Apple Maps Business Listing Guide

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  • Apple Maps has 23.3 million monthly users – Google Maps has 154.4 million users.
  • Apple Maps has come a long way since it’s buggy launch and offers a quality and versatile product that rivals Google Maps.
  • Apple Maps Listings offers small businesses underutilized local visibility.
  • Claim your Apple Maps Listing to customize your business information and reach a new demographic of users.

If you run a small business, one of the most vital elements of growing your customer base and brand is getting your business found on local search. Searching for local businesses is one of the first steps potential customers take. In fact, an estimated 78% of local mobile searches lead to offline purchases. Needless to say, it’s more important than ever to be visible on local searches and it’s up to you to ensure that your business has a presence on all of the devices and apps where people might look.

One underutilized market presence you’ll need to manage is your Apple Maps Business Listing. While some say that Google Maps is the superior platform with a far greater user base (154.4 million monthly users), choosing to neglect 23.3 million Apple Maps users would be a massive mistake for small businesses. 

On Apple devices, like iPhones and iPads, the default mapping/directions app is Apple Maps, not Google Maps. As a matter of fact, Apple maps is now three times more popular than Google Maps among iOS (Apple’s operating system) users. When someone does a local search on an iPhone or iPad the top results will typically display Apple Maps business listings. When users ask Siri for “blank” near me, the results come from Apple Maps.

This is an important customer group to reach and you must claim and optimize your Apple Maps business listing to do that. We’ll give a quick guide to claiming your Apple Maps business listing and optimizing your business information on the platform.

Claim Your Apple Maps Business Listing

  1. To claim your Apple Maps business listing, you must go to Apple Maps Connect, this is a similar gateway as Google My Business. It is very likely that Apple already has an Apple Maps business listing for your business but it will be very barebones and not personalized. 
  2. Claiming a listing requires an Apple ID. If you do not have one already associated with your business, you’ll need to create one. Note: It may be best to separate your business Apple ID from any personal accounts, but the decision is up to you.
  3. Once you’ve entered your Apple ID, you can follow the on-screen prompts to claim or add your business. 
    1. Select your relationship to your business: “I’m the business owner or “I’m authorized by the business owner.”
    2. Enter your basic business details: includes business name, primary business phone number, and business address.
    3. Verify your business phone number: A prompt will allow Apple to contact the supplied business phone number. A PIN code will be provided from Apple as a way to verify it. You may opt to “Verify Later”, if necessary.
    4. Confirm your business location: select from three categories that best fits your business. If you do not see a suitable category, you can suggest one.
    5.  Confirm your hours of business.
  4. Add your company website and social media accounts. Doing so allows users to quickly go from your Apple Maps business listing to your website.  Simply add your URL(s) into the appropriate fields.
  5. Review your business information and confirm. Your new listings should appear within Apple Map results within a week. Note: Apple may notify you if additional verification is required.

Update Your Apple Maps Listing Information

Unfortunately, Apple Maps listings and interface are not as developed or customizable as Google. You can’t have multiple admins for your business (because it is tied to your Apple ID number), but you can still have multiple locations associated with your Apple ID.

While you have control of basic business information, you cannot manage any business photos. And customer reviews will be absent. Apple sources that information from platforms like Yelp and TripAdvisor. In order to fully optimize your Apple Maps business listing, those platforms must be properly managed and optimized as well.

What’s Next for Apple Maps?

Apple targets its mapping experience towards users first. They are building a network of first-party data using a fleet of vans and on foot employees equipped with sensors and cameras to digitize environments and revolutionize mapping. The goal of Apple Maps is to be the most useful and visually rich mapping app on the market and the recent update is putting it side-by-side with rival Google Maps.

It’s likely that Apple will introduce a significant upgrade to Maps Connect in order to compete with Google and help businesses better manage their listings. In the meantime, it’s still an important local SEO tool that every business can utilize to reach millions of Apple users.

If you’re worried your website and local SEO isn’t up to snuff, contact the experts at Redefine Marketing Group for more digital marketing, SEO, and web content help.

Author avatar
Victor Lopez
Victor is an SEO specialist for Redefine Marketing Group. Victor's primary focus within his role at Redefine is technical SEO. He's also a Cal Poly Pomona alum with a Business Administration degree in E-commerce and minor Marketing.
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