Getting Your Google Business Profile Right
If you run a business or a nonprofit, your Google Business Profile is often the first thing people see about you, before they ever reach your website. It’s the box on Google Search and the pin on Google Maps with your hours, phone number, directions, photos and reviews.
Creating and managing a profile is free, and you control it. It rewards the same habits that serve a business everywhere else: telling the truth, keeping things current, and answering people promptly. Here is how to set it up properly and keep it that way.
We checked these steps against Google’s own help pages in October 2026. Google renames buttons and moves things around fairly often, so the screens may differ a little from what you see.
1. First, See Whether You Already Have One
Why it matters: Google often builds a listing from public information before the owner ever touches it. Google asks for one profile per business, and duplicates cause problems with how you show up on Maps and Search.
What to do: Search Google Maps for your business name and town. You’ll find one of three things:
– Nothing. Create a profile (section 2).
– A listing that says “Claim this business.” It exists but nobody has verified it. Claim it (section 5).
– A listing someone else already manages. Request ownership (section 5).
– Nothing. Create a profile (section 2).
– A listing that says “Claim this business.” It exists but nobody has verified it. Claim it (section 5).
– A listing someone else already manages. Request ownership (section 5).
Google’s help: Add or claim your Business Profile.
2. Creating a New Profile
Before you start: Sign in to a Google Account you’ll keep for years. Google suggests using your business email address. Avoid an employee’s personal account.
The steps:
1. Go to business.google.com/add and choose to add your business.
2. Enter your business name exactly as it appears on your sign.
3. Choose your main category.
4. Say whether customers can visit you at a location (section 3 explains the choice).
5. Enter your address or your service area.
6. Add your phone number and website.
7. Choose a verification option (section 4).
1. Go to business.google.com/add and choose to add your business.
2. Enter your business name exactly as it appears on your sign.
3. Choose your main category.
4. Say whether customers can visit you at a location (section 3 explains the choice).
5. Enter your address or your service area.
6. Add your phone number and website.
7. Choose a verification option (section 4).
A good habit: Google recommends checking every detail before you request verification. It’s easier to get right the first time than to correct afterward.
Google’s help: Sign up for Business Profile.
3. Storefront, Service Area, or Both
Storefront: Customers come to you, at an address with permanent signage, staffed during the hours you list. Think of a shop, a café or an office with a front door.
Service-area business: You go to your customers, as a plumber, a cleaner or a mobile groomer does. Hide your address and list the cities or ZIP codes you serve. You can add up to 20, and Google says the overall area generally shouldn’t stretch past about two hours’ drive from your base.
Hybrid: You serve customers at your location and also go out to them, like a restaurant that delivers. You can show your address and a service area.
Working from home: If you visit customers, set up as a service-area business and keep your home address hidden. Google doesn’t allow P.O. boxes or virtual offices as a business location.
Google’s help: Manage your service areas; Guidelines for representing your business.
4. Verification
Why it matters: Until you verify, customers can’t find your new profile on Google, and you can’t fully manage it. Verification is how Google confirms you are who you say you are.
What to expect: Google decides which methods you’re offered, and you can’t change that. Depending on your business, you may see phone or text, email, a recorded video, a live video call, or a postcard. Sometimes Google asks for more than one. After you finish, Google’s review can take up to five business days.
If you’re offered video: Google recommends it when it’s available. Plan the video before you start. It must be one continuous, unedited recording of at least 30 seconds, filmed live through your profile on a phone. Show:
– Where you are: street signs, building numbers or nearby landmarks.
– That the business exists: your signage, or for a service business your tools, branded vehicle or business cards.
– That you run it: unlocking the door or van, opening the register, or a business document with the same name.
Don’t show bank or tax numbers, ID numbers, or other people’s faces.
– Where you are: street signs, building numbers or nearby landmarks.
– That the business exists: your signage, or for a service business your tools, branded vehicle or business cards.
– That you run it: unlocking the door or van, opening the register, or a business document with the same name.
