Ask Maps answers before your customer sees your profile. Here are 9 things it reads.

Your next customer may never type a search.

They will open Google Maps, tap a button and ask a question. “Who can fix a leaking water heater near me today?” Ask Maps will answer in a few lines. It might name you. It might name the shop down the road. It picks before anyone sees your profile, your photos or your website.

This is new. Google launched Ask Maps on March 12, 2026. In August it reached Canada and more than 150 countries in English. Here is the plain list of what it can read about you, based on what Google has said in public. Where Google has not said something, we say so. New to Ask Maps? Start with what it is and how it works.

1. Your Business Profile basics

Your name, your main category, your services and your area. Google’s own help page says it plainly. Businesses with complete and accurate info are more likely to show up.

In a 2026 survey of 47 local SEO experts, your main category scored as the top factor for the map results. Ask Maps is newer, and Google has not published its rules for it. It still pulls from the same Maps data. If your category is wrong, every answer built on it starts wrong.

2. Your hours, holidays included

People ask Ask Maps things like “who is open tonight?” That question needs your hours. Google asks you to list your real customer-facing hours, plus special hours for holidays. The same expert survey ranks being open at the time of the search fifth among map factors.

A shop that closes at five does not exist at seven. Here are the eight places your hours have to match.

3. What your reviews actually say

Google says Ask Maps reads reviews from more than 500 million contributors and pulls out tips from real people. So the words in your reviews matter, not only the stars.

Here is the catch. You cannot write those words for your customers. Google’s rules say a business must not ask for specific content in a review. You can ask every customer for an honest review, every time. Our guide to getting more reviews shows how to do it inside the rules.

4. How you reply

Your replies are public. Google says replying shows customers you value their feedback. A calm, specific reply to a bad review is also something a reader, or a machine, can quote. See how to reply to reviews.

5. Your own website

Google’s India team said it plainly: Ask Maps highlights “insider tips from real people and web content.” Your website is web content you control. Google’s guide to AI features says the same basics apply as for normal search. Google must be able to crawl your pages. Your text should answer real questions. Your profile should be up to date.

We tested this on ourselves. Ask Maps repeated the monthly price range from our pricing page. It had read the page. If your prices, areas and services are not on your site, it has nothing to repeat.

6. Photos of real work

Photos come from you and from your customers. They show what you do, your trucks and your finished jobs. Skip the geotag trick. In the 2026 expert survey, geotagging photos tops the list of local SEO myths. Google strips location data from photos when you upload them. More in our geotagging guide.

7. Edits other people suggest

This one is new. In August 2026, Google said people can suggest edits just by chatting with Ask Maps. Someone can snap a photo of a sign, and Maps will read the hours from it and ask them to confirm. Google checks the edit before it goes live. It started in the U.S.

If your sign, your website and your profile disagree, a stranger may end up picking which one is right.

8. Where the person is standing

Google says local results run on relevance, distance and prominence. Ask Maps answers with a map. A homeowner across town gets a different list than one next door to you. That is why one ranking number tells you very little.

9. The person’s own history

Ask Maps is personal. It can remember past chats if history is turned on. It can use what a person has saved. Two people who ask the same thing can get different answers.

You cannot control this one. It is also why anyone selling a fixed “Ask Maps score” is selling a guess. More on that in 7 Ask Maps hacks that don’t hold up.

Two things it no longer reads

Ask Maps can only repeat what is written down somewhere. Make sure it is written down right.

None of this is a promise of a spot. Google decides that, and it does not sell it. What you control is the material it reads. If you want a second pair of eyes, the free Map Pack audit is the place to start.