How to Set Up a Google Business Profile

Why your Google Business Profile matters more than your homepage

When someone searches for a plumber in Halifax, a hair salon in Kelowna or a bookkeeper near me, the first thing they often see is not a website. It is a box on the map with a name, a star rating, photos, hours and a Call button. That box is your Google Business Profile, and for a local business it can do more selling than your homepage ever will.

Google describes the profile as a way to take control of how your business appears on Google Search and Maps, personalise it with photos, manage customer reviews and share what makes your business unique. In practice, it answers the three questions every local customer has in the first five seconds: are you open, are you any good, and how do I reach you?

It also costs nothing to set up. Google’s own Business Profile page says plainly that creating a Business Profile and listing your business on Google is free. The cost is attention: a profile that is half finished, wrong about your hours or full of unanswered reviews quietly sends customers to the competitor whose profile looks alive.

“For a local business, your Google Business Profile is the storefront most customers walk past first. Keep the lights on.”

This guide walks through setup step by step, using Google’s own help pages so you are working from the current rules, then shows you how to keep the profile working. If you want the bigger picture of how local search fits together, read our guide to local SEO for small business after this one.

Before you start: what to have ready

Ten minutes of preparation saves an hour of back and forth. Gather these before you open the setup screen:

Having these ready matters for a second reason: once you request a postcard for verification, Google’s help page says you cannot edit your business name, address or category while you wait for the code. Getting them right the first time avoids starting over.

If your business email still runs on a free account, now is a good moment to fix that. Our guide to domain names and business email explains why the accounts that run your business should live on your own domain.

Check that your business qualifies

Not every business can have a profile, and not every address is acceptable. Google’s guidelines for representing your business set the rules. The core requirement is that the business either has a physical location customers can visit or travels to customers where they are, and that it is staffed by your business during its stated hours.

• No P.O. boxes. Google says P.O. boxes and mailboxes at remote locations are not acceptable addresses.
• Virtual offices need real presence. They are ineligible unless they keep clear signage and receive customers during business hours.
• One profile per location. Google says not to create more than one page for each location of your business.
• Real-world name only. Your name must reflect how the business is consistently represented and recognized in the real world.

Home-based businesses are common in Canada, and they can still qualify. The question is whether customers visit you at home. If they do not, you set a service area and hide the address, which we cover in step three. If you work from a coworking space, check that your setup meets the virtual office rules before you list it.

Step 1: Create or claim your profile

First, find out whether a profile already exists. Google often creates listings from public information, and a previous owner or employee may have set one up years ago. Search your business name and city in Google Maps and see what appears.

Google’s help page on how to add or claim your Business Profile covers both paths:

1. No profile exists. Go to business.google.com/add, select Add your business to Google and follow the prompts to enter your details.
2. An unverified profile exists. Open Google Maps on a computer, search for your business, select Claim this business and then Manage now. On the Maps app, tap About, then Claim this business and Manage now.
3. A verified profile exists that you do not control. You cannot claim it directly. Google says you must request ownership from the current profile owner through its separate process.
4. Choose verification. Whichever path you take, finish by choosing a verification method and following the steps on screen.

If an old employee or a former marketing agency owns your listing, request ownership through Google rather than creating a second profile. Duplicate listings split your reviews, confuse customers and break Google’s one-profile-per-location rule.

Step 2: Get your name and category right

The two fields people most often get wrong are the name and the category, usually because they are trying to squeeze in keywords. Google’s guidelines are strict here. Your name must not include marketing taglines, store codes or hours, must not use fully capitalized words or phone numbers, and should match how the business is consistently known in the real world.

So if your sign says Northside Plumbing, your profile says Northside Plumbing, not Northside Plumbing Best Emergency Plumber Edmonton 24/7. Keyword stuffing the name can get the profile suspended, and customers can report it.

Categories work differently from how most people expect. Google says to use as few categories as possible to describe your overall core business, and to choose categories that complete the sentence: this business IS a. A dental clinic is a dentist. It is not teeth whitening, dental implants and emergency dental services as separate categories. Those are services, and there is a place for them later in the profile.