Don’t show bank or tax numbers, ID numbers, or other people’s faces.
If you’re offered a postcard: Most arrive within 14 days, and the code expires after 30. While you wait, don’t edit your name, address or category, and don’t request a second code. Either one can cancel the first.
Keep the code to yourself: Google says it will never ask you for your verification code. Don’t give it to anyone, including the people who help manage your profile.
Google’s help: Verify your business on Google; Verify with a video recording.
5. Claiming a Profile, or Getting It Back
If the listing isn’t verified: Open it in Google Maps and choose Claim this business, then Manage now, and follow the verification steps.
If someone else controls it: This happens often after a former employee, a past marketing company or a previous owner set it up.
1. Go to business.google.com/add and find your business.
2. Choose Request access and fill out the form.
3. The current owner has three days to respond.
4. If they don’t answer, you may be offered the chance to claim the profile from your confirmation email. Google notes this option isn’t always available.
5. If they say no, you can appeal.
1. Go to business.google.com/add and find your business.
2. Choose Request access and fill out the form.
3. The current owner has three days to respond.
4. If they don’t answer, you may be offered the chance to claim the profile from your confirmation email. Google notes this option isn’t always available.
5. If they say no, you can appeal.
Service-area businesses: Google asks you to contact its support team instead, and to choose “Transfer ownership of listing.”
Our advice: Keep yourself as the primary owner, and add your web designer, marketing help or staff as managers. Google’s own guidelines ask outside helpers to work that way. That way nobody can lock you out of your own listing.
6. Filling It Out Properly
Name: Use your real-world name and nothing else, the same as on your sign and your letterhead. “Harbor Plumbing” is right. “Harbor Plumbing – Best Emergency Plumber Near Me” isn’t, and Google says extra words in the name can get a profile suspended.
Categories: Use as few as possible, and make them specific. Google suggests choosing categories that finish the sentence “This business is a…” rather than “This business has a…”
Hours: List the hours customers can actually reach you. Businesses that work only by appointment are generally asked not to list hours. Set special hours for holidays and short closures of up to six days. Google suggests confirming holiday hours even when they don’t change. If you’ll be closed for seven days or more, mark the business temporarily closed. Seasonal businesses can keep their in-season hours and mark themselves temporarily closed in the off-season.
Phone and website: Use a number your business controls, local if you can, and a website that belongs to your business.
Description: Say what you do, whom you serve and how long you’ve been at it. Google doesn’t allow links, prices or sale announcements in the description.
Services and products: Many businesses can list their services, with optional descriptions and prices. Leave phone numbers and prices out of the service names. Shops in the U.S. can also show products.
Photos: Add your logo, a cover photo, the outside of your building so people recognize it, the inside, and your work. Use JPG or PNG, ideally around 720 by 720 pixels, in focus, well lit and without heavy filters. New photos can take a day or two to appear, and Google may choose a different photo than your cover if it thinks another represents you better.
7. Posts and Updates
What they are: Short notes on your profile, with a photo or video if you like. There are three kinds: Updates for news, Offers for a sale or special, and Events for something with a date. You can schedule them and set them to repeat.
Worth knowing: Posts older than six months are archived unless you set a date range. A post with a phone number in it may be rejected if Google can’t tie that number to your business.
Our advice: One honest, useful post a month, such as new hours, a seasonal menu or a finished project, does more than a flurry of filler.
Google’s help: Create and manage posts.
8. Reviews
Asking: From your profile, choose Read reviews, then Get more reviews, to copy a review link or download a QR code. The QR code is available on a computer, not a phone. Put it on receipts, in thank-you emails or by the register, and ask every customer the same way.
What not to do: Don’t offer a discount, a freebie or anything else in exchange for a review, or for changing or removing one. Don’t ask only the customers you expect to be happy, and don’t have staff press people for reviews before they leave. Google treats all of this as fake engagement. Besides removing the reviews, it can stop a profile from receiving new reviews for a time, hide existing ones, or show customers a warning that fake reviews were removed.
