Google7 min read
How do I show up on Google Maps in Bude?
Claim and verify a Google Business Profile, pick the right primary category, set the hours and service area, add this month's photos, and ask every happy customer for a review. Then make sure your name, address and phone match on your website and everywhere else Google looks. The map pack rewards complete, current, reviewed profiles.
Written by Leonard Millard
Published Updated
What decides who shows up in the map?
Google says it weighs three things: relevance, distance and prominence. Relevance is how well your profile matches what somebody typed. Distance is how far you are from them, or from the place they named. Prominence is how well known and how well documented you are across the web, reviews included.
You cannot move your business closer to a visitor standing on the Strand. You can do a great deal about the other two, and most of it is free and takes an afternoon.
Do I need a shop front to appear on Google Maps?
No. If you go to your customers rather than the other way round, which covers most builders, electricians, plumbers and roofers, Google's own guidance is to run a service-area profile: one profile for the base, the address hidden, and a service area drawn around it. Google asks that the area stays inside about two hours of driving time, which from Bude covers North Cornwall, Torridge and a good deal of West Devon.
Hiding the address is not a trick. It is the example Google itself gives, of a plumber running the business from a residential address. What you lose in the shop-front signal you get back by being eligible across the whole area you actually drive to.
How many reviews do I need?
More than you have, almost certainly, and fresher. The best evidence on this is American, so read the direction rather than the decimal point, but the direction is not subtle.
of consumers say they will not use a business with fewer than 20 reviews, and 74% only care about reviews written in the last three months. US survey of 1,002 consumers, February 2026.
Recency is the part people miss. Forty reviews from 2021 read as a business that used to be good. Six from this month read as a business that is open. Ask every happy customer, in person, on the day. A card by the till with a short link on it does more than any software.
Then reply to them, and reply as yourself.
of consumers expect a business to reply to reviews, and 50% are put off by replies that read as a template. US survey of 1,002 consumers, February 2026.
Never buy reviews and never offer a discount in exchange for a good one: it breaks Google's rules, and under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 fake and undisclosed incentivised reviews are a banned practice.
Why do my opening hours matter so much?
Because they are the one fact on the profile that can send somebody on a wasted drive. Picture a family coming in from Widemouth on a wet Tuesday in October because the listing says open. They will not ring to check. They will write about it.
of consumers said they would avoid a business if they found incorrect information about it online. US survey, 2023.
Set the regular hours, then set the special hours for bank holidays, Christmas and the weeks you close in January. It takes five minutes twice a year and it is the single cheapest thing on this page.
What should I actually fill in?
| The field | What to put in it | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Primary category | The one word for what you are: café, holiday park, electrician, surf school | It decides which searches you are even eligible for. Extra categories help; the primary one decides |
| Business name | Your name as it is on the sign. Nothing else | Stuffing a town or a service into the name breaks Google's rules and can get the profile suspended |
| Hours and special hours | Regular hours, plus bank holidays and the winter closure | It is the fact most likely to be wrong, and the one that costs you a customer and a review |
| Service area | The towns you actually travel to, inside about two hours' drive | For a business without a shop front, this is what puts you on the map at all |
| Photographs | This month's, taken on your phone, of the real place and the real food | A profile with current photographs looks open. A 2019 gallery looks shut |
| Services list | Every job you do, with the starting price where you have one | It is a text field Google reads, and most local profiles leave it empty |
| Questions and answers | Ask and answer the questions you get on the phone: parking, dogs, deposits | You are allowed to answer your own. If you do not, somebody else will |
Scroll the table sideways →
of small businesses have a Google Business Profile at all. US survey of 778 small business owners, 2025.
more likely: Google's own guidance says people are 2.7 times more likely to consider a business reputable when its profile is complete, 70% more likely to visit and 50% more likely to consider buying.
Does my website still matter?
Yes, and more than it did. Google cross-checks the profile against the rest of the web. If your name, your address and your phone number read differently on your site, your Facebook page and an old directory listing, that is a business Google is less sure about. Make the three match, character for character, then point the profile at a page that answers the same question the searcher asked.
What to do this week
- Claim and verify the profile, if you have not. It is free and it is the single biggest lever here.
- Fix the primary category, the hours and the special hours, in that order.
- Put six current photographs on it, taken this month on your phone.
- Ask three customers for a review today, and reply to every review you already have.
- Check your name, address and phone number match on your website exactly.
If you would rather somebody else did it, that is our Google Business Profile and local SEO work, with the profile set up and verified for £90. Or send us your web address for a free website check and we will tell you what your listing looks like from the outside. What the searches look like in Bude itself, and the sites we have built on the town's own streets, are on our page for web design in Bude.
Quick questions about the map
How much does it cost to be on Google Maps?
Nothing. A Google Business Profile is free to set up and free to keep. What it costs is the time to set it up properly and keep it current. If you would rather we did it, we set up and verify the profile for £90, and ongoing search work is part of our Marketing Presence plan, from £345 a month.
My listing shows the wrong hours. How do I fix it?
Claim the profile if you have not already, then correct the hours from inside it, special hours included. Anyone can suggest an edit to a public listing, so look at it again after every bank holiday and every change of season. If Google has changed something you did not, change it back and keep your website saying the same thing.
Can somebody else manage my profile for me?
Yes. Stay the owner and add them as a manager, so they can update the profile without ever holding your Google password. That is the safe way to let anyone look after it, us included, and you can take their access away at any time without changing anything else on your account.