The free asset that drives the map pack. It's the biggest lever most Bay of Plenty businesses have — and the one they neglect most.
For a local search — "dentist near me", "plumber Papamoa" — the three map results sit above everything else. For most Tauranga businesses, that block is the search result. And it's driven mostly by your Google Business Profile, which costs nothing.
Your primary category does more work than almost anything else on the profile. Be specific and accurate: "general contractor" and "bathroom remodeler" surface for entirely different searches. Add every secondary category that genuinely applies. Most profiles have one and stop.
If you travel to customers, define the areas you actually cover: Papamoa, Ōmokoroa, Te Puke, wherever. Don't claim the whole North Island — it dilutes relevance and it isn't true.
Volume, recency and rating all feed the local ranking, and they're what the customer uses to choose — especially the new arrivals who have nobody to ask.
The system that works: a short review link, sent by text, immediately after good work. Not a hopeful 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, in the words customers actually use. This is a free place to tell Google exactly what you do — and most businesses leave it blank.
Real, recent, plentiful. Your van, your team, your work. Profiles with genuine photos get more engagement than those with a logo and a stock image, and people can tell instantly.
Every review, good and bad. It signals an active, real business — to Google, and to the next person deciding whether to trust you.
If your profile is half-finished and you've never asked for a review, fixing that will do more for your Tauranga rankings than the first six months of a cheap SEO retainer. We'd rather tell you that than take money for work you didn't need yet.
Get a free, no-obligation SEO audit. We'll show you where you rank in the suburbs that matter, who's beating you, and what it would take to change that.