Google Business Profile: the complete guide for owners

Your Google Business Profile is often the first thing a customer sees about you, before your website and before your shop front. It tells them whether you are open, how to reach you, what other customers think and how to get there. Small mistakes, such as old hours or a keyword in the name, can cost you customers or even the profile itself.

This guide covers the whole profile, from setting it up and verifying it to every field, photos, posts, reviews, more than one location and a monthly checklist. Each section points to a shorter, step-by-step guide where you need more detail.

What is a Google Business Profile?

A Google Business Profile is a free listing that lets your business appear on Google Search and Google Maps. When someone searches for your name, or for a service near them, the profile shows your address, opening hours, phone number, website, photos, reviews and directions in one place.

Google My Business was the old name. Google renamed the product Google Business Profile in 2021 and moved most editing into Google Search and the Google Maps app.

The profile is free to create and free to keep. Google does not charge for the listing, for verification, for posts or for replying to reviews. For more on cost, read whether Google Business Profile is really free.

Where does it show? When someone searches for your business by name, the profile appears as a panel beside the results on a computer, or near the top on a phone. For searches such as dentist near me, it can appear in the local results with a map, often called the local pack, and in Google Maps itself. Which businesses appear, and in what order, depends on relevance, distance and prominence. Our guide on how to rank on Google Maps explains those three factors in detail.

Who can have a Google Business Profile?

A business can have a profile if it meets customers in person during its stated hours. That means either a physical place customers visit, such as a shop, clinic, restaurant or sports court, or a service-area business that travels to customers, such as a plumber, a pest control company or a home tutor.

Google's guidelines for representing your business also set out who is not eligible, and breaking them is one of the main reasons profiles get suspended. Check these rules before you start, not after:

• The address must be a real place where you meet customers during your hours, ideally with your signboard on it.
• Virtual offices are not allowed unless your own staff work there during business hours. A co-working desk you rarely visit or a mail-forwarding address does not count.
• P.O. boxes and mailboxes at a remote location cannot be used as the address.
• Online-only businesses are not eligible. If customers never meet you in person, a profile is the wrong place for you.
• Properties for rent or sale, such as a flat you are letting out, cannot have their own profile.
• Service-area businesses that do not serve customers at their premises must hide the address and show the areas they serve instead.
• Each business gets one profile per location. Separate profiles are allowed only in specific cases Google describes, such as some departments with their own entrance and hours, or individual practitioners like doctors and lawyers.

How do you create or claim your profile?

You create or claim a profile by signing in to a Google account, searching for your business on Google or at business.google.com, and either claiming the existing listing or adding a new one. Then you verify it. The full steps, with screens, are in our guide to creating a Google Business Profile. Here is the short version.

1. Sign in with a Google account that belongs to the business and that you will keep for years. Do not use a staff member's personal email.
2. Search for your business name. Many businesses already have a listing that Google or a customer created. If one exists, claim it rather than making a second one, because duplicates cause trouble later.
3. If no listing exists, add your business: the name exactly as on your signboard, your main category, and whether customers visit you or you visit them.
4. Add your address and place the map pin on your entrance, or list the areas you serve.
5. Add a phone number your team answers, and your website if you have one. A website is optional.
6. Verify the profile using a method Google offers you.
7. Fill in the rest: hours, services, description, attributes and photos.

If someone else already controls your listing

If a former employee, a relative or an old agency owns your listing, you can ask for access through Google's request process from the profile itself. Google contacts the current owner on your behalf. If they do not respond, Google may let you claim the profile yourself. Google makes the final decision, so keep proof that you run the business ready.

How does verification work?

Verification is how Google confirms that you run a real business at the address you gave. Until a profile is verified, most of your edits do not show to customers and you cannot reply to reviews. Google chooses which methods you see, which can include a phone or text code, an email, a video recording of your business or a postcard. You cannot pick a method Google does not offer you.

Get your name, address, category and map pin right before you start, because changing them during verification causes delays. Our step-by-step guide to verifying your business on Google covers each method and what to do when it fails.

