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How to show up in Siri and Apple Maps

On iPhones, "find a plumber near me" usually means Apple Maps. Your place card and Applebot access decide what people see.

Updated 21 Oct 2026 · 3 official sources

How does Siri & Apple Maps find businesses?

Two Apple systems matter. Apple Maps place cards (name, category, hours, phone, photos, actions like "Call" or "Book") are managed through Apple Business, which replaced Apple Business Connect in April 2026. Requests for nearby places on an iPhone, including through Siri, typically surface those place cards.

For web results, Apple's crawler Applebot powers search in Spotlight, Siri and Safari. Apple says Applebot data may also give Apple's AI features up-to-date context when answering questions, with links to sources.

Which crawlers matter for Siri & Apple Maps?

Siri & Apple Maps crawlers and what to do with them
User agentDo
Applebot
Search

Crawls for Spotlight, Siri and Safari search. If your robots.txt has no Applebot rules but has Googlebot rules, Apple says Applebot follows the Googlebot rules.

Allow
Applebot-Extended
Training

Doesn't crawl. It only controls whether Applebot's data can train Apple's foundation models. Apple says disallowing it doesn't affect search.

Your choice

robots.txt you can copy

User-agent: Applebot
Allow: /

# Optional: opt out of Apple model training only
# User-agent: Applebot-Extended
# Disallow: /

Not sure what your file says now? Check it free: it reads your robots.txt rule by rule for Applebot, Applebot-Extended and 19 other AI bots.

What should you fix, step by step?

  1. 01Claim your location in Apple Business

    Sign in at business.apple.com with an Apple Account, add your business, and claim your location (existing Business Connect accounts were migrated). Apple verifies that you represent the business before your edits go live.

    Fill in the place card completely: exact category, hours (including special hours), phone, website, photos and the action buttons that fit (call, book, order). Keep it identical to your Google and Bing listings.

  2. 02Keep Applebot allowed and let it render your pages

    Allow Applebot in robots.txt (the AI Crawler Checker checks it). Applebot may render pages like a browser, so Apple asks sites not to block the JavaScript and CSS a page needs. A page that only works with resources Applebot can't fetch may be indexed badly.

    Watch your meta tags: noindex keeps a page out of Spotlight and Siri suggestions, and nosnippet stops Apple from generating a description or using the page as context for AI answers.

  3. 03Put your key facts in plain HTML text

    Applebot reads the HTML your server sends. Facts that only exist inside images, PDFs, sliders or text loaded later by JavaScript are easy to miss. Your homepage and service pages should say, in ordinary text: what you do, for whom, where (city and areas served), how to book, hours, and typical prices if you can share them.

    One page per main service, with the questions customers actually ask answered on it, gives an assistant something specific to quote. Run the SEO Health Snapshot for the basics, and see AI crawlers and JavaScript.

  4. 04Add LocalBusiness schema that matches your listings

    Structured data (JSON-LD) states your facts in a form machines don't have to interpret: business type, address, phone, opening hours, area served, price range and your profile links in sameAs. It doesn't guarantee a mention, but it removes ambiguity, and it must say exactly what your listings say.

    Use the most specific type that fits (Dentist, Plumber, Attorney…). Our free Schema / JSON-LD Generator writes it for you.

  5. 05Make your name, address and phone identical everywhere

    AI answers are stitched together from many sources at once: your site, your listings, review sites and directories. When they disagree (an old phone number, a previous address, "St." on one and "Street" on another plus a different suite), the assistant has to guess, and it often picks the version that appears most.

    Write down one canonical version of your business name, address, phone, hours and website, then make every profile match it: Google Business Profile, Bing Places, Apple Business, Yelp, Facebook, and the directories for your trade.

  6. 06Earn real reviews where this engine looks

    When someone asks for "the best" or "a trusted" business, assistants lean on review platforms and third-party lists rather than your own claims. Apple Maps shows Apple's own ratings and, in many places, reviews and ratings from partner sites such as Yelp. A complete Yelp listing with recent reviews matters more here than on most engines.

    Ask happy customers for reviews as part of your normal process, reply to reviews (good and bad) and fix the issues they raise. Never buy or script reviews: platforms remove them, and it can get a listing suspended.

  7. 07Check what Siri and Apple Maps says about you, then re-check monthly

    Ask Siri and Apple Maps the questions your customers ask ("best emergency plumber in Leeds", "dentist open Saturdays near Austin"), not just your business name. Note who gets named, what's said about you, and which sources are cited. Search Apple Maps on an iPhone from your area for your service, and ask Siri the same question. Check that your place card shows the right hours, phone and website.

    Our free AI Visibility Quick Scan does a first pass, and this guide shows how to test by hand.

Sources

We update this guide when Siri & Apple Maps changes how it works. Something out of date? Tell us.

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