Step 3: Address, service area or both

Google treats businesses in three ways, and choosing the right one matters for both your ranking and your privacy. Google’s help page on service areas for service-area and hybrid businesses explains the rules.

If you are a service-area business, Google lets you add up to 20 service areas, set by city, postal code or another type of area rather than a radius. Google also says the overall area should not be more than about two hours of driving time from your business location. Changes can take up to 48 hours to show.

Home-based tradespeople should pay close attention here. If customers never come to your house, hiding the address keeps it off the map, protects your privacy and keeps you within Google’s rules. You still rank for searches in the areas you serve, because Google knows where you work from.

Step 4: Verify your business

Verification is how Google confirms you are the real owner, and an unverified profile gives you very little control. Google’s help page on how to verify your business lists several methods. Which ones you see depends on your business, so do not be surprised if you are only offered one or two.

• Phone or text. You answer a call or open a text with a code. Google notes that automated phone systems will not work, so someone has to pick up.
• Email. You need access to the email address shown on the verification screen.
• Live video call. Only available during your business hours. You must be at the business location and able to show proof of the location, the business or its equipment, and that you manage it.
• Postcard by mail. Google says most codes arrive within 14 days and expire after 30 days, and you cannot edit your name, address or category while you wait.

After you complete the steps, Google says reviews can take up to 5 business days. Some businesses with many locations, or that already verified their website in Search Console, may get faster routes, but most small businesses go through the standard process.

Step 5: Phone number, website and hours

These three fields are where most customer frustration comes from, because they are the ones people act on. Google’s guidelines say to provide a phone number that connects to your individual business location and to use a local number rather than a central call centre helpline whenever possible.

Your website link should go to the most useful page for a new customer. For a single-location business that is usually your homepage. For a business with several locations, link each profile to the page for that location, with the same address and phone number shown on it.

Hours deserve real care. Google asks for your regular customer-facing hours of operation, so list the hours customers can actually reach you or visit, not the hours you happen to be in the building. Then add special hours for statutory holidays, long weekends and seasonal closures before they happen. Nothing loses a customer faster than driving to a business that Google said was open.

• Check your hours against your website, your door sign and your voicemail message.
• Add holiday hours a week or two ahead.
• If you change your hours for the season, update the profile the same day.

Step 6: Add photos that earn trust

Photos are where a profile starts to feel like a real business. Google lists adding photos and videos among its tips to improve local ranking, describing them as a way to show your offerings and tell your business story. More importantly, they help customers decide.

Use real photos of your actual business. Stock images look like every other listing and tell customers nothing. A slightly imperfect photo of your real shop, your real team and your real work beats a perfect photo of strangers.

Add a few new photos every month or two. A profile with recent photos looks active, and customers notice when the newest picture is from five years ago. For tips on getting good shots without a professional photographer, see our guide to website images best practices; the same rules apply here.

Step 7: Services, products and attributes

Once the core details are in, fill in the rest of the profile. These sections help Google match you to more specific searches and help customers decide without calling first.

• Services. List the individual services you offer, in the words customers use. This is where drain cleaning, teeth whitening or bridal hair goes, not in your category or name.
• Products. If you sell products, add your main ones. Google also mentions in-store product listings for retailers.
• Attributes. Google mentions attributes such as parking and Wi-Fi. Add the ones that genuinely apply, including accessibility features.
• Description. Write a short, plain description of what you do, who you serve and where. Skip the hype and the keyword lists.

Google’s local ranking tips say complete and accurate information, including your full address, hours, category and attributes, makes it more likely your business shows up for relevant searches. Completeness is one of the few things fully under your control, so it is worth the half hour.

Write for people, not robots. Describe your business the way you would to a new customer on the phone. If a sentence would sound strange read aloud, rewrite it.

Step 8: Start collecting and answering reviews

Reviews matter to customers, and Google lists responding to reviews among its ways to improve local visibility. Start asking customers for reviews as soon as the profile is verified, and reply to every review, positive or negative, in a calm and helpful voice.