Owners, managers and why you should stay the owner

The primary owner of your profile should be you, the business owner, on a Google account the business controls. Google gives each profile one primary owner, who can add other owners and managers. Each role has different powers, as the table shows.

If an agency or an employee is the only owner and you part ways, getting your profile back can take weeks of requests, and in the meantime you cannot change your hours or answer reviews. Give anyone who works on your profile manager access instead. They can do the daily work, and you can remove them whenever you choose.

Every few months, remove anyone with access who has left or whom you do not recognise. Anyone with access can change your phone number or website.

What should you fill in on your profile?

Fill in every field that applies to your business, accurately, and keep each one the same as your signboard, website and other listings. A complete profile gives Google more to match against searches and gives customers fewer reasons to look elsewhere. Not every field appears for every category. The table covers each field, what to put in it and the mistake to avoid.

Categories carry the most weight

Your primary category is one of the strongest signals Google uses to decide which searches you appear for. Choose the most specific option that describes your main business, such as Dentist rather than Doctor, and add additional categories only for things you genuinely offer. Our guide to choosing Google Business Profile categories shows how to pick them and how to see the ones similar businesses use.

Address and service areas

If customers come to you, show your address and move the pin to your exact entrance. If you travel to customers and do not serve them at your premises, Google asks you to clear the address and list your service areas, such as cities or localities. A hybrid business, like a bakery that also delivers, can show both an address and service areas.

Hours, special hours and more hours

Regular hours tell Google when you are open. Special hours override them for specific dates, such as Diwali, Christmas or a planned closure, and you should set them in advance. Some categories also allow more hours, for example separate hours for delivery or takeaway. If your hours are wrong, Google may show you as open when you are closed.

Description and opening date

The description appears under From the business, and Google sets a character limit for it. Write in plain sentences: what you do, where, for whom and what is different about you. Google's guidelines do not allow links or promotional sale language in it. The opening date is optional, but it is useful for a new business, and you can set a date in the near future if you are about to open.

Calls, website and booking

The call button, the website link and booking links are the main ways customers act on your profile. Make sure the phone is answered during your hours and every link opens the right page on a phone.

How should you use photos and videos?

Add real photos of your business and keep adding new ones over time. Photos show customers what to expect before they visit, and a profile with only a logo looks abandoned. Use your own photos, not stock images, and do not use filters or heavy edits that change how the place looks.

Customers can add photos too, and Google may show them next to yours. You cannot delete a customer's photo, but you can report one that breaks Google's policies. Fresh photos show the business is active. Our guide on adding photos to Google Maps has the steps and the size rules. The photos worth having are:

• Logo: your logo, square and easy to read.
• Cover photo: the best single picture of your business. Google may still choose a different photo to show first.
• Exterior: the outside with your signboard, from the angle customers approach, so they recognise you.
• Interior: the space customers use, well lit and tidy.
• Products, dishes or work: what customers actually buy from you.
• Team: the people customers will meet.
• Videos: short clips of the place or your work. Google accepts videos up to 30 seconds long.

What are Google posts and should you use them?

Google posts are short updates you publish on your profile, and they are worth using regularly. A post can share news, an offer or an event, with a photo and a button such as Book, Call or Learn more.

Google has not said that posting directly raises your rank, but posts give customers a reason to act and keep the profile looking cared for. Keep each post about one thing, use a real photo, write plainly and pick the button that matches what you want people to do. Posts must follow Google's content policies, so avoid misleading offers and anything the policies restrict.

Our guide to creating a Google My Business post covers the steps and ideas for each type. If you would rather our team publish them every week, see our Google posts service. The three types are:

• Updates: general news, a new service, a new batch or new timings.
• Offers: a discount or deal with start and end dates, and optional terms or a coupon code.
• Events: something with a date and time, such as a tournament, a workshop or a tasting.

How do reviews and replies work?

Anyone with a Google account can review your business, and you, as an owner or manager, can reply publicly to each one. Reviews and your replies appear on your profile on Search and Maps, and they are among the first things new customers read. Google has also said that review count and score are part of prominence, one of the three things it uses to rank local results.

