Free Apple Maps Course: Turn Apple Maps Users Into Customers

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Map Labs’ Founder and President, Evan Oder, shows businesses how to set up and optimize their Apple Business listing and turn Apple Maps users into customers.

Today, Map Labs launched Apple Maps 101, a free course on Map Labs University covering the second-largest local search platform in the world: Apple Maps.

Apple Maps is a growing marketing asset, and Apple is investing heavily in it. This year, Apple launched Apple Business with new brand tools for Apple Maps, including ads in the U.S. and Canada. This is a big opportunity for local businesses, and most aren’t paying attention.

Apple Maps 101 walks you through how to claim, complete and optimize your Apple Maps profiles in eight short, practical sections, to turn Apple Maps users into customers.

Enroll in Apple Maps 101 for free

Why Apple Maps

It’s the biggest untapped opportunity in local search.

Apple Maps is the default maps app on every iPhone, so every time an iPhone user looks for a coffee shop, a dentist or a tire shop nearby, whether in Maps, in the home screen search bar or through Siri, the results come from Apple Maps listings. Those are customers, with their phones in hand, choosing where to go next. That audience is bigger than most marketers expect: in Map Labs’ research, Apple Maps generates 25x more business visibility than Yelp on average.

Most businesses set up a Google Business Profile and stop there. Their Apple Maps profiles sit unclaimed, incomplete or out of date. Across the thousands of profiles Map Labs has analyzed over the years, the same gap shows up every time: real visibility left behind on Apple Maps.

That gap is your advantage. While competitors ignore Apple, the businesses that show up with accurate hours, fresh photos, active showcases and strong ratings win the customer. Maps Marketing doesn’t stop at Google. Map Labs was one of the first to integrate with Apple Business because the opportunity is that important.

What You’ll Learn

Apple Maps 101 covers why Apple Maps deserves a place in your marketing strategy, how to get your locations set up the right way and the essential optimizations that drive real-world results. You’ll also see how Apple Maps features for businesses compare to Google’s.

The course walks you through eight sections on Apple Maps fundamentals:

  1. Why Apple Maps: How Apple Maps stacks up against Google and Yelp, and why now is the time to get ahead.
  2. Claiming Your Place Card: Getting your locations into Apple Business correctly, from account setup to verification.
  3. Location Information: The core details customers and Apple rely on, plus Apple-specific features like “Good to Know” and action links.
  4. Apple Showcases: What they are, how they work and how to use them to stand out from competitors.
  5. Photos: How they work on Apple Maps, from owner-uploaded vs. third-party content to Apple’s photo requirements.
  6. Reviews & Ratings: How ratings and reviews work on Apple Maps and how to start building native reviews.
  7. Measuring Results: Which metrics are worth tracking, Apple-specific insights and what they tell you about your customers.
  8. What’s Next on Apple: Where Apple Business is going and how to get ahead of it.

Each section is short, practical and built on the same playbook Map Labs uses for its own clients. By the end, you’ll have a complete, accurate Apple listing and a clear plan to get the most out of it.

Learn From the Founder of Map Labs: Evan Oder

Evan has spent 15 years in local search marketing, building Map Labs into the trusted partner of 10,000+ businesses. After analyzing and growing thousands of business profiles across Google and Apple, he’s seen firsthand how much visibility businesses leave behind on Apple Maps. Now, he’s bringing all that experience into Apple Maps 101, teaching every section himself.

“Apple Maps has been quietly building its presence for a long time. In every business I’ve analyzed, even in cities where Yelp is popular, Apple Maps is still bigger. It’s on every iPhone by default. If your Apple Business listing isn’t complete, you’re handing those customers to your competitors.” - Evan Oder, Founder and President of Map Labs

Start Winning Customers on Apple Maps

Apple Maps 101 is completely free and available now on Map Labs University. Every day your Apple Maps listings sit incomplete, customers in discovery mode pick someone else.

Start Apple Maps 101 now

Ready to manage Google and Apple Maps from one place? Start a 14-day free trial of the Map Labs Google & Apple Maps software today.

Want experts to run it for you? Map Labs Professional Services pairs industry-leading software with a dedicated strategy team that completes, publishes and measures your Google and Apple Maps profiles every month. Talk to the Map Labs team.

About Map Labs

Map Labs is the #1 Google & Apple Maps Marketing software and service for multi-location businesses. Map Labs goes beyond just tools and accurate reporting. We deliver strategy, support and execution that drive real-world results. Over 10,000 world-leading businesses are growing with Map Labs’ custom maps marketing strategies and industry-leading software. Learn more at MapLabs.com.

Additional Resources

Map Labs Launches AI Review Responses

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New feature, available now to every Map Labs software customer, makes a 100% review response ratio realistic for multi-location businesses.

Map Labs, the #1 Maps Marketing software and service, today launched AI Review Responses, a new software feature that writes a personalized reply to every customer review in a business’s own brand voice. The feature is live now for every Map Labs software customer.

Reviews are the part of Google Business Profile (GBP) most businesses miss. A 100% response ratio puts a business in the top 1%. Yet for multi-location brands, replying to every review across every location takes hours each week, and most teams fall back on copy-and-paste templates that customers recognize instantly.

AI Review Responses fixes that. Before it writes a word, it studies a business’s past review replies: the tone, the phrases the team uses, how they say thank you, and how they handle a complaint. The result is a reply that sounds like the business’s best team member wrote it. Not a template. Not a generic ChatGPT answer.

AI Review Responses in Map Labs Software suggesting a reply to a 5-star Google review
AI Review Responses in Map Labs Software

Every reply:

  • Matches the brand’s voice and stays within its guidelines.
  • Responds to what the customer actually said.
  • Is written fresh for that review, never recycled from the last one.
  • Reads like a person wrote it, because it’s built on how the team already writes.

Teams review the reply, click to post, and move on. What used to take hours every week now takes minutes.

"Think of it as a helping hand. It looks at each review and suggests a response based on that review plus every other response you’ve ever written on your profile. You can take the suggestion, edit it, or skip it. We built this because coming up with a thoughtful reply from scratch is hard and it takes time, especially when you’re managing a lot of reviews. Map Labs' AI Review Responses works for 4- and 5-star reviews where happy customers left a comment, and for 1-, 2- and 3-star reviews where someone took the time to write because they’re upset and deserves a considered reply." Noel Pullen, CEO of Map Labs

Your private information stays private

AI Review Responses only uses information that is already public.

