How to get your business on Google Maps in Montreal

Google's three factors

• Relevance: does your profile match what the person is looking for? Categories, services and description.
• Distance: how far you are from the person or the place they searched.
• Prominence: how well known and well rated your business is. Reviews, mentions on other sites, links to your website and history.

The steps, in order

1. Create and verify your Google Business Profile. Without verification you do not show up at all.
2. Pick the right primary category (for example "Website designer" or "Tutoring service") and a few secondary ones.
3. Use exactly the same name, address and phone everywhere: Google, Bing, Apple, Facebook, directories.
4. Add real photos: your team, your place, your work. Then keep adding them.
5. Ask your real customers for reviews, simply, with your review link. Reply to every review.
6. Post an update from time to time: an offer, a project, news.
7. Have a website with a page for each service and each area you serve.

What never to do

• Buy reviews or write your own: Google detects them and can suspend your profile.
• Stuff keywords into the business name (for example "Cheap Plumber Montreal"): it breaks Google's rules.
• Use a fake address or a PO box.

How long does it take?

A newly verified profile can start appearing within a few weeks. Getting into the top 3 for competitive searches usually takes several months and a steady flow of real reviews.

We can do it for you

At STELLAIRE we set up your Google Business, Bing and Apple listings, prepare your photos and build the local pages of your website, in English and French.

Frequently asked questions