Fix · Corroboration

No profiles declared

Your page never tells a machine where else the business exists. No map listing, no register entry, no review page, no social account is linked or declared, so a system that wants to check you are who you say you are has only your own word for it.

What we found

No sameAs profile links declared — the business node names the business but links it to nothing, or there is no business node at all and the page carries no outbound link to a map, register, review site or social network. Evidence EV-036, EV-040

One profile declared, and it could not be read — the only link is a Facebook page, and Meta shows an anonymous reader a shell with no text. That is Facebook's behaviour, not a fault of the site; it means the one profile you have cannot do the corroborating on its own. Evidence EV-011, EV-037

Why it matters

A search engine or an assistant reads your name, telephone and postcode on your site, then looks for the same three facts somewhere you do not control: the company register, the map listing customers use, a review site, a social page. When it finds them and they agree, it can recommend you with some confidence. When it finds nothing, it either stays quiet or takes a directory's word for who you are, and directories are wrong more often than owners think.

Declaring the profiles does two things. It tells the machine which of the several “Wraycroft” results on a map is yours, and it saves it from guessing which of the same-name pages on Facebook is yours. Guessing is where a stranger's telephone number gets attached to your business.

The repair, in four steps

Pick three or four places, not eight. For a UK business: the register entry (Companies House, which needs no claiming), the map listing your customers actually navigate with (Google, and Apple for iPhone users), one review site if customers read reviews there before visiting (Tripadvisor for food, drink and days out; Trustpilot or Checkatrade for trades), and the one social account you keep current. A platform your customers do not use is not a gap.
Claim each one. Every listing below is free to claim. Each has a verification step you do not control and a clock that starts only when you do, which is why this is week-one work: start them all on the same day and let them run in parallel. The table gives the route, the cost, the clock and the address form to declare afterwards.
Make them agree with the site. Same trading name, same telephone in the same format, same postcode, same opening hours. The site is the reference; change the listing, not the site. A listing that shows a different number is a contradiction, and a contradiction is worse than an absence.
Declare them. Put each claimed address in the sameAs array of your business node (see no machine-readable identity if you have no node yet), and link the same addresses from the site footer so a crawler that ignores structured data finds them too. Only addresses that load and show your name go in; a dead link weakens you.

Where to claim, what it costs, how long it takes

On a phone, the table scrolls sideways.

Listing	Where	Cost	Verification and clock	Address to declare
Companies House	Nothing to claim: every UK company has an entry from incorporation	Free	None	`find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/number`
Google Business Profile	google.com/business, with a Google Account	Free	Google chooses the method: telephone or text, email, a live video call showing the premises, or a postcard. “Most codes arrive within 14 days”; after verification “reviews take up to 5 business days”.	The share link from your profile (`maps.app.goo.gl/…` or `g.page/r/…`), or the Maps place address
Apple Maps (Apple Business Connect)	businessconnect.apple.com, with an Apple Account, from a desktop browser	Free	Apple verifies the business before you can claim the place card; allow days to weeks. The card then appears in Maps, Siri, Messages and Wallet.	The Share link from the place in Apple Maps (`maps.apple.com/…`)
Bing Places	bingplaces.com	Free	Offers to import a verified Google Business Profile, which is the quickest route; otherwise its own telephone, text or postcard check.	Not usually declared; the value is in Bing and Copilot answers
Tripadvisor	tripadvisor.co.uk/Owners, “Claim your listing”; create the listing first if none exists	Free	Tripadvisor confirms you are the owner before handing the listing over; the method it offers varies and it can take some days.	The listing page: `tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g…-d….html` (or Attraction_Review, Hotel_Review)
Facebook Page	Create or open the Page, then set a username under the Page settings	Free	None for a new Page. An old Page keeps working under its numeric address, but give it a username so the address names you.	`facebook.com/username`, never the `/pages/…/123456` or `profile.php?id=` forms
Instagram	A business or creator account in the app	Free	None	`instagram.com/handle/`

Verification details read from Google's and Apple's own pages on 28 September 2026; Tripadvisor does not publish its method and applies it case by case. Platforms change these steps without notice.

Before and after

Now

<!-- footer -->
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Your-Farm/416319671741582">Facebook</a>

/* no business node, no sameAs */

After

"sameAs": [
  "https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/01234567",
  "https://maps.app.goo.gl/AbCdEf12345",
  "https://maps.apple.com/place?place-id=I1234567890ABCDEF",
  "https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g186317-d1234567-Reviews.html",
  "https://www.facebook.com/yourfarmcreamery"
]
/* and the same five links in the footer */

The addresses above are the shapes to look for, not real listings. Take each one from the platform's own Share or copy-link control once the claim is complete; a typed address is how a same-name business ends up declared as yours.

Prove it worked. Open every declared address in a private window: each loads, shows your business name, and where it shows a telephone or postcode, shows the same one as your site. Then run the free check again. “Where this page says the business exists” lists each account as opened, and the ones the platform lets an anonymous reader see are marked as naming the business. Meta and LinkedIn pages usually come back “could not be read automatically”; that is expected, and the map, register and Tripadvisor entries carry the corroboration instead.

What it will not do

Declaring profiles does not make an assistant mention you and does not move a ranking. It removes the reason a machine has to guess who you are. It is also not a reason to open an account on a platform your customers do not use: an Instagram page with two posts from 2023 corroborates less than no page at all. Claim the listings that exist for you already, keep three or four of them accurate, and stop.