Your Google reviews are public. Anyone can read them. The replies you’ve already posted are public too. Anyone can read those as well.

That’s all AI Review Responses looks at. It does not look at your private business information, your customer data, or your internal files. It never sees them, and it never saves them.

Public information goes in. A reply goes out. Nothing private is ever involved.

How AI Review Responses works in Map Labs software

Availability

About Map Labs

Map Labs is the #1 Google & Apple Maps Marketing software and service for multi-location businesses. Map Labs goes beyond just tools and accurate reporting. We deliver strategy, support, and execution that drive real-world results. Over 10,000 world-leading businesses are growing with Map Labs’ custom maps marketing strategies and industry-leading software.

Media Contact

Robyn Kimberly
robyn@maplabs.com
MapLabs.com

Additional Resources

Boost Your Google Business Profile Visibility with Recurring Posts

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Right now, someone is looking at your Google Business Profile (GBP). They’ve never heard of you, and they’re deciding between you and the place two blocks away.

What tips the scale? Often, it’s what’s happening today. Happy hour is on. There’s a weekend brunch special. First-time haircuts come with a discount. New patients get a special offer. Your auto shop is running a car wash event this afternoon.

Google posts put those offers, events, and updates directly on your listing in Google Search and Google Maps, in the micro moment a customer is making their choice. Your profile tells customers who you are. Posts tell them why to choose you today.

Recurring posts keep those messages live without the manual work. Set the schedule once, and your most important offers publish on repeat.

TL;DR: Google posts are short updates, offers, and event notices that appear directly on your Google Business Profile. Recurring posts keep your profile active, signal to Google that your business is open and engaged, and drive the calls, clicks, and visits that turn a profile view into a customer.

Publishing posts by hand takes time most teams don’t have. That’s why Map Labs has powered recurring posts through its proprietary software for more than 10 years. Set your schedule once, and your posts publish automatically on the cadence and rules you choose, so your team saves time while the right message keeps reaching a new audience every day.

What we cover:

  • What Google posts are, and how recurring posts work
  • Why repeating content works on GBP
  • How to put your best selling points in front of more people

Posts Are Dynamic

A post is dynamic content published directly on your Google Business Profile. Events, offers, general updates. Whatever is true about your business right now.

On the Google Maps app, most profiles have a tab called “Updates.” On desktop, or if you are just googling a business, scroll down on the profile to find them – “from the owner.” Google gives you three formats: updates, events, and offers. None of them ranks better than the others, but events and updates tend to show more prominently than offers, so that is where we point most businesses.

Google Business Profile posts shown three ways on a restaurant listing: the From the Owner section, the Latest Posts feed, and the Updates tab on mobile

Recurring posts are how you keep your posts going without having to set them up time and again. You write the content once, choose when it runs, and it publishes on schedule, whenever it is most relevant.

Say you run happy hour Monday through Friday, four to seven. At 4 p.m. Monday, a post goes up saying happy hour is on. Then again Tuesday. Wednesday. Thursday. Friday.

A restaurant can run the whole day this way. Breakfast from eight to eleven. Lunch from eleven to two. Happy hour at four. Dinner. Late night. Everything resets the next morning. This is a great way to keep your profile active and relevant.

You might be thinking there is no way repeating the same content over and over works. Marketers are constantly having to find new ways to say the same thing. So why is this different, and why does it work?

Why Repetition Works on Maps

Repeating yourself is bad manners on social media. Post the same thing every day on Instagram, and people unfollow you.

That’s because your social followers already chose you. Every post lands in the feed of someone who knows your brand, so you have to keep finding new ways to say the same thing just to hold their attention.

Your Google Business Profile works the opposite way. 80% of Google Business Profile views come from a non-branded (discovery) search. Most people looking at your profile right now never searched specifically for you. They searched for what you sell. They don’t know your name, your hours, or why you’re different from the competitor down the street.

For them, it’s the first time.

So the post you published on Monday isn’t a repeat on Tuesday. It’s reaching new people who have never seen it, and who are deciding where to go right now. Even loyal customers won’t know about every event or offer unless you show them.

Consistent posting does two things. It shows people what makes you different in the micro moment they’re choosing, and it keeps your profile active and relevant.

Posts appear newest first, so your latest one sits at the top of your profile where it gets seen. The longer it sits there, the less it does for you. A post from this morning says your business is alive. A post from three months ago says nobody’s home. Recurring posts keep something current at the top of your profile, every day, without anyone on your team lifting a finger.

Your Best Selling Points Are Buried on Your Website

Look at your Google Business Profile. Your hours, phone number, website, photos, and categories each have a designated field. But what about everything that doesn’t? The offer that changes every week? The detail that makes you different from every competitor on the map?

Now look at your website. That’s where those details live. Fully licensed and insured. Every electrician has 10 years of experience. Locally owned and operated for 50 years. First-time customers get $100 off. There’s no pre-determined GBP field for these details, so they end up buried on a website most customers never visit.

Your Google Business Profile gets 10x more views per month than your website. It’s your most visible landing page. So why are your best selling points missing from it?

That’s exactly what posts fix. If it matters to your customers and there’s no field for it on your profile, put it in a post.

Set the Calendar Once, Stay Visible Every Day

We’ll never tell you Maps Marketing is set-it-and-forget-it. Recurring posts are the one exception. If you run the same happy hour, trivia night, or weekend special every week, write the post once, set the schedule, and get that time back. Map Labs publishes it on repeat, so your profile stays current automatically.

Recurring posts for a restaurant in the Map Labs software, showing daily and monthly schedules with published and scheduled statuses
Recurring posts running on daily and monthly schedules inside the Map Labs software.

At Map Labs, our proprietary, industry-leading software was the first purpose-built tool to let businesses capitalize on recurring posts, and for over 10 years it was the only one. Here are some questions that frequently come up.

Will recurring posts create duplicate content on my profile?

No – old posts get deleted before the new one publishes, so you never stack duplicates.

How often can recurring posts publish?

