Google Business Profile is a powerful tool to promote local businesses to compete against competitors. Maintaining a strong online presence and providing potential customers with a way to find you and the services you offer is paramount. Most businesses with storefronts or physical addresses linked to their profiles can include a map pin to show their customers where they are located. However, this isn’t the case for all businesses.
When you can use a map pin
As mentioned above, if you have a physical address for your business, such as a retail store, café, or a brick-and-mortar establishment – a place where your customer can come to you, then a map pin is essential. It provides a visual location on the map so customers can find you and get directions.
When you can’t use a map pin
Home-based business. If you are a home-based business and you don’t wish to share your address, a map pin isn’t for you. You may provide services where you go to your customers, but they don’t come to you. This may be the case if you are a freelancer, consulting service, or provide a mobile service that doesn’t require a storefront – perhaps you’re a plumber, pool maintenance service, or gardener.
How can you improve visibility without a map pin?
There are other optimisation strategies such as ensuring you include your geographical service areas on your listings, including them in your metadata and website on-page optimisation, on a geo-location webpage and your contact us page, along with a map showing your service areas. It’s not the end of the world if you can’t have a pin on your map listing as you should be looking at your overall ranking factors including your services and location, reputation, brand awareness, and promotional activities. There are plenty of other optimisation enhancements you can make to your profile too and if you do this frequently and consistently, you’ll reap the benefits, with or without a map pin.