New Zealand · September 2026
It is free, it takes about twenty minutes, and for most trades it brings in more calls than a website does. Being straight with you upfront: we cannot claim it on your behalf, because it needs a verified New Zealand address and we are not in New Zealand. But this is the whole process, including the part about not publishing your home address.
It is the listing that appears on the right of a Google search for your business, and in the map results: the block of three businesses that sits above the ordinary results when somebody searches a trade and a town. That block gets the calls.
Here is the part most people do not realise: you probably already have one. Google builds rough listings from public records, phone books and what customers have said. Until somebody claims it, it sits there with no hours, no photos, and occasionally the wrong phone number, and you have no way to correct it.
It is free and always has been. If anybody offers to claim it for you for a fee, they are charging you for twenty minutes of your own afternoon. Managing it properly month after month is a real service. The claiming is not.
Search your own business name on Google, on a phone or a computer. If a panel appears on the right with your name on it, that is your unclaimed listing.
Look for “Own this business?” or “Claim this business” and follow it through. If nothing exists at all, start fresh at google.com/business.
If you travel to customers rather than having a shop they visit, set yourself up as a service-area business. You still enter your address so Google can verify who you are, then you choose to hide it and list the towns you cover instead.
Most trades should do this. If you work from home and skip this step, your home address goes on the public internet next to your phone number. Hiding the address does not hurt your ranking for the towns you serve. It is the setting Google built for exactly this.
Google confirms you are real, usually by video now: a short recording of your van, your tools, your signage, showing you are where you say you are. Sometimes still by postcard. Video is usually days; a postcard to a New Zealand address can take a fortnight and occasionally never turns up, in which case ask for another.
Nothing appears in the map results until verification finishes. This is the step people abandon halfway. Do not.
Just ask. Most people say yes and simply never get asked. Reviews are the single biggest difference between the businesses in that block of three and the ones underneath it.
Usually an old marketing company or someone who used to work for you. Click through as if claiming and Google offers to request access from the current owner. They get a few days to reply. If they do not, you can usually take it over.
Happens after a move or a name change. Claim the one with the reviews on it, then report the other as a duplicate. Do not delete the one with the reviews, because those are hard to replace.
Change it. Your primary category matters more than almost anything else for which searches you turn up in, and it can be edited any time.
Once the listing is claimed, verified and filled in, the remaining gap is that a listing is a summary. Somebody who taps through wants to see whether you look like a real business. That is what a website is for, and it works far better on top of a claimed listing than instead of one.
Being straight with you: we cannot claim it for you. It needs a verified New Zealand address and we are not in New Zealand. We would rather tell you to spend twenty free minutes on this than hand you a page that will underperform without it.
Related, if it is useful: why your business does not show up on Google, is a Facebook page enough, why your business is not showing on Google Maps, and what a tradie website actually costs in New Zealand.
Search your own business name on Google. If a listing already exists, look for “Own this business?” or “Claim this business” and follow it through. If nothing exists, create one at google.com/business. Google then verifies you, usually by video these days, sometimes by postcard. It is free and takes about twenty minutes of your time plus the wait for verification.
No. Set yourself up as a service-area business. You enter your address so Google can verify you, then choose to hide it and list the towns you travel to instead. Customers see your service area, not where you live. Most trades should do this.
Google has a process for it. Click through as if claiming, and you will be offered the option to request access from the current owner. They get a few days to respond. If they do not, you can usually take it over. This happens most often with an old marketing company or a former employee.
Video verification is often same day or a few days. Postcard verification is slower and can take a couple of weeks to reach a New Zealand address, and sometimes never arrives, in which case you request it again. Nothing appears in the map results until verification is finished.
No. It is free, permanently. If somebody offers to claim it for you for a fee, they are charging you for something you can do yourself in an afternoon. Ongoing management is a real service and reasonably charged for, but the claiming is not.
Built for your trade
Send us your business name and the town. We will tell you honestly whether we can build one, and if we can, we email you the link to look at. It costs nothing to have and nothing to keep, as long as you answer one message a year saying the details are still right.