Cadence runs daily, weekly, or monthly.

Can you run recurring posts across multiple locations?

Yes! In Map Labs, you can publish recurring posts in bulk across as many locations as needed.

Your Profile Is Being Seen Every Single Day. Make Sure It’s Converting Views into Customers.

Recurring posts are one feature. The businesses that get the most out of Google Maps profiles are using all of them, and most profiles have more growth potential than businesses realize.

Map Labs clients use recurring posts to make sure the right offer shows up at the exact moment someone’s deciding where to go, and that’s the kind of detail that makes us the #1 Maps Marketing software and service.

You can get started with a free Google Business Profile Analysis. Our team of experts will look at your profile, show you what’s missing, and tell you exactly where the opportunities are. No cost, no commitment.

Stop letting your best information sit on a page nobody visits. Start putting it in front of your customers when they’re actually deciding.

Want to Know More?

🎥 Watch “How to Keep Your Google Business Profile Visible Every Day” below!

5 Ways to Maximize Your Google Business Profile Performance

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Map Labs has audited more than 10,000 businesses over the years, and almost none of them were getting full value out of their Maps profiles. Not because their teams weren’t working hard, but because nobody told them what the channel actually rewards.

We know what it rewards. Below are the five moves we’d make first to maximize your profile performance – the same ones we use to turn visitors into customers.

TL;DR: Your Google Business Profile is the easiest win in local marketing – the highest-traffic, highest-intent page your business already owns. Most businesses set them up once and move on, leaving customers (and growth) on the table. This post walks through five simple ways to fix that, with no extra budget or resources.

What you’ll learn:

  • Who’s actually on your profile (and why)
  • How to show up in more searches
  • What moves the needle the most on your profile
  • Why replying to every review matters
  • And the metrics you should be paying attention to

Why most businesses leave growth on the table

Many businesses overlook their Google Maps profile for one simple reason: you can win on Maps by default. People are already finding you; they can get to your business. That makes it look like the profile is handled, doing its job – so you move on to the things that feel like they need more work: social, ads, your website.

But there’s a big difference between being found and being chosen. The profiles that just “work” are usually the ones with the most growth still sitting in them, unnoticed. That’s the opportunity: real growth, waiting to be turned into more customers.

Here’s how to make sure you’re not just found, but chosen.

1. Know who’s actually on your profile

Most assume that the people landing on their GBP are already sold, just looking for directions or hours.

But think about how you actually use Maps. How often do you open it already knowing exactly where you’re going? Most of the time, you know what you need: a coffee shop, a dentist, a place for dinner, but not who you’re choosing yet. And the times you do know? If a profile looks empty and vague, do you still trust that business?

Most of the people landing on your profile – around 75% – are in discovery mode. They typed “coffee near me” or “urgent care near me,” and they’re deciding between you and everyone else that showed up in that search.

So your profile isn’t a confirmation screen for people who already picked you. It’s where they decide if they pick you (or don’t).

The real measure isn’t “are people finding me?” You already know they are. It’s “when they find me, do they choose me?“

You can’t answer that until you know who’s showing up and why. Map Labs pulls real search data from Google, so you can see exactly what people are searching when they land on your profile, and build everything else around it.

This is the foundation. Everything below works better when you know who’s showing up.

🎥 Watch the video below to learn more about your Maps audience:

2. Fix your categories

Categories are the number one ranking factor, and your primary category carries about twice the weight of every additional category combined with it. It’s the single most consequential field on your profile, and it’s the one most businesses get wrong.

Your primary category decides which searches you’re eligible for. Change a profile from dentist to restaurant and the searches Google shows you for change completely. That’s why it matters so much. Not because the right category floats you to the top, but because it decides which races you’re entered in.

So pick your primary for reach, not for how perfectly it describes you. Most people searching Google haven’t decided what they want yet. “Restaurant” gets searched far more than “Mexican restaurant.” “Laundry” gets searched more than “laundromat.” Run your options through Google Trends, compare search interest over the last few years, and set the highest-volume category that still describes your business as your primary category. Then use the other nine to get specific.

You get 10 categories total, one primary and nine additional. Most businesses use one or two. Every relevant category you add is another set of searches you can show up for. A dentist who adds cosmetic dentist, teeth whitening service, and emergency dental service becomes visible to people they were missing entirely.

🚨 Only add categories you could actually win. If someone searching that term saw your profile, would they choose you? If yes, add it. If not, leave it. Categories you can’t convert won’t help you, and they can make you look less relevant for the ones that count.

Google Maps search results for Japanese restaurants, with a cloud of business-category options like coffee shop, dentist, gym, and hair salon, showing how categories determine which searches you appear in.
  • Not sure which categories fit your business? That’s exactly the kind of thing our team of experts can identify in our free GBP Analysis.

3. Add photos, posts, and complete your menus and services

Once your categories are right, this is where you extend the gap between you and the competition.

Here are the three things that move the needle most:

  • Photos – fresh, plentiful photos give someone a reason to choose you over the listing next to yours with three blurry shots from 2019. Google also reads the objects and keywords in your images, so what you post (and how often) signals freshness and shapes how visible your profile is.
  • Posts – publish consistently. Every post tells Google that your profile is active, and gives customers more reasons to pick you today: offers, happy hour, whatever sets you apart. You can even set recurring posts so your profile stays fresh without the manual work.
  • Menu and services – not just filled in, but complete and accurate. List every service you offer and every item, with descriptions. This is what someone scans right before they decide, and half-built menus lose the sale. Plus, when you don’t manage your menu, Google or customers can fill the gaps, and if they add the wrong information, it can hurt your business.
Three phone screens of a Google Maps profile showing a complete menu with prices, a gallery of food photos and videos, and recent posts, illustrating a fully optimized Maps listing.

Don’t just check the box – get the most out of it. Most profiles are technically complete and still forgettable. The businesses that win treat every detail on their profile as a chance to be the obvious choice the moment a customer is comparing.

4. Generate and reply to reviews – all of them

Everyone knows reviews matter. More reviews, more trust. So getting them comes down to one thing: asking. Most businesses are just afraid to. But the people who love you will leave a review if you ask, and it won’t change how they feel about you. Ask consistently, ask close to the experience, and you’ll get them.

