Google Business Profile: how to set one up properly, in the right order

A Google Business Profile is the free listing that puts a business on Google Maps and in the box of local results above the ordinary ones. For a business whose customers are nearby, it is often the first thing anyone sees, before your website and sometimes instead of it.

Setting one up takes an afternoon. Setting it up so it does not get suspended, and does not need redoing in six months, mostly comes down to doing things in the right order and following rules that plenty of advice gets wrong. Everything below is taken from Google's own help pages, read on 28 September 2026 and linked as we go.

First, check you are eligible

Google's guidelines for representing your business open with the test: a business can have a profile if it "either has a physical location that customers can visit, or travels to customers where they are".

That rules some set-ups out. A virtual office, meaning a postal address you rent but do not work from, "isn't eligible for a Business Profile". A desk in a co-working space only counts if it has clear signage, receives customers during opening hours and is staffed by your people during those hours. And it is one profile per business: Google says duplicates cause problems with how your information shows on Maps and Search.

If you work from home and go to your customers, as most tradespeople, consultants and mobile services do, you are a service-area business. You are eligible, and you hide your address (more on that below).

Step 1: add or claim the profile

You need a Google Account; a Gmail address is not required, and any email address will do. Then, from Google's page on adding or claiming a profile:

• If your business is not on Google yet, go to business.google.com/add and follow the steps.
• If it is already there, find it on Google Maps, select Claim this business, then Manage now.

It costs nothing. Google says so on the same page, and its local ranking help adds that "there's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google". Anyone selling you a guaranteed position on the map is selling something Google says does not exist.

Step 2: verify it

Verification proves you run the business. Until it is done, your photos do not show, and Google says some businesses cannot edit their profile at all.

Google's verification page lists phone or text, email, a live video call, a postcard and a video recording, but you do not choose. "Verification methods are automatically determined by Google and can't be changed," depending on your type of business, public information, region and opening hours. If a video recording is offered, Google recommends it.

Three details save a lot of grief:

1. Phone verification needs a person. Google says automated phone menus will not receive the code, so make sure a human or a mobile can take the call.
2. With a postcard, change nothing while you wait. Most codes arrive within 14 days and expire after 30. If you edit the business name, address or category in the meantime, the code will not work, and requesting a new one cancels the first.
3. Live video calls happen during your opening hours, at your premises. Be ready to show a sign or street name that places you, the tools or stock you work with, and something that proves you run the place, such as keys or a staff-only area.

After that, Google says reviews take up to five working days. Some profiles are verified at once, including when the business's website is already verified in Google Search Console, which is one more reason to set Search Console up (our guide to why a website is not showing up on Google walks through it).

Step 3: name, category, and where you are

These three decide which searches you can appear for, and they are where most suspensions start. We cover the fixes in what to do if your profile is suspended; better not to need them.

Your name is your real name. Google's guidelines say it should reflect your business's "real-world name, as used consistently on your shopfront, website, stationery and as known to customers". Adding your town or your main service to the name, "Smith Plumbing Epsom Emergency Plumber", is the classic mistake. Legal terms count too: Google lists terms like LTD among the things you may only include if your signs and paperwork consistently show them.

Your category describes the business itself. Google asks for "as few categories as possible to describe your overall core business" and suggests a test: the category should complete "This business IS a", not "this business HAS a". A café with Wi-Fi is a café. Choose the primary category first, and with care.

Your address, or your service area. If customers come to you, show the address, exactly as it appears in the real world. If you go to them and do not see customers at your base, Google's service area help says to remove the address from the profile and set a service area instead: up to 20 places, with the whole area no more than "about two hours of driving time" from where you are based. A business that does both, such as a garage that also offers roadside repairs, can show its address and set a service area.

Step 4: the rest of the profile

Once the fundamentals are right, fill in everything else. Google's local ranking help is plain that complete, accurate information helps: "If your business info isn't accurate, your Business Profile might not show up for relevant searches in your area."

• Phone number: a local number rather than a central call centre where you can, and never one that forwards to someone else's business.
• Opening hours: your real customer-facing hours. For holidays, events and short closures, use special hours, which cover changes of up to six days in a row. Google suggests confirming bank holiday hours even when they are unchanged, so customers can trust them.
• Description: up to 750 characters, no links, about what you do and what makes you different. Google's guidelines rule out promotions and prices here ("Best butties in town for £5!" is their own example of what not to write).
• Services or products: list them individually, in the words your customers use.
• Photos: start with the outside of the premises, because Google says an exterior photo helps customers recognise you when they arrive, then the work itself, and the inside if people visit. They only appear once you are verified.

You can edit all of this directly from Google Search or Maps while signed in. Search for your business name to find the editing panel.

Step 5: reviews, the honest way

Reviews are the part of the profile customers read hardest, and Google's ranking help says "more reviews and positive ratings can help your business's local ranking".

Asking is fine. Google's review help suggests sending customers a link or QR code straight to the review form. What its fake engagement policy forbids is offering anything in return, including discounts or free goods, and asking only the customers you expect to be happy: businesses may not "discourage or prohibit negative reviews, or selectively solicit positive reviews from customers". Reviews from staff, family or anyone with a conflict of interest are out too. UK law has its own rules on fake and incentivised reviews, which we set out in should you only ask happy customers for reviews?

Reply to every review, briefly and in your own words. For a bad one, reply once, calmly, with the facts and a way to put it right. The reply is for the next customer reading, as much as for the one who wrote it.

Keeping it alive

A profile is not a one-off. Update it when your hours, services or phone number change, and set special hours before every bank holiday. Posts let you share news, offers and events on the profile itself. Google presents them as a way to help customers decide to visit and makes no claim that they affect ranking, so post when you have something worth saying, not to a schedule.

It is also worth copying the same details to the other maps people use. Bing can import a Google profile, which we cover in getting your business on Bing. Wherever your business appears, the name, address, phone number and hours should match exactly; why local search matters more than it did five years ago explains why disagreement between listings now costs more than it used to.

How ranking works, as far as Google says

Google names three factors. Its help page introduces them as "relevance, distance and popularity", then heads the third section "Prominence", so it uses both words for the same thing:

• Relevance: how well your profile matches the search.
• Distance: how far you are from the person searching, or from where Google thinks they are.
• Prominence: how well known you are, which Google says draws on things like how many websites link to you and how many reviews you have.

Distance you cannot change. Relevance is the profile itself: the category, services and description above. Prominence comes from being known offline and online, which is where the rest of our local SEO checklist comes in.

Where the evidence is thin

• Weights. Google does not publish how the three factors are weighed against each other, and says it keeps "search algorithm details confidential". Anyone quoting precise ranking factors for the map results is estimating.
• Posts and photos. Google recommends both and says complete, accurate profiles are more likely to show up, but it publishes no figures on how much either changes where a profile appears.
• Which verification method you get. Google decides this per business and does not publish the rules, so a method a friend was offered may not be offered to you.

If you would like your profile set up properly from the start, and the rest of your local search checked alongside it, that is part of our SEO audit and first fixes, a fixed £2,500. For how we work with businesses near us, see our pages for Epsom and Ewell and Somerset.