For local businesses, the Google Business Profile is often the first thing a customer sees, before your website: the panel with your hours, reviews, photos and a call button in Search and Maps. It is free, and most profiles are only half filled in. Here is how to do it properly.
1. Claim and verify
Search for your business on Google or go to business.google.com. If a profile already exists, request ownership; otherwise create one. Google verifies that the business is real, using methods such as a video recording, a phone or email code, or a postcard, depending on the business. Use the exact business name you use on signs and invoices; adding keywords to the name breaks Google’s guidelines and can get a profile suspended.
2. Choose categories carefully
The primary category is one of the strongest signals for which searches you appear in. Pick the most specific accurate option (“Personal injury attorney” rather than “Lawyer”), then add secondary categories for other genuine services.
3. Fill in every field
- Address or service area: show your address if customers visit; hide it and list areas if you go to them.
- Hours, including holiday hours.
- Phone and website: link to the most relevant page, often the home page or a location page.
- Services or products, with short descriptions and prices where you can.
- Description: what you do, for whom and where, in plain language.
- Attributes such as accessibility, payment options and languages.
4. Add real photos
Your exterior and interior if customers visit, your team, your vehicles and plenty of finished work. Add new photos regularly. Real photos build more trust than stock images ever will.
5. Build a steady flow of reviews
- Ask every satisfied customer, using the review link from your profile dashboard.
- Reply to every review, positive and negative, briefly and professionally.
- Never buy reviews or offer incentives for them; it breaks Google’s policies and erodes trust.
6. Keep it active
Post updates, offers or news occasionally, answer questions in the Q&A section, and update hours and services as they change. Accurate, current information is what customers and Google both reward.
How your website supports the profile
Google cross-checks your profile against your website and the rest of the web. Make sure your site shows the same business name, address and phone number (often called NAP), has a page for each main service, mentions the areas you serve, and uses LocalBusiness structured data. Our local SEO checklist covers the website side in detail.
Google Business Profile setup is included in our $1,950-a-year website package, alongside on-page SEO and the structured data that ties the two together.