Here’s the part almost everyone misses: responding to reviews is a ranking factor. Response ratio and response time are baked into how Google sorts and surfaces your reviews – and most businesses skip it entirely.

And there’s a trap in how they skip it. They only reply to negative reviews, because those feel urgent. But since replying to a review can boost how prominently it shows, replying only to the bad ones can push them to the top of your reviews section, making a great business look like they have more negative reviews than they actually do.

So, the rule is simple: reply to every review. Positive, negative, neutral. Old ones and new ones. A five-star reviewer wants to know you saw them. A future customer wants to see you’re paying attention. Aim for a 100% response rate – it’s a signal to the algorithm and to every person reading before they decide.

🎥 Learn how to respond to reviews in the video below:

5. Measure what actually matters

You can’t improve what you don’t measure, and businesses are often measuring the wrong thing: where they “rank.” But rank tracking is an outdated and unreliable way to measure profile performance. It moves constantly, it’s different for every searcher, and it never tells you whether anyone actually did anything.

Actions tell you that. Direction requests that become foot traffic. Phone calls that turn into leads. Bookings, reservations, website clicks. Those are the moments your profile earns you a customer, and they’re what you should be watching closely.

The average profile converts about 5% of its views into actions. A well-optimized one hits 10% or more. That gap is the opportunity: the same traffic you already have, twice the customers, just by making the profile better at converting the people already looking.

Optimize for actions instead of rankings, and the results show up in the real world. Arc’teryx grew direction requests 42% across 75 locations with Map Labs, from 281,000 to 399,000 over a six-month period compared to the same six months a year earlier. That number isn’t an arbitrary (and inaccurate) ranking. It’s people walking through the door.

🎥 See how Arc’teryx turned Maps optimization into real store visits:

Leveraging Your Most Visible Landing Page

None of these five changes require a bigger budget or another hire. They’re not about building something new; they’re about getting more out of the most valuable asset you already own.

Because that’s what your Google Business Profile is: your highest-traffic, highest-intent landing page. It gets around 10x more views than your website. More customers act on it than any social channel – with 200x more engagement than your social channels. And most businesses are running their Maps profile at a fraction of what they could.

You wouldn’t leave your best landing page half-built. Why leave your profile that way?

The five ways to maximize your Google Business Profile: know who's actually on your profile, get your categories right (especially your primary one), fill your profile with photos, posts, and complete details, ask for reviews and reply to every single one, and measure what matters (calls, visits, and bookings, not where you rank).

That’s how you turn the easiest win in local marketing into your biggest one.

🎥 Watch the video below to understand why your profile is your highest-performing landing page:

Not sure where to start? We’re here to help

You don’t have to figure it out alone. Map Labs can show you exactly where your profile is leaving customers behind: the categories you’re missing, the ones you’re invisible for, and the actions you’re not converting.

  • Want to learn it yourself? Our free GBP Masterclass walks you through every part of your Google Business Profile step by step.

Either way, you’ll walk away knowing how to turn your easiest marketing win into your biggest one.

Want to know more?

🎥 Watch the videos below!

Special Hours on Google Business Profile

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When a holiday weekend rolls around, your customers are already making plans – and they’re checking Google to see if you’re open. If your hours aren’t accurate, you’re not just missing out on sales; you’re risking bad reviews, broken trust, and traffic that goes somewhere else.

That’s where Google Business Profile’s Special Hours come in. Whether you’re closing for the Fourth of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, New Year’s Day, or just changing hours for a one-time event – keeping your hours updated tells Google (and your customers) that your business is active, reliable, and ready.

In this guide, we’ll break down what Special Hours are, why they matter more than most businesses realize, and how to update them quickly – especially if you’re managing multiple locations.

Spoiler: there’s faster way than doing it one-by-one.

TL;DR: Special Hours override your regular business hours for specific dates on GBP – holidays, events, one-off closures. Confirm them even when your hours aren’t changing. Google recommends it, and confirmed hours are a trust signal to both Google and your customers.

What we cover:

  • What Special Hours are and when to use them
  • Why confirming them protects your visibility and reputation
  • How to set them on Google Business Profile
  • How to bulk update across multiple locations

What are Special Hours?

Special Hours on Google Business Profile let you set temporary or exceptional operating hours for your business on specific dates, such as holidays or special events. These hours override your main hours for those particular dates and help customers avoid confusion when they expect your business to be open or closed.

You can use Special Hours to indicate when your business will be open or closed for a short period, like a few hours or up to six consecutive days. They are perfect for marking holidays, special events, or any other occasion where your business operates outside of its normal schedule. Special Hours will be displayed on your Google Business Profile instead of your main hours for the specific dates you’ve set.

💡 If you’ll be closed for seven or more days in a row, or for a length of time you can’t predict, you should mark your business as Temporarily Closed instead.

Why Special Hours Matter

Here are four reasons Special Hours matter more than most businesses realize:

  • Rank Higher on Google

If there is a holiday coming up in your region, you should update your ‘Special Hours’ even if your hours are not changing for the holiday. Google recommends confirming your hours for specific holidays even when they match your regular schedule, as it makes it clear for customers that your hours are accurate. It also signals to Google that your business is active and has confirmed when you will be open or closed, allowing it to show your profile with confidence. In our experience, businesses that don’t update their Special Hours will often appear lower in search results than those that do.

  • Brand Image

Imagine making a reservation and arriving with your whole family, only to find the business is closed. This is not a good look for your brand and will frustrate customers, especially if they have gone out of their way to visit your business. Keeping your Special Hours up to date ensures customers have the most accurate information, building trust and preventing wasted trips or negative reviews.

  • Your GBP is More Visible Than Your Website

Most customers today make decisions directly on Google Maps, without ever clicking through to your website. This means your Google Business Profile is the first (and often only) touchpoint before someone visits your business. If your hours are out of date on your profile, it doesn’t matter that you updated them on your website – customers will likely not even make it there. So keeping them up to date where people are actually looking is what gets customers through your door.

🎥 Watch ‘Google Business Profile is Your New Landing Page‘ to see why.

