6 Reasons Your New Jersey Business Isn’t Showing Up on Google Maps

You know that feeling when you search for “coffee shop near me” and three places pop up in that little map box at the top of Google? That’s the local pack, and if your business isn’t in it, you’re invisible to about 93% of people searching for what you do.

I’ve spent the last six months rebuilding my own agency’s local presence from scratch, and I can tell you: getting into that map isn’t magic. It’s fixable stuff. Here are the six reasons you’re probably not showing up, and what to do about them. And don’t worry! I’ve made just about every single one of these mistakes myself, so take a page from my book and save yourself some headache.

1. You Haven’t Actually Verified Your Google Business Profile

This sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised. Or maybe you wouldn’t, because Google makes verification weirdly difficult, especially if you run your business from home or don’t have a storefront with a giant sign out front.

I just went through this myself. Magic Bullet Studios operates from my home office in Englewood. No signage, no walk-in traffic. Google’s default verification method is mailing a postcard with a code to your address. Sounds simple, except the postcard can take 2-3 weeks to arrive, and if you miss the 30-day window to enter the code, you start over. Likewise, if you are using the video submission method it’s entirely possible that Google doesn’t see what they expect to see and when you are rejected, there’s very little in the way of explanation.

Here’s what most people don’t realize: Google won’t show unverified businesses in the local pack. Period. You might show up in regular search results, but that map box with the top three spots? You’re not getting in without verification.

How to verify:

• Postcard is still the most common method (check your mail obsessively for 2-3 weeks)
• Phone verification works for some business types (Google decides, not you)
• Email verification is rare but happens for established businesses
• Video verification is newer and requires you to film a walkthrough of your business location (Google’s video verification guide)

If you’re stuck in verification limbo, don’t create a second profile. Google will penalize duplicate listings harder than having no listing at all.

2. Your Business Information Is All Over the Place

Google doesn’t just look at your Google Business Profile. It crawls the entire internet trying to figure out if you’re legitimate. If your business name is “ABC Plumbing LLC” on your website, “ABC Plumbing” on Facebook, and “ABC Plumbing Services” on Yelp, Google gets confused. Confused Google doesn’t rank you.

This is called NAP consistency (Name, Address, Phone), and it’s tedious but critical. I’ve seen businesses with 15+ variations of their address across different directories because someone abbreviated “Street” as “St” in some places and spelled it out in others.

Quick audit:

• Google your business name + city
• Open every directory listing that appears (Yelp, Yellow Pages, Facebook, etc.)
• Write down exactly how your NAP appears on each one
• Make a master document with your official formatting
• Start updating every inconsistent listing

Yes, this is boring work. Yes, it matters. BrightLocal’s research shows that consistent citations are one of the top factors Google uses to validate local businesses.

Pro tip: If you’re an LLC, think hard about whether you want “LLC” in your public-facing name. I recently stripped “LLC” from all my public profiles and schema markup because nobody searches for “Magic Bullet, LLC,” that’s just what it says on my checks. They search for “Magic Bullet Studios.” Make it easier for Google to match your brand.

3. You Have Zero Reviews (Or They Look Fake)

Here’s an uncomfortable truth: a business with no reviews looks newer or less legitimate than a business with 50 reviews and a 4.2-star average. Google knows this. Consumers know this. You probably know this from your own behavior.

But here’s what trips people up: review velocity matters. If you suddenly get 10 five-star reviews in one week after months of nothing, Google’s spam filters start paying attention. If all your reviews use similar language or were clearly written by the same person, you’re getting flagged.

The right way to get reviews:

• Ask customers immediately after completing good work
• Send a direct link to your Google review page (shorter URL = more completions)
• Don’t offer incentives (Google prohibits this and can detect patterns)
• Spread requests out over time (aim for 2-4 new reviews per month, not 20 in one burst)

The wrong way:

• Buying reviews (Google will nuke your entire profile)
• Writing your own reviews from different accounts (they can tell)
• Review swaps with other businesses (also detectable)

I know it feels awkward to ask for reviews. Do it anyway. According to Google, review quantity and rating are significant factors in local pack rankings.

4. Your Primary Category Is Wrong

Google Business Profile lets you choose one primary category and multiple secondary categories. Your primary category is essentially telling Google, “This is what I am.” Get it wrong and you won’t show up for your actual service.

I see this mistake constantly. A plumber picks “Contractor” as their primary category because it sounds more professional. But when someone searches “emergency plumber near me,” Google prioritizes businesses with “Plumber” or “Emergency Plumbing Service” as their primary category.

How to research the right category:

1. Search for your main service + your city in Google Maps
2. Click on the top 3 businesses that show up in the local pack
3. Look at what primary category they’re using (it’s listed right under their business name)
4. Check if those businesses are actually similar to yours

For Magic Bullet Studios, I landed on “Marketing Agency” as primary because I’m offering the full spectrum of services (SEO, web design, digital marketing strategy). Even though I focus heavily on SEO, “Marketing Agency” cast the net wide enough to show up for various local business searches while still being specific enough to compete.

Don’t just guess. Google has hundreds of categories, and some are far more competitive than others. You can see the full list of categories in your GBP dashboard or check out this categorization tool by Pleper.

5. Your Website and Google Business Profile Don’t Talk to Each Other

This is the technical one, but it’s not as scary as it sounds. Google wants to confirm that your website and your Google Business Profile actually belong to the same business. The way you tell Google this is through schema markup.

Schema is just code on your website that says, “Hey Google, here’s my business name, here’s my address, here’s my phone number, and here’s my Google Business Profile URL.” When Google crawls your site and sees this information matching your GBP, it builds trust.

Minimum schema you need:

• LocalBusiness schema on your homepage (or Organization schema if you’re broader than local)
• Your exact NAP as it appears on your GBP
• A link to your Google Business Profile (yes, you can link to it from your site)

You can test your schema using Google’s Rich Results Test. Just paste in your homepage URL and it’ll tell you what Google sees. If you’re not sure what you’re looking at or need schema implemented properly, we build sites with this stuff baked in from day one.

Also critical: Your website needs to be mobile-friendly. Over 60% of Google searches happen on mobile devices, and Google knows that local searches (“near me” queries) are overwhelmingly mobile. If your site doesn’t work on a phone, you’re not ranking locally.

6. You’re Not Listed in Enough Directories

Think of online directories like votes of confidence. The more high-quality directories that list your business with consistent information, the more Google trusts you’re real.

I’m not talking about spammy directory submissions to 500 random sites. I’m talking about real places real people visit.

National directories everyone should be in:

• Yelp
• Better Business Bureau
• Yellow Pages
• Apple Maps
• Bing Places

Industry-specific directories for your field:

• If you’re a contractor: Houzz, Angie’s List, HomeAdvisor
• If you’re a restaurant: TripAdvisor, OpenTable, Grubhub
• If you’re a professional service: Avvo (lawyers), Healthgrades (doctors), etc.

New Jersey-specific directories:

• Bergen Showcase (if you’re in Bergen County – local business directory with good domain authority)
• NJ.com Business Directory
• Your local Chamber of Commerce
• Regional business associations

Bergen County businesses: Don’t sleep on Bergen Showcase. It’s a local directory with decent domain authority and actually gets used by people searching for services in the area. Getting listed takes 10 minutes and it’s one more citation pointing to your NAP. And it’s free.

Quality beats quantity here. Ten listings on reputable sites beat 100 listings on obscure directories that nobody uses. Moz’s Local Search Ranking Factors study consistently shows that citation signals (directory listings) are a top-10 ranking factor. Building and managing citations is tedious work but here’s our approach to citation building for NJ businesses.