Google Business Profile: your business on Google Maps

What you'll achieve

• create your profile and verify it;
• fill it in so you show up in local searches;
• link it to your website and keep it up to date.

Before you start

• A Google account for the business, not a personal one.
• Accurate details, written the same way everywhere (on your website, on Facebook, on invoices): business name, address, phone number. Small differences, like “St.” on the website and “Street” on the profile, aren't a problem, but a different phone number or address causes confusion.
• Decide whether customers come to your address (a shop, a clinic) or you go to them (a plumber, a cleaning company). In the second case, you can hide the address and show only your service area.

The steps

A. Create the profile

1. Open https://business.google.com and sign in with the business account.
2. Enter the business name. If Google already finds it (sometimes the profile exists, created from public information), select it and request ownership.
3. Choose the primary category: the most specific one that describes what you do (“Dentist”, not “Health”). You can then add a few secondary categories.
4. Fill in your address or service area, phone number and website address.

B. Verify the profile

5. Google asks you to prove the business is yours. Google chooses the method: a video of the location and a business document, a phone call or text message, an email or a postcard with a code. Follow the steps it shows you.
6. Until it's verified, the profile isn't public or shows limited information.

C. Fill it in

7. Business hours, including special hours for holidays.
8. The description: what you do, for whom, where. Written for people, not a list of keywords.
9. Services or products, with prices, if you want to show them.
10. Real photos: the storefront, the entrance (so people can find it), the interior, the team, work you've done. Stock photos don't help.
11. The attributes Google suggests, for example wheelchair access or card payments.

D. Link it to your website

12. On your website, use the same name, address and phone number, usually in the footer and on the contact page.
13. On the contact page you can embed a Google map with your business. An embedded map sets Google cookies, so it loads only after the visitor consents (see GDPR for a small website: cookies and privacy).

E. Keep it up to date

14. Reply to reviews, both good and bad: calmly, briefly, with no personal details about the customer.
15. Ask happy customers for reviews, using the review link from your profile. Don't buy them and don't write them yourself: it breaks Google's rules, the reviews can be removed and the profile suspended.
16. Update your hours when they change, especially around holidays.

What not to do

• Don't add keywords or cities to the business name on your profile (“Cheap 24/7 Plumber Bucharest”) unless they're actually part of the business name. It's one of the most common reasons for suspension.
• Don't create profiles for addresses where you don't work (virtual offices, a relative's address) to show up in other cities. For the cities you work in, see Pages for the cities you work in, without doorway pages.
• Don't create two profiles for the same business at the same address.

If something doesn't work

• The profile already exists and belongs to someone else (a former employee, an agency). Request access in step 2; Google contacts the current owner and, if they don't reply, gives the profile to you.
• The profile was suspended. Usually because of the name, the address or the category. Fix whatever breaks Google's rules and request reinstatement from the profile.
• A review is fake or offensive. You can report it from the profile. Google removes it only if it breaks its rules, not because it's negative.
• You don't show up on the map for searches from another neighborhood. Google takes distance into account; a complete profile and reviews help, but you can't show up everywhere.