💡 Along with updating your Special Hours, use Google Posts/Updates to share your holiday offers, promotions, or closures. These posts show up directly in your profile and are a great way to communicate your unique offerings to potential customers during the holiday season (and throughout the year). Check out these videos on how to use Google Posts!

How to Set Your Hours and Special Hours

Natively on Google Business Profile

On the main Google Business Profile page, you can set special hours through your GBP dashboard, typically by navigating to “Edit Profile,” then “Hours,” and then “Special Hours” or “Holiday Hours.”

Step 1: Click the “Edit Profile” tab on the home page of your GBP.

Step 2: Click on the “Hours” tab at the top of the page.

This is where you’ll choose how your business hours appear on your Google Business Profile. Pick the option that best describes your current operating status.

💡 Keep in mind that Special Hours only show up in your GBP if your business hours are set as “Open with main hours.”

Step 3: Set your day-to-day operating hours for each day of the week.

Add “More hours” if applicable

Step 1: In the “Hours” section under “Edit Profile”, find “Add More Hours.”

Step 2: Choose the type of “More Hours” that fit your business offerings.

Step 3: Select the days and hours that apply, then click save.

💡 If you have more than one type of “More Hours,” you must set them separately for each type.

Set Holiday and Special Hours

Step 1: Under the “Hours” section, scroll to find “Special hours” and select the edit (pencil) icon.

Step 2: Choose the date.

Google suggests upcoming official holidays, so you can click “Review” to confirm one. To enter a date yourself, click “Add a date.”

💡 The holidays Google suggests are based on your business location, so your list will look different depending on your region.

Step 3: Set your hours for that date and click save.

Uncheck “Closed” and enter your open and close times, or leave “Closed” checked if you’re shut for the day.

Updating ‘Special Hours’ on Map Labs

  • New in Map Labs: automatic holiday hours. Your business’s Special Hours are now confirmed automatically on your Google and Apple Maps profiles, so customers will never see unconfirmed hours on a holiday.

If your holiday hours are different from your regular hours, our software allows you to update Special Hours with just a few clicks.

Visit the “Location Info” tab inside your Map Labs dashboard to manage your Regular Hours, More Hours, and Special Hours, all from one central page.

Bulk Updates on Map Labs

Need different Special Hours across dozens or even hundreds of locations? You can bulk update them all with our proprietary, industry-leading software. The bulk-hours feature is one of our most popular tools, saving time and reducing the chance of errors.

Step 1: Select locations you would like to update.

Step 2: Choose what you would like to update in Bulk (in this example, Special Hours).

Step 3: Add your Special Hours and hit submit!

Whether you’re prepping for a holiday weekend or adjusting for a special event, Map Labs ensures your listings are up-to-date everywhere, all at once.

Get Started with Map Labs

Keeping your Google Business Profile “Special Hours” updated might seem like a small task, but it plays a big role in shaping how customers perceive your business – especially around holidays. In the fast-moving world of Maps Marketing, details matter. When someone checks your hours and sees that you’re open, available, and reliable, that quick glance can be the difference between gaining a customer or losing them to a competitor.

In 2026, Google Maps isn’t just a navigation tool – it’s one of the most influential decision-making platforms for local commerce. Map Labs is powered by industry-leading proprietary software, built and continuously refined by a full-time, in-house development team dedicated to keeping us at the forefront of Google Maps Marketing. With over a decade of experience, we’re not just the #1 Maps Marketing software and service – we’re experts in a field we helped define.

But we offer more than just a tool. What sets Map Labs apart is our ability to pair powerful software with custom-built strategies – and hands-on help when you want more than software. With Coaching and Full Service, we can train your team or run your profiles for you, backed by 10+ years mastering the nuances of local search.

💡 Did you know…

Your Google Business Profile is your most visible landing page – make sure you’re getting the most out of it. Get a free GBP Analysis and our team of experts will show you exactly where your opportunities are.

🎓 Want to keep learning how to optimize your profile yourself? Our free GBP Masterclass walks through every section of your Google Business Profile step by step.

Want to know more? 

🎥 Watch the videos below!

Why Rank Tracking Is No Longer Effective

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You open your rank tracking report. Your business is #1 for your specified keywords. Green across the grid. It feels great.

Here’s the problem with that report: there is no single keyword that customers use to find your business.

When we pull direct keyword data from Google, the average business shows up for over a thousand different keywords. Tracking 10 or 50 of them keeps you in the dark about the search terms people are actually typing in to find your business. You could make an educated guess on what keywords potential customers might use to find you, but ultimately, everyone will search differently.

💡 Marketing executives don’t dictate what the market searches for; customers do.

Rank tracking iceberg showing thousands of hidden keyword searches beneath a rank tracker's visible #1 to #3 results

That’s only the first (of many) fundamental problems with rank tracking as a tool to measure local search performance.

This article breaks down why rank tracking is an outdated and inaccurate performance indicator, and what you should be paying attention to instead.

TL;DR: Rank tracking is an outdated way to measure the success of your Google Business Profile. Search results are personalized and localized, so no two customers see the same thing, and “ranking #1” doesn’t tell you whether anyone chose you. What matters is total visibility and real-world results: profile views, direction requests, calls, bookings, and orders.

What we cover:

  • Who decides the search terms you’re found for
  • Consumer search behavior in the real world
  • Why search results are different for each person
  • What you should be measuring

Customers Drive the Search Terms

Let’s start with the belief most businesses hold: that customers find them through a handful of keywords, the ones the business would pick for itself. The truth is, they don’t. Every customer searches differently, and the average business shows up for over a thousand different keywords. We know because we pull that data directly from Google.

The problem with a rank tracker is that it only watches the terms you feed it. But customers don’t use a handful of terms, they use hundreds. One person might type the keyword you’d expect. Ten others type something you’d never think of.

You can make an educated guess. You can optimize for the terms you want to be found for. But the customer types whatever they type, and that’s the term that counts. The market decides how it searches for you, and it searches in more ways than you could ever list, let alone track.

So a report built on hand-picked keywords isn’t measuring how, or how many, customers find you. You could be “losing” on the handful you track and winning everywhere you’re not looking, or the reverse.

Everyone Searches Differently

We ran a live experiment to find out how people actually search for local businesses. At the International Pizza Expo in Vegas, we walked up to attendees and asked one simple thing: “find us a pizza restaurant.” We didn’t tell them which app to open. We didn’t give them a keyword. We just watched what they actually did, and how they searched.

