountant search. Google’s guidelines say to “use as few categories as possible” and to pick the ones that complete the sentence “This business IS a”, not “this business HAS a”. The median number of extra categories was 2 in both groups, so piling on extra categories did not help.
Photos. Top 3 listings had a median of 23.5 photos, against 14. Some of that is customers uploading photos of busy places, so it is partly a result of popularity rather than a cause. Google still recommends photos and videos, and they cost nothing but time.
Website, hours, claimed. These were near universal in both groups. Only 3 of the 108 top 3 listings had no website, 4 were unclaimed, and 1 had no hours. Treat them as the minimum. Google says a verified business is “more likely to show up in search results”, and that “businesses with complete and accurate info are more likely to show up in local search results.”
If you are a law firm with several partners, the rules on practitioner profiles add another layer, which our law firm SEO guide covers. Our local SEO guide for lawyers goes further into suburbs and practice areas, and builders will find the site and profile basics in our construction marketing guide.
Google business profile optimisation checklist
This is the order we would work through a profile. Each step is tied to Google’s own rules or to what we measured.
| Step | What to do | Why, from Google or our data |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Claim and verify | Make sure the profile is owned by a business email you control, with any agency added as a user | Google says verified profiles are more likely to show in results. 96% of the top 3 were claimed. |
| 2. Use your real name | Match the name on your signage and website exactly. No suburbs, services or slogans added | Google’s guidelines ban location and service details in the name, with suspension as the risk |
| 3. Pick the primary category | Choose the most specific category that describes what the business is. Add only a few extras | Google says to use as few categories as possible. 92% of the top 3 had a matching primary category |
| 4. Set the address or service area | Show your address only if customers visit you. Otherwise hide it and set a realistic service area | Google’s service-area rules. Distance changed 61 of 90 top 3 spots in our comparison |
| 5. Add hours, including holidays | Enter regular customer-facing hours and update special hours for public holidays | Google lists hours as part of complete info. 99% of the top 3 had hours |
| 6. Link the right page | Link to your homepage, or to the matching location page if you have several offices | 97% of the top 3 had a website link. Your site also feeds relevance |
| 7. Write the description and services | Describe what you do and where, in plain words, and fill in the services list | Google says complete, detailed info helps it match you to searches |
| 8. Add real photos | Your team, your work, your premises or vehicles. Add a few each month | Google recommends photos and videos. Top 3 median 23.5 photos against 14 |
| 9. Ask every customer for a review | Send your Google review link or QR code after each job. Never offer anything in return | Google and the ACCC both prohibit incentives and fake reviews. Top 3 median 66 reviews against 31 |
| 10. Reply to reviews | Thank people briefly, and answer complaints calmly and honestly | Google says replies show you value feedback and help you stand out |
| 11. Earn mentions on other sites | Industry bodies, local directories, suppliers, local news. Keep your name, address and phone the same everywhere | Google says prominence is partly based on how many websites link to your business |
| 12. Check AI answers | Ask ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Mode for your service in your city and note who they name | Map pack businesses were named by AI in our study, but not all of them |
How your Google Business Profile carries into AI answers
Your profile no longer only feeds the map. In our shared study on 24 September 2026, we asked ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Mode for shortlists across 24 buying searches, from family lawyers in Melbourne to dentists on the Gold Coast. Google showed a map pack for 22 of those searches, with 64 businesses in total.
36 of those 64 map pack businesses (56%) were named by at least one AI answer, and the map pack #1 was named in 15 of the 22 searches. The assistants were not equal. Google AI Mode, which sits inside Google, named the most map pack businesses. Claude named the fewest.
Two cautions. First, being in the map pack does not guarantee an AI mention: for “seo consultant sydney”, none of the three map pack businesses was named by any assistant. Second, AI answers change from run to run, so treat one check as a snapshot. Our guide to AEO for local businesses explains how assistants pull local data, and how to show up in Google AI Mode covers Google’s own AI surface. If you want the difference between the assistants, see our comparison of ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, and for the bigger picture, what GEO means for your business. This is the part of the work our AEO services focus on.
How we did this research
On 24 September 2026 we ran 36 Google Maps searches: family lawyer, builder, electrician, plumber, dentist and accountant, each followed by Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide or Gold Coast. Each search was set to the city centre (the GPO or town hall area) with the language set to English, and we recorded the top 20 results, 720 listings in all. For each listing we recorded rating, review count, categories, claimed status, website, opening hours, photo count and map position, and measured its distance from the city centre.
We marked a primary category as matching if it contained the service (for example “Family law attorney” for family lawyer, or any builder category for builder). We marked a name as containing the city or the service by simple text matching, which cannot tell a genuine registered name from a stuffed one. We ran the same searches a second time with the location set only to Australia, and compared the top 3 in the 30 searches outside Perth, because the Perth searches returned results from other states.
The AI figures come from our shared study of 24 prompts, each run once on 24 September 2026 through ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Mode, using the API versions of each assistant with web search switched on, not the consumer apps. The limits: this is one day, one device type and one search point per city. Our data shows what the top listings have in common. It cannot prove what caused them to rank.
Frequently asked questions
How do I optimise my Google Business Profile?
Good Google business profile optimisation starts with the basics: claim and verify it, use your real business name, choose the most specific primary category, and set your address or service area accurately. Then fill in hours, a website link, services, a description and real photos. After that, the ongoing work is asking every customer for a review and replying to them. In our study of 720 listings, the top 3 had a median of 66 reviews against 31 for the rest.
How many Google reviews do I need to get into the top 3?
It depends heavily on your trade and city. In our data the top 3 median ranged from 14 reviews for builders to 282 for dentists. A quarter of top 3 listings had fewer than 20 reviews, so a small, well-placed business can get there, but more genuine reviews than your nearby competitors is a sound target.
Does putting keywords in my business name help my Google Maps ranking?
Listings with the city and service in their name were more common in the top 3 in our data, 44% against 20%. But Google’s guidelines ban adding location or service details that are not part of your real-world name, and the penalty can be suspension. It is not worth risking the listing. Use your genuine name consistently everywhere.
Can I pay Google for a better map ranking?
No. Google states that “there’s no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google.” You can pay for Google Ads, but those are labelled as sponsored and sit apart from the organic map ranking.
Is Google My Business the same as Google Business Profile?
Yes. Google My Business was the old name, and the product is now called Google Business Profile. Advice written about Google My Business optimisation, or Google business profile optimization in US spelling, applies to your profile today as long as it matches Google’s current guidelines.
Does my Google Business Profile affect ChatGPT and AI answers?
It appears to. In our shared study, 56% of Google map pack businesses were named by at least one AI assistant, and Google AI Mode named them most often. The profile is not the only input, though. Reviews on other sites, directories and your own website also shape what assistants say about you.
If you would like someone to go through your profile and your website together and tell you what is holding you back in your area, that is part of what our local SEO work for Australian businesses covers. And if you are still deciding whether to hire help at all, our comparison of an SEO consultant vs an agency is a fair place to start.