Replying: You can reply once your business is verified. Replies are public, appear under your business name, and the reviewer is notified. Keep them short, polite and personal. For a complaint, acknowledge it, apologize where it’s fair, never share private details, and offer to sort it out by phone or email.
Removing a review: You can report a review that breaks Google’s rules, such as spam, profanity or a conflict of interest. You can’t have one removed just because it’s negative or you disagree with it. Google’s Reviews Management Tool shows the status and allows a one-time appeal.
9. What’s Changed: Chat, Q&A and Messages
Chat is gone: Google ended Business Profile chat, and the call-history report, on July 31, 2024. In some regions, verified businesses can add a Chat contact option that opens a text message or WhatsApp conversation instead (Edit profile, then Contact).
Q&A is changing: In December 2025, Google said it is replacing the old public Questions & Answers with an “Ask” feature in Google Maps, which gives customers instant answers drawn from your answers and relevant reviews. You can still answer existing questions in the Q&A section of your profile. Google hasn’t published a firm timeline for every area, so what you see may vary.
What it means for you: Google increasingly answers customers’ questions for you, using your profile, your reviews and your website. Accurate hours, services and descriptions matter more than ever.
Google’s help: Changes to chat and call history; Chat with customers. See also Google’s Q&A announcement.
10. Seeing How It’s Working
Where to look: On a verified profile, choose Performance and pick a date range. Depending on your business, you’ll see profile views, the searches people used to find you, calls, website clicks, direction requests, and bookings. Some profiles also get an Insights tab with suggestions.
Our advice: Look once a month. The search terms are the most useful part, since they show the words customers actually use for what you do. Google updates that list at the start of each month.
Google’s help: Performance and insights.
11. Scams and Mistakes to Avoid
Paying for what’s free: Google says creating and claiming a profile costs nothing. Anyone charging to “verify,” “activate” or “renew” your listing is selling you something you already have.
“Google verification” calls: Google does make some automated calls, for instance to confirm your hours. It says those calls won’t ask you to sign up for anything, pay money or give personal information. If someone calls claiming to be from Google and asks for any of that, Google’s advice is to hang up and not press any buttons. You can report repeat callers at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
Sharing codes: Never read a verification or sign-in code to a caller, whoever they say they are.
Mistakes that get profiles suspended: Keywords or city names added to the business name, a second profile for the same business, a virtual office or mailbox listed as a storefront, and paid or swapped reviews.
If it happens anyway: Google asks you to appeal through its appeals tool, with documents such as a business license or utility bill that match your profile. Don’t create a new profile in the meantime. For more on the calls and letters that target owners, see our guide to scams that target small business websites.
The One Rule to Remember
Keep your profile in your own name, keep it accurate, and never pay anyone to “verify” it. Make yourself the primary owner, add the people who help you as managers, and treat the profile like your front door: swept, lit and showing the right hours.
If you’d like a hand setting up a new profile, getting one back or tidying up an old one, we’re glad to help. Write to [email protected] or send us a note, and we’ll get back to you by the next business day.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a Google Business Profile cost anything?
No. Google says creating, claiming and managing a profile is free. Google sells advertising, but you don’t need ads to have a profile.
Can I have a profile if I work from home?
Yes, if you serve customers in person, usually by going to them. Set it up as a service-area business, hide your home address and list the areas you serve.
Should our web designer or marketing company own the profile?
It’s better if you own it and they have manager access. Google’s guidelines ask outside helpers to encourage owners to hold the profile themselves and to hand over ownership promptly if asked.
Can I get a bad review taken down?
Only if it breaks Google’s policies, for example if it’s spam, off-topic or abusive. A fair but unhappy review stays. A calm, helpful reply often does more for you than removal would.
How long does verification take?
Once you’ve finished the steps, Google says its review can take up to five business days. Postcards usually arrive within 14 days, and their codes expire after 30.
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