Start with the likely ones
1. The profile isn’t verified. Unverified profiles get shown far less. Check for the verification badge in your Business Profile dashboard.
2. Your service area is wrong or empty. If you drive 25 miles and your profile says one town, Google shows you in one town. Set it to the areas you actually serve — and no further, because overreaching dilutes you everywhere.
3. Your primary category is close but not right. “Contractor” and “HVAC contractor” are different searches. The primary category does most of the work; secondary ones fill gaps.
4. Your name, address and phone don’t match across the web. Google cross-references. An old address on your Facebook page or a previous number on a directory listing makes it trust the whole set less.
5. Your hours are wrong or missing. Profiles with incomplete hours show less, and “Open now” is one of the most-used filters.
6. No recent photos. A profile that hasn’t been touched in two years looks closed. Photos are also one of the few things you control that visibly affects engagement.
7. Few or no recent reviews. Recency matters as much as count. Ten reviews from this year beat forty from 2019.
The two that need help
8. You’re outside the map area for that search. Google draws the map around the searcher, not around you. If you’re 30 miles out, you may simply be off the edge. This is a real constraint, not a fixable setting — it’s why service-area strategy matters.
9. A duplicate or suspended listing. Old profiles from a previous owner or a franchise can compete with yours. Merging them is fiddly and worth getting help with.
What to do first
Work down that list in order. Items one through seven are free, take an afternoon, and account for most of the cases we see. If you’d rather have someone look at it with you, the first half hour is free whether or not there’s a territory open near you.