Your Google Business Profile is the listing people see in Google Maps and in Search when they look up your business or what you do nearby: hours, photos, reviews, a map pin and buttons to call or get directions. It’s free, and it’s often the first thing a customer sees of your business. A lot of profiles are set up once and never touched again.
Google’s rules for profiles are specific and they change, so this checklist links to Google’s own help pages. Check them when something looks different.
Claim and verify it
Search for your business on Google Maps. If a profile already exists, claim it; if not, create one. Then verify it. Verification matters more than it looks: Google says your photos only appear after you verify, and performance data is only available for verified profiles.
Get the basics right, Google’s way
Google’s guidelines for representing your business are where most mistakes happen.
- Name. Use your real-world business name, the one on your sign and invoices. No taglines, city names or service keywords added to it. “Ivanov Plumbing” is fine; “Ivanov Plumbing – 24/7 Emergency Plumber Sofia” isn’t, unless that really is the name.
- Categories. Google asks you to use as few as possible to describe your core business. Its test is to complete the sentence “This business IS a…”, not “This business HAS a…”. Choose the primary category carefully. It’s the one that most defines you.
- Address or service area. If customers come to you, show the address. If you go to them and don’t serve customers at your address, hide it and set service areas instead. You can add up to 20, as cities or postal codes, and Google says the overall area shouldn’t be more than about two hours’ drive from your base.
- Hours. Enter your regular customer-facing hours and add special hours for holidays. Google’s guidelines note that some businesses, such as those that work by appointment only, shouldn’t list hours.
- Phone. A number that reaches this location and that the business controls.
- Website. Link to the page that best matches the profile. For a business with several locations, that’s usually the page for this location.
- Description and services. Say plainly what you do and for whom, so people don’t have to guess whether you cover their problem.
Photos
Upload real photos of your premises, team and work. Google’s photo guidance says images should be sharp, well lit and minimally filtered, and should “represent reality”. Its current specs are JPG or PNG, 10 KB to 5 MB, with 720 × 720 px recommended. Videos can be up to 30 seconds. New uploads can take 24 to 48 hours to appear.
Reviews: ask everyone, reward no one
Google’s local ranking help page lists review count and rating as part of how prominent a business is. They’re also what customers read when they’re choosing between you and the next business on the map.
The rules for asking are strict. Google’s policy on fake engagement prohibits:
- offering anything in return for a review, including discounts or free goods or services;
- discouraging negative reviews, or asking only the customers you expect to be happy;
- asking staff to collect a set number of reviews or reviews with particular content;
- reviews from people with a conflict of interest, such as current or former employees.
What’s allowed is asking genuine customers, all of them, without trying to influence what they write. Google lets you share a review link or QR code. Put the link in your post-job email and on your receipt.
When you reply, Google’s advice is to personalise the response and acknowledge the specific feedback, rather than pasting the same message under every review. Focus on reviews where you can add something useful. With a negative review, never share the reviewer’s private information or get personal. Future customers will read how you handle complaints.
Posts
You can publish updates, offers and events on your profile. Posts older than six months are archived unless they have a date range, and Google says a post with a phone number in its description might be rejected. Posts are a way to show current information, like seasonal hours or a new service. Google doesn’t list them among its local ranking tips, so don’t expect them to move you up.
Measure what it does
The Performance section shows the searches people used to find you, profile views, calls, direction requests and website clicks. To see what visitors from your profile do on your website, add campaign tags to the website link (for example utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=gbp) so they’re identifiable in Google Analytics.
A 15-minute monthly check
- Are the hours right for the coming month, including holidays?
- Has anything on the profile changed that you didn’t change? Google says it may update your profile if it receives reports that your information isn’t accurate, and it notifies you when it does.
- Any new reviews without a reply that deserve one?
- Do the photos still show the business as it looks today?
- Do the name, address and phone match your website exactly?
The profile is one part of local visibility. Our guide to local SEO covers the rest, including what your website needs to do. Local search is part of our SEO and search visibility work. If you’d like a second pair of eyes, send us your business name and we’ll tell you what we’d fix first on your profile.