How to set up a Google Business Profile

These are the steps in Google's own help page, in the order the setup screen asks for them. Have your exact business name, address, phone number and website open before you start. It takes about ten minutes, and you can stop and verify later.

1. Sign in to a Google Account, or create one. Google recommends an address on your business domain, such as info@yourbusiness.com, rather than a personal one, so the profile doesn't depend on one person's inbox.
2. Go to business.google.com/add and type your business name. If it appears in the suggestions, someone may already have created or verified it: pick it and claim it or request access instead of creating a second profile.
3. Choose your main category. Pick the most specific one that completes the sentence "This business IS a": "Physiotherapist", not "Health".
4. Say whether customers visit you. A shop, restaurant or studio adds its street address. A plumber or cleaner who goes to the customer chooses no storefront and hides the address.
5. Set the service area if you travel to customers: cities or postal codes, up to 20 of them, and no farther than about 2 hours' drive from your base.
6. Add a phone number that reaches this location directly and the website that represents it. If you don't have a site yet, the profile still works: add the link when the site exists.
7. Finish and choose a verification method. You can verify now or come back to it from the same account.
8. Once verified, complete the rest of the profile: hours, description, photos and attributes. The sections below say what matters.

Google shows only the methods available for your business, and they vary from one business to the next. Before you start, make sure your signage, your website and your documents show the same name and address you entered, because that is what a reviewer checks.

• After you complete a method, Google reviews the information. Its help page says these reviews take up to 5 business days.
• Waiting for a postcard? Don't request a new code: a new request makes the one in the post invalid.
• If someone else already verified your business, use Request access. The current owner is notified by email, and if nobody answers you may be able to claim it from the link in your confirmation email.
• Some businesses are verified instantly, for example when their website is already verified in Google Search Console.

A verified but empty profile tells Google very little. Its help page on local ranking asks for complete and current information, and each field below is a reason for a customer to call you rather than the next result.

• Hours, including special hours for holidays, closures and events. A customer who finds a closed door after checking Google rarely tries twice.
• A description of up to 750 characters: what you do, for whom and where. No links, no HTML, no list of keywords.
• Extra categories only for services you really offer as a business, such as "Sports massage therapist" next to "Physiotherapist". Google asks for the fewest that describe your core business.
• Attributes such as wheelchair access, parking or Wi-Fi, where your category offers them.
• Photos that represent reality: your logo, a cover photo, the outside so people recognise the entrance, the inside, the team and your work. Sharp and well lit, no heavy filters.
• Products or services with a short description, so the profile can match searches for what you do, not only for your name.

Most suspended profiles break one of Google's guidelines for representing a business, often without knowing it. These are the ones small businesses run into most.

• Extra words in the name. Use the name on your sign. "Rossi Physio" is fine; "Rossi Physio Best Back Pain Treatment London" is not allowed.
• An address you don't work at. P.O. boxes and virtual offices are not eligible. A coworking desk qualifies only with signage, staff on site and customers received during opening hours.
• Two profiles for one place. Create one profile per location, or one per metropolitan area for a service business. Duplicates can lead to suspension.
• A visible address with no storefront. If customers never come to you, the address must be hidden and the service area used instead.
• A phone number you don't control, such as a premium line or a call centre, or a website link that only redirects to a social page.
• Paying for reviews. Discounts or gifts in exchange for a review, or for changing or removing one, are treated as fake content.

Reviews are part of what Google calls prominence, and they are often what a customer reads before calling. The safe way is the boring one: ask every customer, make it easy, and reply.

1. In your profile, find the option to ask for reviews and copy the short link, or download the QR code.
2. Ask in person at the end of a good visit, then send the link in the follow-up message or print the code at the till.
3. Ask everyone, not only the happy customers. Google wants reviews to reflect a genuine experience, and a mix of opinions reads as more trustworthy.
4. Reply to each review, briefly and in your own words. Avoid the same thank-you everywhere, and don't use replies to push offers.
5. Answer a negative review calmly: thank them, apologise where it fits, explain what you changed, and never share private details about the customer.
6. Flag a review only if it breaks Google's content policies, for example a fake review from someone who was never a customer.

Google ranks local results on three things: relevance (how well your profile matches the search), distance (how far you are from the person searching) and prominence (how well known you are, including links to your site and reviews). You can't change distance. You can work on the other two, and Google states that there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking.

Your website feeds both. The profile links to it, and a site that explains each service in plain words gives Google more to match. If your site doesn't show up on Google at all, start with why a website doesn't appear on Google. If you don't have one yet, how to create a website for your business covers the options. If Search Console shows your pages as Discovered - currently not indexed, Google knows them but has not crawled them yet.

The profile is the first of four steps in how to get customers from Google for free. The next ones are pages for the searches people make locally and a steady habit of publishing: blog post ideas for local businesses gives you topics. A profile and an Instagram account do different jobs, as do you need a website if you have Instagram explains, and how often to post on Instagram has a weekly plan you can keep.

If you are weighing outside help, what SEO costs for a small business shows the published rates. Setting up the profile yourself costs nothing but an hour.