🔎 No two people searched the same way.

Most went to Google. Some opened Safari, which routed them to Google anyway. Others used Apple Maps. A few used Yelp, and a few asked an AI tool. Nobody opened Instagram or TikTok. Which showed something clearly: when people need to find something in the moment, they go to search.

And it wasn’t just the platform that changed. It was the search terms. One person typed “pizza near me.” Another went with “best cheese pizza.” Someone else asked a full question out loud. Same goal, same room, and no two searches alike.

You Can’t Rank #1 for Everything (and That’s Okay)

If your business shows up for a thousand different searches, here’s the next thing worth knowing: you will never rank first for all of them. And chasing it is a losing game.

Google rewards businesses that are the clear authority for a given search. The more specifically a business matches what someone is looking for, the more authority it earns. For the thing you’re known for, you’ll show up high, because you’re the obvious answer. For a service you only offer on the side, a business built entirely around that service will beat you every time.

Take a pizza restaurant that also offers catering. It is never going to outrank a business whose entire operation, name, and primary category is catering. That’s not a gap in your strategy or a setting you forgot to flip; it’s Google working exactly as it should, sending each searcher to the business that fits best.

So a rank tracker showing you at #7 for a secondary service isn’t a problem to solve. It’s a distraction. The businesses winning in local search aren’t the ones trying to do the impossible (ranking #1). They’re the ones dominating the searches that actually match what they do, and treating everything else as a bonus.

🎥 Watch this video to learn more about why rank tracking is an outdated performance indicator.

No Two Customers See the Same Results

Everything so far chips away at rank tracking. This is what breaks it completely.

Most rank trackers don’t watch real customers at all. They run simulated searches from a fixed location and check the same position over and over. But the results they’re checking aren’t fixed. They shift by the hour, by the person searching, and by the exact location.

Have two people stand shoulder to shoulder and search the exact same thing. They can see two different businesses ranked first. Change the time of day, someone’s search history, or their exact spot on the block, and the order shifts again.

We watched this happen in Vegas. Same convention center, an area a rank tracker would treat as a single dot on a map. One person got a two-star business at the top of their results. Someone standing a hundred feet away got a four-and-a-half-star business first. Same building, same moment, completely different results.

So when a report tells you that you’re “#3,” the real question is: #3 for whom, where, and at what time of day? There’s no single answer, because there’s no single result. The number on the report is a snapshot of something that never sits still.

Being #1 Doesn’t Mean Customers Chose You

There’s one last thing rankings can’t tell you: even when a business shows up first, people don’t just pick it.

Over and over at the Pizza Expo in Vegas, people skipped the top result entirely. Sometimes because it was a sponsored ad. Sometimes because it had fewer reviews than the option right below it. Sometimes because it was farther away, or the photos didn’t sell them, or the price looked wrong. They compared. They read reviews. They looked at pictures. Then they chose.

That’s the gap rank tracking misses entirely. Being #1 gets you seen. It doesn’t get you picked. Whether someone calls, gets directions, or moves on to the next option comes down to what they find once they land on your profile: your reviews, your photos, your hours, your responses.

So you can win the ranking and still lose the customer. Which raises the only question that actually matters: not where you “rank”, but how many people chose you.

What Should You Be Measuring?

“Ranking #1” isn’t the goal. Customers are. The real question was never “where do I rank,” it’s “how many people found my business, and how many of them took action?” That’s what to measure instead.

  • Total visibility. How many times your business profile actually showed up in real-world searches, and how that’s trending over time. Not one keyword. All of them.
  • Real-world results. The actions that correlate to revenue: direction requests, phone calls, bookings, appointments, online orders, website visits. These are the moments a search turned into a potential customer.

Rankings and results aren’t unrelated. When your profile is complete, active, and genuinely the best option, you’ll show up more, and you’ll earn more of those actions. Visibility is a byproduct of being the business customers want to choose.

So start measuring what you’re actually after: customers through the door, not green bubbles on a grid.

See How Your Profile is Actually Performing

A rank tracker can tell you where you sit for an ultra-specific long-tail keyword. It can’t tell you how many customers your profile brought in, or what they were worth. That’s the number that actually runs your business, and it’s the one that report will never show you.

We built Map Labs to help businesses accurately measure performance on Google & Apple Maps, and learn how to get results from the channel. When you connect your profile to our Software, you get visibility and results in plain terms: how often you showed up in real searches, what specific keywords were used to find your business, and the calls, direction requests, bookings, and orders that came from it. No green grids. No guessing which ten keywords to watch.

If you want to see where you stand right now, our free GBP Analysis walks you through your real performance with a Map Labs expert: twelve months of data, the dollar value of your Maps presence, and the specific opportunities to get more customers. No commitment, no credit card required. Use what you learn with us or on your own.

Want to go further? Map Labs offers Coaching and Full Service management, so you can build the expertise in-house or hand everything to us. Either way, you’ll measure actual results, not rankings.

Stop tracking rankings. Start tracking results.

Want to know more?

🎥 Watch the videos below!

Map Labs Launches Apple Maps

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Businesses can now manage Google Maps and Apple Maps side by side on one platform, with Software, Coaching, or Full Service support.

The launch closes a gap most marketing teams don’t realize exists. For over a decade, Google has been the center of Maps Marketing strategy. Apple Maps has been building a real, measurable audience the entire time, and almost nobody has been managing it.

Apple Maps Isn’t Optional Anymore

Here’s what the data shows: Apple has 60% smartphone market share in North America. Every one of those iPhones opens to Apple Maps by default. That makes Apple Maps the second-largest local search platform in the world, bigger than Yelp, bigger than TripAdvisor, bigger than Bing.

Map Labs’ research puts real numbers behind it: Apple Maps generates 25x more business visibility than Yelp on average, with some markets seeing that gap stretch as high as 50x. And in a growing number of cases, businesses are seeing more direction requests come from Apple Maps than from Google. (Map Labs LLC, 2026)

Businesses that haven’t claimed and optimized their Apple Maps presence are handing customers to their competitors. Apple Business puts you in control of your place card on Apple Maps, including hours, photos, contact details, and promotions, the same way Google Business Profile does on Google. Every unclaimed location is a missed opportunity to reach customers who are already searching.

