How to Set Up a Google Business Profile

If you run a local business, your Google Business Profile is often the first thing a customer sees. It is the box that shows up on Google Search and Maps with your hours, address, phone number, photos and reviews. Set it up in the order below. Plan on a couple of hours, spread over a few days, because verification takes waiting time.

You need: a Google account you will keep, your business name as it is on your sign, your address or service area, a phone you can answer, and a few real photos.

Step 1. Claim or create your profile

Search for your business on Google Maps first. If it is there with a Claim this business link, claim it. If nothing is there, go to business.google.com/add and create it. Do not make a second profile for the same business.

The full walkthrough, including what to do when someone else already owns it, is in How to Claim and Verify Your Google Business Profile.

Step 2. Verify

Google decides which verification methods you get: phone, text, email, video, a live video call or a postcard. A postcard code usually arrives within 14 days. Start this early, and do not change your name, address or category while you wait for a postcard.

Step 3. Set your name, categories, services and service area

Use the name on your sign, with no extra words added. Pick the most specific primary category. List your services. If customers do not come to you, set a service area and hide your address. See How to Choose Your Google Categories, Services and Service Area.

Step 4. Add contact details and hours

Add your phone number and your website. The website field should go to your own website, not to a social media page. Set your regular hours, and set special hours for any holiday coming up. See Check Your Hours Before the Holidays.

Step 5. Write your description

You have up to 750 characters, no links, and it should not read as a sales pitch. See How to Write Your Google Business Description.

Step 6. Add real photos

Add photos of your outside, inside, your work and, with their okay, your team. See Which Photos to Put on Your Google Listing.

Step 7. Get ready for reviews

Get your review link and a QR code, and learn to reply. See How to Ask for a Google Review Without Feeling Awkward and How to Answer a Google Review, Good or Bad.

Step 8. Match everything else

Your website, Facebook, Instagram and other listings should say the same thing as your profile. See Make Your Name, Address and Phone Number Match Everywhere.

Check your work

• Search your business name and city on your phone.
• Is there one profile, with the right hours, phone, address and website?
• Is it verified?
• Do the photos look like your business today?
• Are your newest reviews answered?

Keep it up

A profile is not finished when it is set up. Spend ten minutes a week on it: answer new reviews, add a photo or a post, and check that your hours are right for the week ahead. See What to Post on Your Google Business Profile.

Google's own guide is Add or claim your Business Profile. Screens change now and then, so look for the closest match if a button is named differently.

If you would rather hand this off

We set up and maintain Google profiles for clients as part of the monthly plan. See Google Business Profile Management, or get started.