Amsterdam, Rotterdam or Utrecht: how to read where your Google profile really shows up

A physiotherapist in Utrecht searches for her own practice from her desk and sees it near the top. A patient searching the same words from Overvecht sees other practices first, and one in Leidsche Rijn sees a third list. Which of those lists is the one that matters for your business?

The short answer: all of them, weighted by where your customers actually live, work or study. A single position number cannot show that. A visibility map can, because it shows the position your profile reaches for one search from many points around you. This reference guide explains what the map shows, which plan includes it, how to choose searches, how to read the result, what to fix and how to repeat the exercise over 30 days. For the wider picture, read our complete guide to Google Maps heatmaps and local visibility.

What a visibility map shows, and what it does not

Google explains that local results depend on relevance, distance and prominence (official tips to improve your local ranking). Relevance is how well your profile matches the words typed. Distance is how far the searcher is from you. Prominence is how well known and trusted the business appears, including reviews, photos and complete information. Of the three, distance is the one that changes with every person who searches, and it is why one search can produce many different lists across a single city.

This has a practical consequence in a compact, densely populated country. People often look for a business close to where they are at that moment, for example near home, near the station or near the office. As a matter of reasoning rather than data, a neighbourhood level view therefore tells you more than a city level one. A map shows exactly that: strong in one area, weak in the next, absent in a third.

The map has limits worth stating early. It shows visibility for the searches you choose, not for every search a customer might type. It reflects one moment, so a single reading proves little. And it cannot tell you why a competitor appears first. You find that by looking at their public profile, which is covered below.

Which LocalEdge plan includes the map

LocalEdge Lite is free and needs no credit card. It includes a GBP Score out of 100 based on more than 15 criteria, review reading and replying with AVI drafts that you check, four posts and four photos a month, and a 15 day trial of Guardian and AVI Chat. It does not include the visibility map. The map is part of the Solo plan, which is a one-off payment according to the product page. The table sets out the levels.

If you want to see your starting point before choosing a plan, you can scan your profile’s visibility on the map. For one business that wants profile, reviews and the map in one place, LocalEdge for single businesses, with one-off payment is the level that includes it. Prices change by zone, so the current price is the one shown on the product page.

One practical note for Dutch teams: according to the product page, the LocalEdge interface is available in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish and German. It is not available in Dutch. If your team works mainly in Dutch, check the languages on the product page before you decide.

Prepare the reading: searches, places and a baseline

A map is only as useful as the choices behind it. Spend ten minutes on these steps before you scan anything.

1. Search your business name in Google Maps on a phone. If two profiles appear, or one shows an old address or phone number, resolve that first, because duplicates split reviews and confuse customers.
2. Write down the searches a customer would really type, in the language they would use. A restaurant might list “restaurant”, “lunch near me” and “vegetarian dinner”. A dentist might list “dentist” and “emergency dentist”. Each search gives a different map.
3. Choose the two or three searches that matter most, rather than ten. Many maps are harder to compare than a few.
4. List where your customers live, work or study, such as De Pijp, Jordaan and Oud-Zuid in Amsterdam, Kralingen and Delfshaven in Rotterdam, or Lombok and Wittevrouwenbuurt in Utrecht.
5. Run the scan, save each map with its search and its date, and keep the files together. This is your baseline.

Reading the map: strong, weak and empty zones

Sort what you see into three kinds of area. Strong zones are where you appear near the top, so there is no urgency. Weak zones are where you appear but far from the first places, and these are usually your biggest opportunity. Empty zones are where you do not appear. An empty zone can be a real gap or simply a district where you have no customers and no plan to serve them.

• Start with the zones that overlap with your customer list. A weak zone in a district where you have no customers is not a priority.
• Note which zones are weak for every search you chose, because those point to a profile problem, not to one badly worded query.
• Note which zones are weak for one search only, because those point to a gap in how you describe that specific service.
• Look for patterns by direction. If you are strong on one side of a river or canal and weak on the other, the cause may be distance, not quality.
• Keep a short note per zone: what you see, what you suspect, what you will check.

From a weak zone to the profiles that fill it

For each weak zone that matters, open Google Maps on a phone, run the same search from that area and note the first three to five profiles. Then look at public data only. Check their primary and secondary categories, the number of reviews and how many are recent, whether the owner replies and in what tone, how many photos they have and whether those are current, and whether hours, services and contact details are complete. Also check where the competitor is located compared with the weak zone, because sometimes the explanation is simply that they are a few streets away and you are not.

