Start with Rankings
Open Local → Rankings first and add your location with name, address and phone number, then confirm your Google Maps listing. Profile, reviews and listings all use these details.
Rankings measures where you appear on Google Maps at many points around your business — the share of points where you are in the top 3, and who ranks there instead. This is what a signed-out searcher sees; your customers may also see personalised results.
Profile and reviews
Profile checks your Google Business Profile once a week against fixed rules (description length, category, website, phone) and against the businesses that rank at the top. It is a correlation, not Google’s formula.
Reviews sends a short email on your behalf with the link to Google — only to customers who explicitly agreed, at most one request and one reminder in six months. Never promise anything in return; Google removes such reviews. A QR code for your counter opens Google’s review form directly.
Listings
Listings compares your name, address and phone number with the directories that matter most in your country (available for the US and Germany). A new check is possible every 5 days. Directory listings created for you and ongoing listing monitoring are add-ons.