Stay well within the rules. Google’s policy on prohibited and restricted content says businesses must not offer incentives, such as payment, discounts or free goods or services, in exchange for posting a review, and must not pressure people to leave reviews while on the premises. Reviews from current or former employees that create a conflict of interest are not allowed either.

The simplest system is a short, friendly ask after a job goes well, with a direct link to your review form, sent by text or email. Our full guide on how to get more Google reviews covers scripts, timing and how to handle a bad review without making it worse.

How Google decides which profiles show up

Google is unusually direct about local ranking. Its page of tips to improve your local ranking says local results are based mainly on relevance, distance and popularity, and describes how well known a business is through signals such as links, reviews and ratings. It also says there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking.

• Relevance: how well your profile matches what someone searched for. Complete, accurate categories and services help.
• Distance: how far you are from the searcher or the location they searched. You cannot change this, which is why accurate service areas matter.
• Popularity: how well known your business is, online and offline, including reviews and ratings.

The practical lesson: you cannot shortcut your way up the map. You earn it with an accurate profile, real reviews and a website that backs up what the profile says. Anyone who promises to buy you a top spot is selling something Google says does not exist.

Connect the profile to a website that backs it up

Your profile and your website should tell the same story. The same business name, the same address or service areas, the same phone number and the same hours. When those details disagree, customers lose trust, and Google has a harder time being sure which version is right.

Your website also does the work the profile cannot. It explains your services in depth, answers questions, shows more of your work and gives people a way to book or ask for a quote. A strong profile sends people to a page that should convince them, so check that the page loads quickly on a phone and makes the next step obvious.

If you are not sure your site is pulling its weight, run it through our free website scan. And if your business is not showing up in search at all, our guide on why your website is not showing on Google walks through the usual causes.

Your first 30 days after verification

The weeks right after verification are when a profile goes from technically live to genuinely useful. A simple plan keeps the momentum going while the setup is still fresh in your mind.

• Days 1 to 3: finish every section you skipped, from services and attributes to the description, and add at least ten real photos.
• Days 4 to 7: ask your five most loyal customers for an honest review, with a direct link, and reply to each one when it arrives.
• Week 2: make sure your website shows exactly the same name, address or service areas, phone number and hours as the profile.
• Week 3: check how you appear when you search your own business name and your main service plus your city, on a phone, signed out.
• Week 4: add holiday hours for the next few months, upload a few new photos and book your monthly check into the calendar.

Do not expect to dominate the map in a month. Local visibility builds as your reviews, photos and website signals add up. What you can expect is a profile that answers customers’ questions properly from day one, which is exactly what turns a searcher into a phone call.

If you run more than one location, repeat the process for each one, with its own profile, its own local phone number and its own page on your website. Google’s one-profile-per-location rule works in your favour here: each location can earn its own reviews and rank in its own neighbourhood.

Keep it fresh: a 15-minute monthly routine

Setup is a one-time job. Keeping the profile accurate is the habit that pays off. Put fifteen minutes in your calendar each month and work through the same list:

That last point catches people out. Anyone can suggest edits to a business listing, and if you never check, an incorrect suggestion about your hours or address can slip through. A quick monthly look keeps your information yours.

Mistakes that get profiles ignored or suspended

• Keyword stuffing the business name. It breaks Google’s name rules and is easy for competitors to report.
• Using a P.O. box or a virtual office address. Google does not accept P.O. boxes or virtual offices, and a co-working office only qualifies if it has signage, staff and customers during business hours.
• Creating duplicate profiles. One profile per location, and request ownership of an old one rather than starting fresh.
• Listing a call centre number. Use a local number that reaches your location.
• Ignoring reviews. Silence on a bad review reads as not caring.
• Letting an agency or employee own the profile. Make sure the business owns it, signed in with an account the business controls.

Most of these mistakes come from trying to look bigger or closer than you are. The profiles that win long term are simply accurate, complete and active.

Frequently asked questions