The short answer: a Google Business Profile is the listing that shows your business on Google Search and Maps, and you qualify if you meet customers in person at your location or at theirs. Use your real-world business name, pick the fewest accurate categories, set your service area, ask every customer for an honest review, and link your website with a tracking tag so you can see what the profile brings in.
This is step 6 of our series on what a website needs to get customers. For local businesses it matters because the profile puts your phone number, hours, reviews and directions right on Google, where many customers make their choice.
Who qualifies for a Google Business Profile
A business qualifies if it serves customers in person during its stated hours, either at its own location or by traveling to customers. Google spells this out in its eligibility and ownership guidelines and its guidelines for representing your business.
| Your situation | Eligible? | Address on the profile |
|---|---|---|
| Storefront or office where customers visit | Yes | Shown |
| Service-area business (cleaners, landscapers, mobile mechanics, pool service) | Yes | Hidden if you do not serve customers there; you list service areas instead |
| Hybrid (customers visit you and you also go to them) | Yes | Shown, plus service areas |
| Online-only business | No | Not applicable |
| P.O. box, remote mailbox or virtual office | No | Not accepted as an address |
| Co-working space | Only with signage, staff and customers received during business hours | Shown if it qualifies |
Working from home is fine for a service-area business. You give Google your real address for verification and hide it from the public, because customers do not come to you.
Business name rules: use the name customers see in real life
Your profile name must match the name you use in the real world, on your signs, website, truck and paperwork. Google's guidelines say to leave out taglines, phone numbers, web addresses, service descriptions and extra city names unless they are truly part of the name.
Take a made-up business, "Sol y Sombra Cleaning." The correct profile name is "Sol y Sombra Cleaning." Adding "House Cleaning Phoenix Best Prices" to it breaks the guidelines. Legal endings like LLC belong only if your sign and documents show them. If you are not sure which name to use where, our guide to LLC name, EIN and domain explains what has to match and what does not.
Want the city or service in your name? Then it has to really be your name, used everywhere, not added only on Google. The safer path is to put the city and services on your website and in the profile's description and service list.
How to set up and verify your Google Business Profile
You either add a new profile or claim the one Google may already have created from public information. Google's help page on adding or claiming a profile covers both paths.
Search for your business first
Look up your name and city on Google Maps. If a listing exists and is unverified, claim it. If someone else already verified it, Google has you request ownership from the current owner instead of creating a duplicate.
Add the business and choose a primary category
Start from Google's add-a-business page and enter your real-world name and the category that best describes what you are.
Set your location or service area
Storefronts add an address. Service-area businesses can add up to 20 areas by city or ZIP code, kept within about two hours of driving from your base, according to Google's page on managing service areas. Google does not let you draw a radius.
Add a phone number and website you control
Use a local number you answer, not a call center, and a website link that does not redirect somewhere else.
Verify
Google picks the method based on your business type, region and other signals. Options include a video recording, phone or text, email, a live video call or a postcard, and some businesses need more than one. Google's verification page says reviews can take up to five business days.
Fill in everything else
Hours, services, a plain description, opening date and photos. A complete profile answers the questions people would otherwise call to ask.
How to choose Google Business Profile categories
Pick as few categories as you can, and make them specific. Google asks you to describe what the business is, not what it has or sells. A company that cleans houses is a house cleaning service; adding unrelated categories to show up in more searches goes against the guidelines.
A practical way to choose: search your main service in your city, open the top local results and see which primary category they use. Then pick the one that is true for you. Add a second or third category only for a real, separate line of work, and give each one its own page on your website so the profile and the site tell the same story.
How to get Google reviews without breaking the rules
Ask every customer for an honest review and make it easy with a link or QR code. Google's tips to get more reviews suggest exactly that. What gets businesses in trouble is how they ask. Google's prohibited content policy for Maps does not allow:
- Incentives: discounts, gifts, free services or money for a review, or for changing or removing a bad one.
- Review gating: asking only the customers you think are happy, or discouraging negative feedback.
- Pressure: review quotas for staff, pushing customers to post while still on site, or telling them what to write.
- Conflicts of interest: reviews from employees, family or business partners, and fake reviews of any kind.
Reply to reviews, good and bad, briefly and politely. For a complaint, acknowledge it, explain what you can do and offer to continue by phone or email. Never share the customer's private details in a reply.
Send the review link from your business address, not a free account. A request from hello@solysombracleaning.com looks like it comes from the company the customer just paid. Business email starts at $4.99 a month per inbox.
Which photos to add to your Business Profile
Add your logo, a cover photo and real photos of your work, team, vehicles and, if customers visit, your storefront. Google's photo guidelines call for JPG or PNG files between 10 KB and 5 MB, with 720 by 720 pixels recommended and 250 by 250 as the minimum, sharp, well lit and without heavy filters. Add new job photos through the year: they show the business is active and they answer "do they do this kind of work?" better than any description.
Link your website with a UTM tag to measure profile visits
Add UTM tags to the website link on your profile so your analytics can separate profile visits from regular search visits. Google Analytics' guide to campaign URLs says to always include utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign, and to use lowercase because the values are case sensitive.
An example for the made-up cleaning company:
https://solysombracleaning.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=gbp-listing
The exact words matter less than using the same ones every time. If you have more than one location, link each profile to its own location page and use a different campaign value for each. Once this is live, the visits show up in your Google Analytics acquisition reports, which we set up in step 7: Microsoft Clarity and GA4.
How long a Business Profile takes to set up
Expect one to two hours to fill out a complete profile with photos, plus whatever verification takes. Verification is the unpredictable part: some businesses are done the same day, others wait days or need a second method. After that, plan on a few minutes a week for replying to reviews and adding a photo now and then.
Common Google Business Profile mistakes
- Keywords in the business name. It goes against Google's guidelines and puts the profile at risk.
- Showing a home address when customers never come there.
- Duplicate profiles created because nobody checked whether one already existed.
- A profile owned by a former employee or marketing company. Google's ownership rules say agencies need the owner's consent and must hand over ownership on request, but it is easier to keep the business as the primary owner and add others as managers.
- Offering a discount for reviews, even with good intentions.
- A website link to the home page when the profile is for one location of several.
When to hire help with your Business Profile
Most owners can do this step themselves, and it is worth doing personally because you know your business best. Get help if verification keeps failing, if you have several locations or duplicate listings to clean up, or if your profile was suspended and you need to work through Google's process.
Our website design service builds the site your profile links to, with service and location pages that match the profile. Setting up or cleaning up the Business Profile itself is something we can include in your written quote. You get a written quote with a fixed price before we start: request one here.
Next in the series: step 7, Microsoft Clarity and GA4. Previous: step 5, Google Search Console. Still deciding which pages your site needs? Start with what you need for a business website.