Set up and optimize your Google Business Profile

Your Google Business Profile is the free listing that shows your business on Google Maps and in the map results for local searches. To set it up, add or claim your business at business.google.com, verify it with whichever method Google offers, then fill in every section that applies: your real business name, the most specific category, your address or service area, hours (including holiday hours), phone, website, services, and photos. Then keep it current. Out-of-date hours on Google send customers to a locked door.

Check that your business qualifies

Google lists businesses that meet customers in person during their stated hours, either at a location (a shop, office, or restaurant) or by going to them (a plumber, a cleaner, a mobile groomer). You can't have a profile for:

• An online-only business
• A P.O. box, a mailbox service, or a virtual office where you don't actually work
• A rental or for-sale property (a sales or leasing office can have one)

A seasonal business qualifies if it keeps permanent signage up all year.

Source: Google: Business Profile eligibility.

Add or claim your business

1. Search Google Maps for your business name and town. Your business may already be listed, created from public information or by a customer.
2. If it's listed and unclaimed: open it and choose Claim this business, then Manage now.
3. If it isn't listed: go to business.google.com/add and choose to add your business. Sign in with a Google account your business controls, not a former employee's personal account.
4. If someone else already manages it: request access from business.google.com/add. Google asks the current owner to respond, and if they don't, you may be offered the option to claim it yourself.

Source: Google: Add or claim your Business Profile, Request ownership of a profile.

Verify it

Google decides which verification methods you're offered, based on your type of business, location, and other details. You can't choose. Options include a short video recording, a phone call or text, an email, a live video call, or a postcard with a code.

• Video recording: one continuous, unedited video filmed on a phone that shows where you are (street signs, building number), that the business is real (permanent signage, or for a service-area business, your branded vehicle or equipment), and that you manage it (for example, the cash register or a business document such as a utility bill). Plan it before you press record.
• Postcard: while you wait for the code, don't change your business name, address, or category, and don't request another code.

Your photos, edits, and replies only go live once the profile is verified.

Source: Google: Verify your business, Video verification.

Fill in the profile

Business name

Use your real-world name exactly as it appears on your signage, invoices, and website. Don't add your city, services, or a slogan: "Harbor Plumbing", not "Harbor Plumbing – 24/7 Emergency Plumber Springfield". Google treats extra words in the name as a violation and can suspend the profile.

Category

Your primary category affects which searches you show up for, so choose the most specific one that describes what your business is: "Italian restaurant" rather than "Restaurant", "Family law attorney" rather than "Lawyer". Add other categories only for distinct parts of the business, and use as few as you can. Categories aren't keywords: a bakery that sells coffee is still a bakery.

Source: Google: Choose a category.

Address or service area

• Customers come to you: show your address.
• You go to customers and don't serve them at your address: hide the address and set a service area instead. You can list cities or postal codes (not a radius), and Google says the whole area shouldn't stretch much beyond about two hours' drive from your base.
• Both: show the address and add a service area.

Source: Google: Service-area businesses.

Hours

• Regular hours: the hours customers can actually reach you. Appointment-only businesses can leave hours off.
• Special hours: for holidays, events, and short closures. Google recommends confirming your hours ahead of each public holiday, even when they don't change.
• More hours: separate hours for things like takeout, delivery, or happy hour, if they differ from your main hours.
• Temporarily closed: for a closure longer than about a week, or a seasonal closure. Use Permanently closed only if you've closed for good.

Source: Google: Set special hours, Set more hours, Temporarily or permanently closed.

Phone and website

• Use a phone number that reaches this location.
• Link to a page on your own website that represents the business. Google doesn't allow redirecting links or social media pages here. If you have several locations, link each profile to that location's page. See SEO for a business with several locations.
• Keep the name, address, and phone number on your website identical to the profile.

Description, services, products, and menu

• Description: what you do, who for, and what makes you different, in plain sentences. Links aren't allowed in it.
• Services: add each service you offer, with a short description and price where it helps.
• Products: for shops, add your main products or product lines.
• Menu: restaurants can link to their menu page and build a menu in Google's menu editor. See What a restaurant website needs.

Attributes

Attributes are yes/no details such as wheelchair-accessible entrance, outdoor seating, or free Wi-Fi. The options depend on your category and country. Fill in the ones that are true, especially accessibility attributes: people rely on them.

Booking and ordering links

If customers book appointments, reserve tables, or order online, add those links to the profile and choose your preferred one. Use the links for systems you actually use. Some booking providers can also connect through Reserve with Google.

Source: Google: Add booking and ordering links.

Photos

Add real photos: your storefront (so people recognize it from the street), the inside, your products or work, and your team. Use clear, well-lit JPG or PNG images without heavy filters. Add new photos every few months, and when anything visible changes.

Source: Google: Photo and video guidelines.

Posts

You can post updates, offers, and events to your profile. They're a quick way to announce a holiday schedule, a seasonal menu, or an open house. Older posts without a date range are archived after a while, so post again when you have news.

Messaging

Google ended its Business Profile chat feature in 2024. In some regions you can add a WhatsApp number or a text-message number as a contact option instead.

How Google ranks local results

Google says local results are based mainly on three things:

• Relevance: how well your profile matches the search. A complete profile with the right category helps.
• Distance: how far you are from the searcher, or the place they searched for.
• Prominence: how well known your business is, including reviews, links, and your presence on the web. Google says more reviews and positive ratings can help.

You can't pay Google for a better local ranking.

Source: Google: How to improve your local ranking.

Keep it current

• When hours change, update the profile, your website, and every other listing the same day.
• Before each holiday, set special hours.
• Reply to reviews within a few days. See Get and respond to Google reviews.
• Every month, check the profile for changes you didn't make, look at the performance figures (searches, calls, direction requests, website clicks), and add a photo or post.
• Give a second person access as an owner or manager, so you're never locked out if one person leaves.

If your site runs on Dirigible

• Business details for search engines: the theme shares your site title, logo, address, phone, email, and social profiles with search engines as structured data. They come from Settings → General and Appearance → Customize → Footer & Contact → Contact Information, so make them match your Business Profile exactly. See Structured Data for Search Engines and Set up the footer and contact info.
• Hours: Dirigible Hours adds your weekly hours to the same structured data. Keep them identical to the regular hours on your profile. It has no holiday hours, so set those on Google. See Enter and display business hours.
• Calls from your website: Dirigible Analytics, in Dirigible Optimize, counts clicks on your phone number and email address. See Dirigible Analytics.
• Several locations: Dirigible Locations gives each location its own page to link from its profile. See SEO for a business with several locations.