The free asset that drives the map pack — and the one almost every Hamilton business neglects.
Your Google Business Profile decides whether you appear in the map pack. It costs nothing. And in nearly every Hamilton audit we run, it's the single biggest gap.
Your primary category does more work than almost anything else on the profile. Be specific and be accurate. "Auto repair shop" and "panelbeater" are not the same search, and picking the wrong one quietly costs you every relevant query.
Volume, recency and rating all feed the local ranking — and they're also what the customer uses to choose. Reply to all of them, good and bad; it signals an active business and it's read by the next customer.
The system that works: a short review link, sent by text, immediately after you've done good work. Not a sticker on the counter.
Never buy reviews. Google penalises it, and fabricated reviews breach the Fair Trading Act in New Zealand. We won't do it for anyone, at any price.
List every service you offer, using the words your customers actually type. This is a free place to tell Google precisely what you do — and most businesses leave it blank.
Real, recent, plentiful. Your actual van, your actual team, your actual premises. Profiles with genuine photos get more engagement than those with a logo and a stock image, and customers can tell the difference instantly.
Name, address and phone identical everywhere — your site, Google, Facebook, directories. Inconsistency muddies the signal and loses you calls.
Low effort, modest benefit, and a signal the profile is alive. Worth ten minutes a week.
Seriously. If your profile is half-finished and you've never asked for a review, fixing that will do more for your Hamilton rankings than the first six months of a cheap SEO retainer. We'd rather tell you that than take your money for work you didn't need yet.
Score yourself on the free checklist →
Get a free, no-obligation SEO audit. We'll show you exactly where you rank now, who's beating you, and what it would take to overtake them.