How to rank higher on Google Maps as an installer

How Google Maps ranking works

Google ranks businesses in the map results mainly on relevance, distance and prominence. You can improve relevance and prominence. You can't change distance.

Here's how Google describes each one:

Google also says "there's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking". Ads can appear above the map results, but they're paid placements and sit apart from where you show. Anyone who promises you a guaranteed top spot is selling something Google says doesn't exist.

For a solar, battery or heat pump installer, that leaves a clear job: make your profile the most relevant answer, become the best-known installer near your base, and give Google every reason to trust you.

The local ranking factors experts rate highest

Local search experts agree that your primary category, your distance from the searcher and your reviews matter most.

Google doesn't publish a full list of ranking signals. A 2026 survey asked 47 local search experts which factors matter most for the map results. These were their top ten, with what each means for an installer:

Ten steps to rank higher in the map results

Work through these steps in order. The first five fix your profile. The last five build your reputation.

1. Verify your Google Business Profile

   Google says verification makes your business more likely to appear in results. Until then, your new photos and posts stay hidden. Our verification guide covers the options.

2. Get your profile right

   Fill in everything: primary category, additional categories, description, contact details and attributes. Our Google Business Profile optimisation checklist goes through each part.

3. Set your service area and hide your address

   If homeowners don't visit you, Google says to hide your address. Add up to 20 towns or postcodes within about two hours' drive.

4. List every service you install

   Solar panels, batteries, heat pumps, EV chargers and servicing. Homeowners search for the job, so each service gives Google another match.

5. Keep your information updated

   Ensure your hours are right, including bank holidays: Google's tips say to keep them up to date, special hours included. Many local SEOs believe regular updates show Google you're active. Either way, accurate hours stop you losing calls.

6. Ask every customer for a review

   Review counts and ratings feed prominence, says Google. Ask at the handover, every time. Our guide on how to get more Google reviews has the system.

7. Reply to every review

   Google's tips say to respond to reviews. A short, personal reply to each one shows homeowners you care how the job went.

8. Add real photos every month

   Finished arrays, battery installs, heat pump units, your team and your van. Your own work, not stock images.

9. Build a page for each service and town

   Your website feeds relevance and prominence. A clear page for each service and each town you cover gives Google more to match, and ranks in the normal results below the map too.

10. Earn local links and listings

    Google says links to your website count towards prominence. Ask suppliers, trade bodies, local groups and community pages you genuinely work with to list and link to you.

Why you rank in one town but not the next

Distance is measured from the person searching, so your position changes from street to street.

Google says it uses the searcher's location, or what it knows about them if they don't share it. So the results you see on your phone at the yard aren't what a homeowner sees fifteen miles away. Most installers rank strongly near their base and fade further out.

Experts rate the distance between your address and the searcher as the second biggest factor, and that still applies when your address is hidden. Google doesn't say your service area setting widens where you rank. That's why the towns further from your base are usually won on your website, with a strong page for each town, rather than in the map pack alone.

Our renewable energy SEO work does exactly that: the profile for the area round your base, and the pages for every town beyond it.

Compare yourself with the top three

The quickest way to see what to fix is to compare your profile with the three businesses in the local pack for your main search.

Do a maps search for your main service and town, for example "solar panels Doncaster" or "heat pump installer Doncaster". Then note these for each of the top three:

You won't beat a business on distance if it's based in the town and you're not. You can match or beat it on category, services, photos, reviews and website pages. Those are the gaps to close first.

How your website and links help you climb

Your website and the sites that link to it feed prominence, the part of your position you build over time.

Make sure your website shows the same name, number and areas as your profile, with a page for each service and each town you cover. Then earn links from real local connections:

• Suppliers and manufacturers that list the installers they work with
• Trade bodies and schemes you belong to
• Local business groups, clubs and events you sponsor
• Local news when you do something worth reporting
• Directories homeowners actually use

Don't buy links. Google's spam policies class buying or selling links for ranking purposes as link spam. A handful of genuine local links beats hundreds of paid ones.

How to check where you show on the map

Use a grid tool that searches from many points round your base, then track the average. One search on your own phone tells you almost nothing.

A grid tool runs the same search from a set of points, for example a seven by seven grid two miles apart, and records where you appear at each one. The average across the grid is the number to watch, month by month.

That's from a grid check for our client SolarSave. We don't take the credit: most of the move came before their new website went live, and the cause isn't clear. We show it because it's how we measure, not as proof of a method.

Alongside the grid, check the calls, website clicks and direction requests in your profile's performance report. Ranking higher only matters if it brings you more enquiries.

What won't help, and can get you suspended

Shortcuts that break Google's guidelines can get your profile suspended, which takes you off the map altogether.

• Adding keywords to your business name.
• Using a virtual office or an address you don't work from.
• Creating a second profile for the same location.
• Buying reviews, or offering discounts for them.
• Paying anyone who promises a guaranteed number one spot.

Google says it may suspend profiles that don't follow its guidelines. If it's already happened, our guide to a suspended Google Business Profile explains how to get it back.

Questions about climbing the map results