"Every marketing team we talk to has the same blind spot. They've optimized Google and left Apple untouched, because nobody's been talking about it. Apple Maps has quietly become the second-biggest local search platform on earth. If you're not managing it, you're invisible to 60% of the phones in North America, and you're handing that visibility to competitors who are paying attention." - Evan Oder, Founder of Map Labs

One Platform, Both Maps

With this launch, Map Labs customers get:

  • Consistent listings across Apple Maps and Google Maps, the two platforms that drive 95% of local searches.
  • Bulk management at scale – update hours, photos, and promotions across hundreds or thousands of locations at once.
  • Optimization for growth – the same category, attribute, and content strategy that drives results on Google, applied to Apple.
  • Real-world performance insights – taps, engagement, searches, calls, and direction requests, reported the same way Map Labs already reports Google performance.

Support is available across all three Map Labs service levels: Software for teams who want to manage it themselves, Coaching for teams who want strategy and direction, and Full Service for teams who want Map Labs to handle execution end-to-end.

Download Press Release

Get Started

Current Map Labs customers can upgrade their accounts to add Apple Maps management today. Businesses not yet on Map Labs can start with a free Apple Maps analysis or a free 14-day trial of the software.

Visit MapLabs.com to get started.

About Map Labs

Map Labs is the #1 Google & Apple Maps Marketing software and service for multi-location businesses. Map Labs goes beyond just tools and accurate reporting – delivering strategy, support, and execution that drive real-world results. Over 10,000 world-leading businesses are growing with Map Labs’ custom maps marketing strategies and industry-leading software.

Media Contact

Robyn Kimberly
robyn@maplabs.com
MapLabs.com

Additional Resources

Software, Coaching, or Full Service: Which Map Labs Plan Is Best For You?

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Your Google Business Profile is the most visible landing page you have. 80% of the views it gets come from non-branded search – people typing “coffee near me,” not your business name. They’re choosing between you and your competition.

It’s also the one result that shows up no matter where the search starts. Google.com, Google Maps, social media, an AI search, a voice assistant – the starting point keeps changing, but the destination doesn’t. People usually end up looking at a Google Business Profile. That makes your GBP the closest thing you have to a single source of truth: the one place worth getting right, because it’s the one place everyone lands.

Google Business Profile is your highest-intent marketing channel, and most teams are leaving it on autopilot.

Map Labs exists to fix that. We’re the #1 Maps Marketing software and service – we help businesses get found on Google and Apple Maps, turn views into calls and visits, and track every bit of it. We do it through three levels of support: Software, Coaching, and Full Service.

Which level of support is right for your business? Read on to find out.

TL;DR: Your Google and Apple Maps profiles are your most visible and durable marketing assets. Map Labs offers three ways to manage, optimize, and measure your business’s growth on Google and Apple Maps:

  • Software – run it yourself with tools built for the job.
  • Coaching – build the skill in-house with expert guidance.
  • Full Service – hand the day-to-day to a dedicated team.

Not sure which one is right for you? Start with a free GBP Analysis, and we’ll discuss where you are and which plan is best for you.

Three ways to work with Map Labs

Managing your Maps presence well takes the right tools, a clear strategy, and consistent execution. How much of that you take on yourself is up to you – and we meet you wherever you are with three levels of service. Some teams want the Software to run it themselves. Some want an expert Coaching them as they build the skills in-house. And some want to hand the execution to a dedicated Full Service team.

Same channel, same goal (more customers), just different levels of support depending on your business’s needs.

Software: You run it, we give you the tools

Our software is proprietary, built specifically for Google and Apple Maps. It’s best for marketers who’ve been through our Coaching program and are ready to manage Maps independently.

Google gives you a basic dashboard and stops there. No protection against unwanted listing edits, no bulk actions across locations, no reporting that ties back to revenue. Our software picks up where Google leaves off – a review assistant that speeds up responses, Listing Defender to stop unwanted profile changes, and performance reports that pull calls, direction requests, and bookings into one place in seconds. For most teams, that reporting alone saves them 5 to 10 hours per profile each month.

Managing multiple locations? The Bulk Features add-on is built to scale with you – roll-up reports that aggregate performance across every location, bulk updates to hours, menus, and photos in one move, and bulk posting that publishes everywhere with a single click. (From $80/mo per profile)

  • Software is the right fit for marketing teams who have completed the Map Labs Coaching program, and are ready to manage the channel independently.

Starting at $45/mo.

Start Your Free Software Trial
Coaching: We teach you how, and you build the skill

Coaching is for the team that wants to run Maps in-house with an expert in their corner while they learn. We give you the strategy, the roadmap, and the answers – you execute, and your team walks away knowing exactly how to grow the channel.

We start by getting you organized and optimized – profiles verified, categories and services dialed in – the fundamentals Google rewards. Then we’ll build and execute a content and review strategy that actually drives results – more calls and visits, more customers. All of this while teaching you how to read the data – performance insights, comparison reports, keyword trends – so you know what’s working and what to do next. Coaching adapts to you and your business’s specific needs; we’ll meet you where you are and go after the biggest opportunities first.

The coaching sessions are yours to shape. Most teams start with a few months of regular meetings, then adjust to a check-in cadence that works for them once they’ve found their footing. There’s no limit on who joins – bring your whole team on the call if they want to become experts too.

  • Coaching is the right fit if you want to own the channel management long-term and build real expertise on your team.

Starting at $250/hr.

Get Started with Coaching
Full Service: We handle it all, you get the results

Full Service provides end-to-end management of your Google and Apple Maps marketing, custom-built for your business’s needs. You approve the strategy and direction, and our team handles all execution: setup, verification, optimization, posts, photos, menus, reviews, troubleshooting, and the reporting that ties it all back to revenue. Everything in Software and Coaching is included – you’ve just got a dedicated team of experts doing the work for you.

Full Service is built for teams running Maps across dozens or hundreds of locations – where the bandwidth to manage it all in-house isn’t there. You get a dedicated account manager, specialists working across all your locations, weekly or monthly strategic reviews, and unlimited support whenever you need it.