Reply to every review, positive or negative, in a calm and personal voice. Thank people, mention what they enjoyed, and for a complaint, apologise where it is right, give the facts and offer to sort it out offline. Our guide on how to reply to Google reviews has examples. To make asking easy, share your review link or a QR code; our free Google review link generator creates one in seconds.

For the full picture of getting, answering and handling reviews, read our review management guide. Google's review policies set the ground rules:

• Ask every customer, not only the happy ones. Asking only satisfied customers, sometimes called review gating, is against Google's policy.
• Do not offer anything in return for a review: no discounts, gifts or free services.
• Do not write reviews for your own business, and do not ask staff, family or anyone else to post fake ones.
• You cannot delete a review. You can report one that breaks Google's policies, such as spam, fake engagement, off-topic content or a conflict of interest, and only Google decides whether to remove it.

How do you keep the profile accurate?

Keep your profile accurate by checking it at least once a month, correcting anything that has changed, and reviewing any edits Google or the public have made. A profile is not something you set up once and forget.

Edits from Google and the public

Anyone can suggest an edit to a business on Google Maps, such as a new phone number, different hours or a claim that you have closed. Google also updates profiles using information from other sources, such as your website and reports from users. Some of these changes can go live without your approval.

When Google changes something, it usually tells you by email or with a notice on the profile, and the changed fields are flagged when you open the edit screen. Accept what is right and correct what is wrong. Pay most attention to your name, address, phone number, hours, website and category, and to any edit that marks you as closed when you are open.

Avoid big changes all at once

Changing your name, address and category on an established profile can send it back for verification or for a review by Google. Change these only when the business itself has changed, and where you can, change one thing at a time.

Suspensions

A suspension is what happens when Google believes a profile breaks its guidelines. Common causes include keywords in the business name, a virtual office used as the address, a service-area business showing a home address, duplicate profiles and categories the business does not offer. A suspended profile may lock you out of edits or disappear from Search and Maps altogether.

If it happens, read Google's notice first, then follow our guide on what to do when your Google Business Profile is suspended. Do not create a new profile while you wait. The best protection is to follow the rules in this guide from the start.

Read the performance figures

Google shows you how people find and use your profile: views, the searches that showed it, calls, direction requests and website clicks. Look at these every month and compare them with the month before.

What if you have more than one location?

Each location that customers visit needs its own profile, with its own address, phone number and hours, and all of them should share the same brand name. You can run them together from one Google account. Branches drift out of sync quickly, so review every branch's details regularly. Our multi-location service explains how our team looks after chains and franchises. The basics:

• Use the same brand name for every location, exactly as on each signboard.
• Give each location its own local phone number and, ideally, its own page on your website, and link each profile to its own page.
• Use the same categories for locations that offer the same things, and add others only where a location truly offers more.
• Put the profiles in a business group, so you can give each branch manager access to their own location only.
• Businesses with 10 or more locations can ask Google about bulk verification instead of verifying each one separately.
• Set hours and special hours per location. One branch may close for a holiday while another stays open.

A monthly maintenance checklist

Work through this list once a month. It catches most problems before customers do. If you want a starting point, our free local SEO audit checks your profile and shows what is missing.

1. Open the profile and look for updates from Google or suggested edits. Accept what is right and fix what is wrong.
2. Confirm your name, address, map pin, phone number and website are still correct.
3. Set special hours for any holidays or closures in the coming weeks.
4. Check that your categories still match what you do.
5. Add or update services, products and the menu if anything has changed.
6. Add a few new photos: new work, new stock, the team or the season.
7. Publish posts through the month, so the profile always shows a recent one.
8. Reply to every review you have not answered yet, and report any that break the rules.
9. Ask recent customers for reviews with your review link or QR code.
10. Compare views, searches, calls and direction requests with last month.
11. Check who has access, and remove anyone who has left.
12. Search for your business on Google and on Maps as a customer would, and see what they see.