Do not copy a competitor. Copied text does not set you apart and may describe services you do not offer. Use the comparison to find gaps in your own profile and fill them with true information.

Turning the findings into fixes

Work through the fixes in this order, because each builds on the one before.

Category, services and description

The primary category tells Google which searches your profile can answer. Many profiles keep a broad category chosen at set-up even after the business has narrowed or grown. Choose the most specific option in Google’s list for what you do today, and add secondary categories only for services you really provide. One point settles a common doubt: correcting a category is a change to a data field, and Google reads the published value whether you changed it directly or through a management tool. What counts is what ends up on the profile, not the route. Nobody can promise how far a position will move, because that depends on your area and your competition.

List each service the way a customer would say it, say what it includes and, where you can, give a price or a duration. An exact price is not required. Describing a service well beats leaving it blank, and beats promising something that nobody confirms by phone. If you are on Lite, remember its limits: a menu of three items, up to five services and up to five products.

Hours, photos and contact

Wrong hours are the main cause of wasted visits, and wasted visits turn into avoidable bad reviews. Enter regular hours, then special hours for every day your schedule changes, including public holidays and early closures. Check the official calendar of the year before entering dates, and do not rely on memory. The labels in the hours section can vary by device. Add recent photos of the exterior, the interior and finished work, without identifiable customers unless they agree. List only contact routes that someone really answers.

Reviews

Google’s policies discourage asking only satisfied customers for reviews and prohibit discounts, gifts or any other incentive. Ask every customer in the same way, with a direct link sent after the visit, and read the current wording of the policy because it can change. Google has not said that replying to reviews improves your position. The value is trust, because future customers read your replies. With LocalEdge Lite, AVI drafts a reply matched to the tone and language of each review, and you read, adjust and publish it yourself. For a restaurant example of how this works in practice, read our complementary guide to Google profiles for restaurants in the Netherlands.

Edits you did not make

Your profile can change without you doing anything. According to Google’s help documentation updated in September 2026 (Search Engine Roundtable, 23/09/2026), the owner is notified of some suggested edits, by email or in the product, and has four days to accept or reject them. If the owner does not respond, Google may publish an edit when other public information supports it, and it may apply some changes without prior review. A weak zone that appears out of nowhere can therefore be a data problem, not a ranking problem. Guardian, an optional paid feature of LocalEdge, alerts you when it detects a change and shows the exact difference with a button to fix it. It does not stop anyone proposing an edit. It tells you so you can react, and Lite includes a 15 day trial.

If you manage profiles for several clients

For an agency, the map is also a sales tool. Showing an owner in which neighbourhoods their business is invisible, and which profiles fill that space, opens a more concrete conversation than a report on star ratings. Before a first meeting, a visibility scan for each prospect gives you a finding to discuss. Choose one sector you know and start with a handful of businesses, instead of trying to cover a whole province.

Once a client signs, LocalEdge for agencies, with one-off payment lets you work on many profiles from one dashboard. According to the product page, it includes bulk review replies with AVI drafts that you check, bulk posts and photos, bulk scans and Guardian, PDF reports in six languages, a weekly fleet summary and white label. In reports, separate what you control from what you do not. You control corrected profiles, accurate hours, handled reviews and added photos. You do not control the exact position at each point of the map. Promising a position is the quickest way to lose a client’s trust. Repeat the scan after a few months and show the difference without promising a result.

A 30 day routine

This order works for one business and for an agency alike.

1. Week 1: resolve duplicates, choose two or three searches, list your customer districts, run the first scan and save the maps as your baseline.
2. Week 2: read the maps, mark strong, weak and empty zones, and compare the profiles that fill your most important weak zones using public data only.
3. Week 3: correct the primary category, services and hours, add recent photos, and set up one review request that is identical for every customer.
4. Week 4: check for suggested edits, answer pending reviews, then repeat the scan with the same searches and the same points and compare with week 1.

One scan after the changes does not prove cause and effect, and Google does not publish how long a change takes to show. Repeat the same maps at a sensible interval, such as after any major change, and judge the trend over several readings, not one.

If you saved only one map this week, which search and which neighbourhoods would you choose? Start at no cost with LocalEdge Lite, free and with no credit card, look at your GBP Score and decide later whether the map is worth adding.