Most full-service agencies treat Maps as a one-line item on a checklist. We focus on it specifically to bring more customers to your business. Specialists beat generalists, every time – and you’ll always know exactly what we’re doing and why, because we develop the strategy alongside you and keep you in the loop the whole way.

  • Full Service is the right fit if you’re managing Maps across multiple locations, and want an expert team handling the day-to-day execution.
Get Started with Full Service

Why your Maps management matters

Think about how people actually find a business now. They’ll search something like “coffee near me.” They check reviews after seeing a TikTok. They ask ChatGPT for the best auto shop in town. Every one of those journeys ends in the same place: your Google or Apple Maps profile. It’s the first impression most customers get, and often the last one before they call, book, or drive over.

It’s also the most visible result on the page. Search almost anything local, and the first thing Google shows isn’t a website – it’s the map pack, the cluster of business profiles sitting right at the top. Your profile appears above the traditional search results, where customers are actually looking, instead of buried in a list your business has to fight its way up.

That makes it different from the rest of your marketing channels. Social platforms come and go – the channel you built an audience on five years ago isn’t the one you’re on today. Maps don’t work like that. Google and Apple have spent two decades mapping the real world, and that profile isn’t going anywhere. Manage it well, and it compounds – it’s less a channel you rent and more an asset you own and build.

And it sits at the center of your marketing ecosystem. When your profile is complete, current, and active, the rest of your marketing works harder – every paid click, every bit of social buzz, every SEO gain points a customer toward a profile that’s ready to convert them. When it’s neglected, that’s where the journey quietly breaks.

Most businesses set up their profile once and never touch it again. The ones that treat it as the high-value asset it is – kept fresh, optimized, and measured – are the ones turning all those views into calls, directions, and revenue.

So… which one is right for you?

It comes down to how much support you want:

  • Software – if you’ve got the time and want to run Maps in-house.
  • Coaching – if you want to build that expertise with an expert guiding you.
  • Full Service – if you’re managing Maps at scale and want a dedicated team to handle the day-to-day execution.
Get Started

Still not sure?

Here’s the good news: you don’t have to pick perfectly today.

Whether you run it yourself with Software, build the skill with Coaching, or hand it to our team with Full Service, every path starts the same way – by understanding where your Maps presence stands right now.

That’s what the free GBP Analysis is for. We pull up your profiles, show you how many customers Google Maps sent you last year, put a dollar value on that traffic, and give you clear next steps to get more. No cost, no commitment – just a real look at what your most valuable marketing asset is doing for you, and which tier makes sense from there.

Want to see what goes into it first? Our free GBP Masterclass walks through everything GBP management involves – so you know exactly what you’re working with.

Take the Free GBP Masterclass

Want to know more?

🎥 Watch “What Does Map Labs Do? (Why We’re #1 for Google & Apple Maps Marketing)” below!


Free GBP Analysis: See How Your Maps Profiles Are Performing

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Your Google Business Profile (GBP) is already at work – generating calls, direction requests, website visits, and bookings. But do you know how many?

Most businesses don’t. They know their profile exists. They see reviews come in. But the actual volume of customers their GBP is sending them (and what they’re worth in revenue) is a number most have never seen.

This number exists. We pull it on every analysis call we do – and it surprises even the most sophisticated marketers. Most businesses have no idea how many customers they are already getting from Google Maps (and how they can easily get even more).

TL;DR: Most businesses are guessing at how their Google Business Profile is performing – and what you don’t know is costing you customers. Map Labs’ free GBP analysis shows you exactly where you stand:

  • 12 months of real performance data
  • Your Maps presence in dollars
  • And a clear path to get more from your GBP

We show you how you’re doing right now. No commitment required.

Your Most Visited Page Isn’t Your Website

Before a customer ever reaches your website, they see your Google Business Profile. It drives clicks, calls, visits, and purchases – often in seconds. 80% of GBP views come from non-branded searches – they search “near me” and decide in that moment where to go.

Here are the facts:

  • Every month in 2025, Google drove more than 2.5 billion direct connections for U.S. businesses – phone calls, messages, bookings, direction requests, and reviews 1.
  • 88% of people who open a Maps listing call or visit within 24 hours.

This is high-intent traffic (people nearby, and ready to buy) landing on your profile every single day.

Most businesses have no idea how many customers they are converting from Maps (or losing). The free Google Business Profile Analysis walks you through exactly what’s currently working and what Map Labs experts would do differently to drive more customers through your doors instantly. 

What’s In the GBP Analysis

In a one-on-one call with a Map Labs expert, we pull up your real data and show you exactly where you stand. No fluff, no pitch decks. Just an honest take on where you’re leaving customers on the table, and what opportunities exist to get more.

You’ll walk away with three things:

  • 12 months of real-world GBP performance – the actual calls, direction requests, website visits, and bookings your profile drove over the last year.
  • The estimated dollar value of your Google Maps presence – what your current visibility is actually worth in revenue terms.
  • Clear next steps to drive more customers – the specific optimizations that will move the needle fastest for your business.

All your data, and a clear picture of where to go next. Use the information with or without Map Labs (though we hope you choose to work with us 😉)

Showing Up Isn’t the Same as Performing

Most businesses assume their GBP is fine. It’s live, it has reviews, and it shows up when someone searches their brand name. But… that’s the bare minimum.

Performing well means showing up for the customers who don’t know you yet. The ones searching “best [your category] near me” – people who are nearby, ready to buy, and about to choose between you and your competitor.

The gap between showing up for your brand name and showing up for new customers is where most businesses are quietly losing. Our GBP analysis shows you exactly how well your profile is performing today, so you know where the real revenue growth opportunities are.

Ready to See Your Numbers?

Map Labs’ free GBP analysis is a one-on-one expert consultation – real data and real recommendations – no commitment required. It’s the fastest way to go from guessing how your Google Maps presence is performing to knowing.

Want to learn how to optimize your profile yourself? Take our 🎓 FREE GBP Masterclass. It walks you through every section of your Google Business Profile step by step – so you know exactly what to improve and why.

Want to know more?

🎥 Watch ‘Google Business Profile is Your New Landing Page‘ below!

  1. https://economicimpact.google/resources/ ↩︎

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