Google Business Profile

How you get one

To show your business on Search and Maps, Google says, you add a profile for it or claim an existing one, then verify it (Google Business Profile Help). Until it is verified you cannot edit the details or interact with customers through the listing (verification help).

You do not get to pick the method. Google decides which ones your business is offered, such as a phone call or text, an email or a video (verification help). Verify from the owner's own Google account, so the listing never depends on an employee or an outside firm.

What Google looks at

Google's help page on local ranking names three main factors: relevance, distance and how well known a business is (Google Business Profile Help). Relevance, how closely your listing fits what someone typed, is the one your profile controls most directly.

Google says a business with complete and accurate information is more likely to show up, and that verifying helps too (same page). Complete means filling every field that applies: holiday hours, the services you really sell, a description, photos of your real premises and work. Accurate means a customer who calls or turns up finds what the listing told them.

Keeping it right

Type the business name exactly as it appears on your signs, stationery and branding (Google Business Profile Help). Tacking a town or a service onto it to catch more searches goes against the guidelines, which ask for the real-world name with nothing unnecessary added (guidelines).

Pick categories that say what the business is. The guidelines say categories are not there to hold keywords (guidelines), so a roofer who also clears gutters is a roofer first. Google also reviews each edit before it goes live (Google Business Profile Help), so a change may not show at once.

Your website should repeat what the profile says. The free scan reads the site side of that match, including a single phone number across your pages and structured data that identifies the business.

What it cannot do

It cannot be bought up the list. Google says there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking (Google Business Profile Help). Treat any offer of a paid boost for your listing as a warning sign, and ask the seller to show you where Google sells one.

Questions

Someone else created a profile for my business. What do I do?

Claim that one rather than starting a second. Google's guidelines allow one profile per location (guidelines), so a duplicate works against you. Once the listing is verified in your name, correct whatever the other person got wrong.

Do I need a storefront to have a profile?

No. A company that goes out to its customers and never serves them at its own address can still have one. Google asks it to hide that address and show the area it covers instead (guidelines).

Can two businesses be listed at one address?

Yes, if they really are two businesses, each known by its own name on its own signage and website. What the guidelines rule out is one business holding more than one profile at a location, such as a second listing made to cover another category (guidelines).

Where this fits in our work

We handle this as part of Google Business Profile management: Your Business Profile kept complete, accurate and active every week, from hours and categories to posts and photos.

Related reading

Guides

• How much does local SEO cost? What local SEO costs, what the price should buy, and our own published prices beside a sourced market range.
• Should you do local SEO in-house or hire an agency? What you can do yourself, what a hire costs, and when an agency is the better use of the money.
• Is local SEO worth it for a small business? How to tell whether local SEO can pay for itself, using your own numbers, and when it is not the right spend.
• How do you choose a local search agency? Honest questions to ask any local search agency, the answers that should worry you, and where we are still new.

Posts that use this term

• Can I see what ChatGPT or Google's AI says about my business? No assistant shows you the words it used about your business, so you ask. A list of questions to put to each one, and what to record each round.
• What should I do about a fake review of my business? Report it for the policy it breaks and reply once without accusing anyone. If Google keeps it, appeal once. Never answer a fake review with a fake one.
• How often should I post on my Google Business Profile? Google names no schedule, only a six month clock on posts without a date range. How to set a rhythm you can keep, and what to put in each post.
• What happens to my Google ranking if I change my business name or address? A move keeps your profile and, for most businesses, your reviews. A new name may not. Where Google draws the line, and what to update first.
• Should I answer every Google review, even the good ones? Google calls replying a best practice. What a short, specific reply says, how to handle a bad review inside the rules, and the time it takes.
• Do I need a separate page for every town I serve? When a town earns its own page, what Google calls doorway abuse, and one plain way to cover every other town you serve.

Related terms

• Service-area business: A business that travels to its customers, and how Google expects it to show a service area instead of an address.
• Business Profile categories: The primary and additional categories on a Business Profile, how to choose them, and why Google says they affect local ranking.

Sources

• Google Business Profile Help: Edit your Business Profile. Checked September 26, 2026.
• Google Business Profile Help: Verify your business on Google. Checked September 26, 2026.
• Google Business Profile Help: Tips to improve your local ranking on Google. Checked September 26, 2026.
• Google Business Profile Help: Guidelines for representing your business on Google. Checked September 26, 2026.