Can Indianapolis Find You?

Check it: Search your business name on Google, signed in to the Google account you think owns it. You should see buttons like Edit profile and Performance. If you see Own this business? instead, it isn’t claimed, or someone else claimed it. A former web person is the usual suspect.

Fix it, free: Go to business.google.com, search your name, and follow the steps. Verification is by phone, text, email, video, or postcard, depending on what Google offers you. It’s free. If a stranger calls offering to “activate” your listing for a fee, hang up. If a past agency owns it, ask them to add you as owner, then take them off.

Check it: In your profile, open Edit profile, then Business information, and read the category at the top. Then search your main service in Google Maps and tap the top three results. Look at what they picked.

Fix it, free: Choose the one category that matches the work that pays your bills. Add secondary categories only for things you really do. Don’t add one because a competitor has it and you’d like their calls.

Check it: Compare the hours on your profile to your front door and your website. Then look at the next holiday on the calendar. Did you set special hours for it?

Fix it, free: Open Edit profile, then Business information, then Hours. Use Special hours for holidays and weather closures. It takes 10 minutes. Put a reminder on the calendar before Thanksgiving.

Check it: Look at your profile the way a customer would, on Google Maps. Does the pin sit where you really are? If customers never come to you, is your home address hidden?

Fix it, free: Open Edit profile, then Business location and Service areas. If customers visit you, show the address. If they don’t, hide it and list the towns you really serve, like Carmel or Greenwood. One honest catch: listing a town doesn’t make you rank there. Google weighs how close you are to the searcher, so be realistic about your radius.

Check it: Open Edit profile, then Business information, then Description. Is it empty, a single line, or a list of keywords?

Fix it, free: Write it like you’d say it to a neighbor. Lead with what you do and where, for example: “Family-owned HVAC company serving Carmel, Fishers, and the north side of Indianapolis. Same-day repairs, upfront prices.” Then say what makes you different. Skip the web addresses and phone numbers. Google doesn’t allow links in it.

Check it: In Edit profile, open Services (or Products, if you sell things). Is it blank, or full of your own jargon?

Fix it, free: Add every service you really sell, one line each, with a sentence about what’s included. Add a price or “starting at” where the profile lets you. Begin with the five jobs you’d hate to lose.

Check it: Search your name on Maps and open the Photos tab. Are any of them yours? Is the newest one from this year, or from years ago?

Fix it, free: Add your logo, a clear shot of the outside so people can spot the building, your team, and finished jobs. Real photos beat stock. Upload about 10 now, then 2 or 3 a month. Your phone is good enough.

Check it: Open your reviews and sort by Newest. How long ago was the last one?

Fix it, free: This week, text your 3 happiest recent customers a direct review link (the item after next shows how). Then keep a steady pace. A slow drip beats one big push.

Check it: Look at the number next to your star rating. Then check your closest competitor’s number. That gap is what you’re closing.

Fix it, free: There’s no shortcut, and you wouldn’t want one. Don’t buy reviews. Don’t offer discounts for them either; Google removes both and can penalize the profile. A system gets you there. At 4 new reviews a month from a standing start, you’d reach 40 in 10 months.

Check it: Scroll through your reviews and count the ones with no reply.

Fix it, free: Reply within a couple of days. Use the customer’s first name and mention the job. For a bad review, say sorry once, say what you’ll do, offer a phone number, and stop. No arguing and no private details. A reply is public.

Check it: Could you send a review link from your phone in under a minute? Test it now by sending one to a friend.

Fix it, free: On your profile, look for Ask for reviews or Get more reviews to copy your short link. Save it as a text shortcut on your phone. Send it when the job wraps or the table pays. Ask everyone, including the customers you’re unsure about. Google doesn’t allow screening out the unhappy ones.

Check it: Search your phone number in quotes, then your business name with “Indianapolis.” List every place you appear: Google, your website, Facebook, Yelp, Apple, Bing, any trade directory. Compare the name, suite number, abbreviations, and phone.

Fix it, free: Pick one exact version and write it down. Paste it into every listing. Fix the ones you control first (your site footer, Facebook, Yelp), then ask the directories to correct the rest. Don’t get us wrong, this part is boring. Do it anyway.

Check it: On your phone, tap the Website button on your profile. Does it load? Do you get a “Not secure” warning, or a bounce through 2 other addresses?

Fix it, free: Open Edit profile, then Contact, then Website. Use the exact address your site uses: https, and with or without www, matching everywhere else. If you have several locations, link each profile to its own page.

Check it: Open your homepage and read the text in the browser tab. Then read the biggest heading on the page.

Fix it, free: Aim for something like “Furnace repair in Indianapolis | Smith Heating”, under about 60 characters. Make the main heading say the same thing in plain words. Name your towns once, in a “where we work” line. We’d skip a separate page for every suburb. A thin page per town tends to read as filler.

Check it: Turn off Wi-Fi and open your site on your phone. How long until you can read it? Try tapping your phone number. For a second opinion, run your address through pagespeed.web.dev, which is free.

Fix it, free: The usual culprits are giant photos, plugins you don’t use, and a phone number that’s plain text. Resize photos before you upload them, delete the extra plugins, and make the number a tap-to-call link. Any web person can add that in a minute.

Check it: Search your business in the Maps app on an iPhone, on Bing Maps, on Yelp, and on Facebook. Is each one there? Does it match Google?

Fix it, free: Claim Apple Business Connect (businessconnect.apple.com), Bing Places (bingplaces.com), Yelp for Business, and your Facebook page. Bing Places can import from your Google profile in a few clicks. Use the one exact name, address, and phone from the earlier item.

Check it: Search your business on Google and look for updates or posts on your profile. What’s the date on the latest one?

Fix it, free: Once a month, post a photo of a recent job with 2 sentences, or a seasonal reminder like furnace tune-ups before the first cold snap. It takes 10 minutes. Set a repeating calendar reminder, because you won’t remember otherwise.

Check it: Search your business name while signed in and tap Performance. Look at calls, direction requests, and website clicks for the last 30 days.

Fix it, free: Write today’s 3 numbers in a note or a sheet, and look again on the same day next month. If calls rise after you fix photos and reviews, you’ll see it. If they don’t, that’s worth a conversation.