Apple Maps and your business listing

Every iPhone comes with Apple Maps, and when an iPhone owner asks Siri for a florist or taps an address in a message, Apple's listing is the one they see. Apple Business Connect is Apple's free tool for claiming that listing and correcting it. It takes about half an hour plus a verification step, and it is worth doing even if your Google profile is perfect, because Apple does not read your Google profile.

Why the Apple listing matters

Many owners never look at Apple Maps because they use Google themselves. Your customers may not. When someone on an iPhone:

asks Siri "find a hardware store near me" or "call the bakery on Main Street",
searches in the Maps app,
types your business name into the search bar on the home screen,
or taps an address that someone texted them,

the result comes from Apple's own business data. If that data has an old phone number or wrong hours, Siri will read the wrong information aloud with complete confidence.

Apple builds a listing for most businesses whether or not the owner has claimed it, using data from outside suppliers. Claiming it is how you take control of what it says.

Before you start

Have these ready:

An Apple Account (what used to be called an Apple ID). You can use your personal one or create a new one with your business email. If you share the business with a partner, a business email is easier to hand over later.
Your exact business name, address and main phone number, written the same way they appear on Google and on your website.
Your opening hours, including any regular closed days.
A few good photos: your storefront, inside, your work or products. A logo as a square image.

Claiming your listing step by step

Go to businessconnect.apple.com on a computer and sign in with your Apple Account.
Choose to add your business and enter your business name and address. Apple shows matching places it already has.
If your business appears, select it and claim it. If it does not, you can add a new place. Do not create a new one if an existing listing is yours, even if it has errors; claim it and correct it.
Choose your role. You will usually be the owner. If you are a marketer or agency adding it for someone else, Apple handles that differently.
Verify. Apple may verify you automatically, by calling your business phone number with a code, or by asking for documents showing you run the business, such as a business license or a utility bill in the business name. Answer the business line yourself during the call window, or the code goes to whoever picks up.
Once verified, fill in or correct every detail: categories, hours, phone, website and photos.

Changes are usually reviewed by Apple before they show in Maps, which can take a few days.

What to fill in carefully

Hours and special hours

Put in regular hours, then add special hours for holidays as they come up. Siri will happily tell someone you are open on Thanksgiving if your listing says so.

Website and action buttons

Add your website using the exact address your site uses. Apple also lets you add action links, such as booking, ordering or getting a quote, if you use a booking or ordering service. Only add the ones that work on a phone, because that is where people will tap them.

Photos and logo

Apple shows a cover photo and a logo on your place card, the panel that opens when someone taps your pin. Choose a cover photo that shows what a customer sees when they arrive, not a close-up of a product. People use it to recognize the building.

Showcases and updates

Business Connect has a feature called Showcases: a short promotion with a photo, such as a seasonal menu, an open day or a new service, shown on your place card for a set period. It is optional. If you already post updates on Google, a Showcase for the same thing takes a few minutes. If you never post anywhere, do not feel you must start here; correct details matter far more than promotions.

Reviews and ratings on Apple Maps

Apple Maps shows ratings in its own way. iPhone users can give a business a thumbs up or down and add photos, and Apple may also show reviews from partner sites. You cannot remove ratings, and you cannot reply on Apple Maps the way you can on Google. The practical answer is to look after your reviews where you can answer them: responding to Google reviews, good and bad covers that.

When Apple shows the wrong place on the map

If your pin sits in the wrong spot, which happens a lot with businesses in strip malls, business parks and rural addresses, you can adjust its position in Business Connect. If you go to customers instead of them coming to you, check whether showing your street address is right for you at all. The same thinking applies as on Google, which is covered in Google Maps and your business: getting the pin right.

Keeping Apple in step with everything else

Apple, Google and Bing each keep their own records. When your hours, phone or address change, update all three on the same day, and your website too. A listing is only as useful as its least accurate copy: a customer who gets the wrong hours from Siri does not blame Siri.

It also helps to make your website say the same things plainly: full address in text (not only inside a picture), phone number as a tap-to-call link, and hours on the contact page. Apple's systems, like Google's, compare what your listing says with what your site says.

What to do this week

On an iPhone, search for your business in Maps and note anything wrong.
Sign in at businessconnect.apple.com and claim your place.
Be at the business phone for the verification call, or have a document ready.
Fix category, hours, phone, website and photos, then check again in a few days.
Ask Siri for your type of business near you and listen to what it says.

If your Apple listing now sends iPhone users to a website that is hard to read on that same iPhone, you can see your site rebuilt for phones first before you decide whether to switch.