Why isn't my plumbing business showing on Google Maps?
Check suspension first, then your primary category, then your opening hours. Plumbers hit one problem other trades don't: emergency searches favour businesses shown as open, so a profile with standard nine-to-five hours vanishes from exactly the searches you most want.
The opening hours trap
This one is specific to trades that take emergency work, and plumbers feel it hardest. Somebody searching at eleven at night is looking for help now, and results shown as closed are far less useful to them.
If you take emergency calls but your profile says you shut at five, you're invisible for the searches with the highest urgency and the least price sensitivity in your entire trade. If you don't take them, saying so honestly is better than a 24-hour claim you won't answer.
Work through these in order
- Is the profile suspended? Nothing else matters until it's back.
- Is the primary category Plumber? Broad alternatives like Contractor cap your relevance for plumbing searches.
- Do your hours reflect reality, including emergency availability?
- Is the address hidden with service areas set? Most plumbers work from home or a van, and a displayed residential address is a common route to suspension.
- Where did you search from? Position changes street by street, and searching from your own kitchen flatters you.
What most people get wrong
Adding the town and the word emergency into the business name. It moves things briefly, which is why the advice keeps circulating, and it's also a guideline breach that competitors report. Losing the profile entirely costs far more than the small gain, particularly in a trade where the map pack is where the phone calls come from.
The other mistake is assuming a problem when the answer is distance. You'll rank strongly near your base and weakly at the edge of your patch, and no amount of work removes that.
Related questions
Should I set 24-hour opening?
Only if somebody answers at 3am. The visibility gain is real, and so is the review damage when the phone rings out.
Can I have separate profiles for emergency and general plumbing?
No. One business, one profile. Multiple profiles for the same business is a suspension risk.
My competitor is further away but ranks higher.
Proximity is one factor among several. More reviews, a longer-established profile or a better-matched category can all outweigh being slightly closer.
Can't work out why you've dropped?
Send your business name and postcode. We'll check your position from several points across your area and tell you which of the causes above it actually is.