How to set up a Google Business Profile

Before you start

• A Google account. Google suggests one on your business email address, so the profile isn't tied to a personal account.
• Your exact business name as it appears on your signage, van, invoices and website.
• Your main category, such as Plumber, Electrician or Café.
• A phone number that a person answers. Automated phone menus can't receive Google's verification code.
• Your website address, if you have one.

Creating a Business Profile is free. Google says genuine Google calls won't ask you to sign up for a service, pay money or give personal information, and it never asks for payment details over the phone. Anyone charging you to "register you on Google Maps" is selling something Google gives away.

Step by step

1. Sign in to your Google account and go to business.google.com/create.
2. Enter your business name. If Google finds a profile that someone has already verified, you request ownership instead of creating a new one.
3. Choose your main category. You can add more later, but the main one matters most.
4. Say whether customers can visit you at a shopfront that is staffed during business hours. If yes, enter the address. If you go to your customers instead, you are a service-area business (see below).
5. Add your service areas, phone number and website, then click Finish.
6. Choose Verify now, or Verify later if you need time to prepare.

Tradies and other service-area businesses

If customers don't come to your address, Google wants you to hide it and list service areas instead. That suits most tradies, cleaners, mobile mechanics and other businesses that travel to the job.

• You can set up to 20 service areas, by suburb, city or postcode.
• You can't set a radius around your base.
• Google's guideline is that your whole area shouldn't stretch more than about two hours' drive from where you are based.

Verification: what to expect

Google has to confirm your business is real before your profile appears. It chooses the method automatically, based on things like your type of business, public information and opening hours, and you can't pick it. You may be asked for more than one. The methods are:

• Phone or text message with a code. It must reach a person, not a phone menu.
• Email with a code.
• Live video call with Google, held during your business hours.
• Postcard to your address, which takes about 14 days. The code expires after 30 days, and requesting a new one cancels the old.
• Video recording that you film and upload from your phone.

After you complete verification, Google says reviews usually take up to five business days.

If you are asked for a video

The video must be filmed live in one continuous take, without edits or breaks, and be at least 30 seconds long, recorded and uploaded from your phone. A service-area business needs to show where it operates, its tools or equipment, and proof that you run the business: for example, unlocking your signwritten van, or showing your tools and a job in progress.

The rules that get profiles suspended

Most profile problems come from breaking a handful of Google's guidelines, often without realising:

• Your name must be your real-world business name. No added keywords, suburbs, taglines or phone numbers. "Smith Plumbing" is fine; "Smith Plumbing Emergency Plumber Sydney 24/7" breaks the rules and can lead to suspension.
• No PO boxes or virtual offices as your address. A co-working space only qualifies with your signage, staff on site and customers received during business hours.
• One profile per business or location. Duplicates get removed.
• Lead-generation businesses aren't eligible. The profile has to be the business that actually does the work.

Reviews: replying and removing

Once your profile is verified, you can reply to any review from the reviews section. Replies are checked against Google's policies, usually appear within ten minutes, and the reviewer is notified. A short, polite reply to every review, good or bad, shows future customers you care.

You can't remove a review because you disagree with it. Google only removes reviews that break its policies, such as spam, conflicts of interest or offensive content. You can report one for assessment, which typically takes several days, and appeal once if Google keeps it up.

After it is live

• Add photos of your work, your team and your vehicle or premises.
• Keep your hours accurate, including holidays.
• Link to your website, and make sure the name, phone number and suburbs on both match.
• Ask happy customers for a review. Asking is fine, but don't offer rewards or discounts in exchange for reviews.

Our Win Local and Grow Online packages include setting up your Google Business Profile, and every package can show your Google reviews on your website.