Does Google know who your business is? A Canberra local SEO check

The fast half of local SEO in Canberra: one Google listing and the same name, address, phone and hours everywhere. What to check, fix and measure.

The short version. For a Canberra trade, clinic or shop, the fast half of local SEO is making Google certain which business you are: one Google listing, and the same name, address, phone number, hours and category on your website, its code, your Business Profile, Apple, Bing, the directories and Facebook, with service areas that match.

Why identity is the fast half

In my last post I split local SEO into a slow half and a fast half. Reviews, links and the website take months. The fast half is repair, and most of it is identity.

On Google Maps it is the business that ranks, not the website alone. Google says local results depend on relevance, distance and prominence, and that prominence draws on what it knows about a business from across the web, directories included. Each mention is a reference. When one has an old address, another an old name, and there are two listings, Google has to guess.

The way I put it to clients: get the whole digital identity matched, so Google can trust you. AI assistants lean on the same references when they describe a business.

What to check first

Search Google Maps for your business name, your phone number, and any old name or old address. Count the listings and note anything out of date.

Then look at your website’s footer, contact page and structured data, the code that states your name, address, phone and hours for machines to read (ask whoever built your site). When I checked 160 Canberra trade websites on 8 October 2026, 76 of the 144 homepages that loaded (53%) had none of the local-business kind.

Write it down once

Copy every listing from one reference card, character for character.

Name: the name you trade under, with no suburb or service added. Google’s guidelines don’t allow that.
Address: one address, written one way. Google’s guidelines allow a shown address only if it is staffed and you serve customers there during your hours. If customers never come to you, hide it and list service areas; if they do and you also travel, show it and add service areas.
Phone: one main number, the one on your Google profile. An after-hours line can go on your website, but not as the main number and not in the structured data.
Hours: your real opening hours, one set, the same everywhere. Use “Open 24 hours” only if you really serve customers around the clock.
Category: the most specific primary category Google offers, and the nearest match on each directory.
Website: one address, the same on every listing (a tracking tag on the end is fine).
Service areas: the places you actually cover, up to the 20 Google allows, with the same list on your website.

The card goes on your Business Profile and website, Apple Business Connect and Bing Places (free, about ten minutes each to fill in; publishing can take weeks), the directories (Yellow Pages, True Local, Hotfrog, Localsearch, Localista, Yelp, plus your trade’s own), and Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.

Common ways it breaks

Two Google listings. On 27 September a bathroom renovator I work with had two: the older one had all the reviews; the newer one, made when the business took on new premises, had none. The review link we were using and the code of the new website I was building both pointed at the empty one. If you move, edit the address on the profile you have; a second profile is only for a second staffed location.
A move that only half happened. On 11 October the renovator’s old address was still on several other sites, and its Google description still used the old name and suburb.
A renamed business. The same check found an old or slightly different name on other sites, duplicate listings on one directory, and links to an old website.
Listings you can’t log in to. On 11 October the renovator’s Facebook Page had been created by its previous agency, and the login for one directory listing was unaccounted for. You can’t correct what you can’t log in to.
A vague service area. On 11 October the renovator’s profile listed one suburb “and nearby areas”.
Hours that disagree. A profile that says “Open 24 hours” while the website gives real opening times. Decide the real hours and put them everywhere.
One phone number, two businesses. Our Bing listing had been pending since early September, most likely because my other project’s listing used the same mobile number. I deleted that one on 8 October; on 11 October Bing still showed nothing for us, so the shared number may not be the whole story.
Small differences. On 11 October three of our own listings were incomplete or slightly off. They are easy to miss, so they stay.

What to fix, in order

The logins. Be the primary owner of your Google profile, and remove managers you no longer work with, including an old agency.
One Google listing. Keep the one with the reviews and history, and report any other to Google as a duplicate of it. After a merge, make a new review link: the renovator’s old one died with the listing it belonged to.
The Google profile: details first, then categories one at a time. Correct the profile to match the card. On 30 September Google refused part of our category change, which bundled several categories into one edit, as “business identity changed”, and our appeal was not approved. The lesson: one category per edit, two to three weeks apart, with no other edits that day.
The website. Footer, contact page, a list of the areas you serve (not a page for every suburb) and the structured data, all saying what the profile says. On 8 October our structured data gained our ABN and a link to our new Facebook Page. On 14 October our profile’s 19 service areas matched the 19 on our site.
Apple and Bing. Claim both. Apple may already have an unclaimed listing for you; ours and the renovator’s both did. Bing can import from Google once Google is right.
Directories. Fix the listings you already have before adding new ones: claim, correct, and ask for duplicates to be removed. All six of our directory listings came from one card.
Social pages. Full address (if you show one on Google), phone and hours on Facebook and in your Instagram bio.

How to check it worked

Search yourself again. Your name, number, old name and old address should all lead to one listing with today’s details.
Open every listing in a browser and compare it with the card, line by line. Directories publish on their own schedule: on 11 October, three of the six we submitted on 7 and 8 October still weren’t publicly visible.
Measure it on the map. I use a 49-point grid: the business’s Google Maps position for a search from 49 points across Canberra, checked before any change and again a few weeks later. It is a measure, not a promise.

Closing remarks

My view: Google is being asked to send a customer to a business it has never met, and every listing is a reference. If one says you moved and another says you didn’t, I would hesitate too.

Identity also has to be right before the slow half can count. Reviews and links attach to a business; if Google sees two of you, new reviews can land on the wrong one, as the renovator’s would have through that link.

None of this promises a ranking. It is the part of local SEO you can actually finish. This week, search your business name and phone number on Google Maps and count the listings.

Not sure every listing says the same thing? Tell me about your business.