How do I get my business on Google Maps?
To get your business on Google Maps, create a Google Business Profile, or claim one that already exists, then verify it. Once verified, customers can find the business on Google Search and Maps. Google says you can add or claim a business at no charge, so the work is accuracy and patience, not a fee.
This guide goes in the order you will meet things: whether the business qualifies, how to claim or create the profile, how verification works, which fields matter most, what the website has to do with it, and what nobody can promise. It assumes no technical background.
Is my business eligible for a Google Business Profile?
A business qualifies when it makes in-person contact with customers during its stated hours, either at a location customers visit or by travelling to them. Online-only businesses, lead generation companies, and rental or for-sale properties do not qualify. Eligibility is checked against Google's own guidelines, so read them before you start.
Google lists a few cases that surprise people. A business whose address is a P.O. box or a mailbox in a remote location is not eligible. A brand, an organization or an artist with no customer-facing location is not eligible either. A class or meeting held at a venue you do not own, or have no authority to represent, does not count as a business location. Sales and leasing offices do count.
If the business is eligible, only the owner or an authorized representative may verify and manage the profile. Check who in your business holds that role before anyone starts clicking.
How do I create or claim the profile?
Search Google Maps for the business name and city first. If a listing exists and is unverified, choose Claim this business, then Manage now. If nothing exists, go to business.google.com/add, choose Add your business to Google, enter the details and pick a verification option. A verified profile cannot be claimed this way, and its owner must approve a request for ownership.
Search before you create. Two profiles for one business confuse customers and Google alike, and a listing created by someone else years ago is common, especially for older businesses or ones that moved.
Sign in with a Google Account the business controls, not a personal account of one employee. When that person leaves, the profile should not leave with them. Write down which account owns the profile and who else has access.
What should the address say?
Enter the address exactly as it appears on your signage and your website. Google tells owners to make sure the address is correct and meets its guidelines, and a mismatch between the profile, the site and other listings is one of the easiest ways to create doubt about which business is which. If customers do not visit you at an address, the profile should not show one. That case is covered below.
How does Google verify a business?
Google verifies a business with a phone call or text, an email, a mailed postcard, a live video call or a recorded video, depending on what it offers that business. The business cannot choose the method. Google decides which options appear, and verification is what gives you control of the profile.
Some details from Google's own help page are worth knowing before you start:
- A mailed postcard code usually arrives within 14 days, and the code expires after 30 days.
- Do not change the business name, address or category while a postcard is on its way, and do not request a second code, because that invalidates the first.
- A live video call is only available within the business hours of your location.
- If the Get verified button comes back, Google could not fully verify the business. Try again or use another method it offers.
- Reviews of submitted verification can take up to five business days, and sometimes longer.
Do not share the code with anyone, even people who help manage the profile. Verification is the point where Google decides who controls a business's public listing, so treat the code like a password.
What does a service-area business need to do differently?
A service-area business visits or delivers to customers and does not serve them at its own address. Plumbers and cleaners are the usual examples. Google says such a business should remove its address from the profile and list the areas it serves instead, using cities, postal codes or other areas.
Google sets limits worth knowing. A profile can list up to 20 service areas, they cannot be drawn as a radius around the business, and the whole area should stay within about two hours of driving time from where the business is based. A service-area business has one profile covering its whole area.
A hybrid business, such as a shop that also delivers, can show its storefront address and set a service area. The rule of thumb Google gives is simple: if customers come to you at the address, show it. If you go to them, hide it. A home address on a profile for a business that never receives customers there is the usual mistake.
Which profile fields matter most?
The fields that matter most are the category, the business name, the address or service area, opening hours, a phone number, a website link, and photos. Google says businesses with complete and accurate information are more likely to show up in local search results. Fill in every field that applies, and keep opening hours current, including special hours.
How should I choose a category?
Choose the fewest categories that describe the core business, and make each one as specific as the business allows. Google offers a test: pick categories that complete the sentence "This business is a...", not "This business has a...". It also warns against using categories as keywords.
The category is the field owners most often get wrong, because it feels like a place to add search terms. Google reads it as a description of what the business is. If you cannot find an exact match, a more general category is better than a loosely related specific one.
What about hours, photos and reviews?
Hours decide whether a customer who drives over finds you open, so a wrong holiday time costs a visit. Photos and videos show customers what you offer, and Google lists them among the ways to improve a profile. Google's tips also include replying to reviews, which shows the business values feedback, and a reply is a few minutes of work.
Use real photographs of the premises, the work and the team that exist today. A stock image tells a customer nothing about whether this is the right business.
What does Google look at when ranking a business on the map?
Google says local results are based mainly on relevance, distance and prominence. Relevance is how well a profile matches what someone searches for. Distance is how far the business is from the person searching. Prominence is how well known a business is, which depends on signals such as reviews and links to the business. Google also states that no one can pay for a better local ranking.
Two of the three cannot be edited. A business cannot change where the searcher is standing. Relevance is the factor in the owner's hands, through the category, the services listed and complete information, and prominence grows slowly from reviews earned and mentions elsewhere on the web.
This is also why no honest person promises a position. The order a customer sees depends on who is searching and from where, so the same search can show two people two different lists. Anyone selling a guaranteed top spot on the map is selling something Google says cannot be bought.
What does the Google Business Profile need from the website?
The profile needs a website that confirms what the listing says: the same business name, address, phone number and hours, plus a page for each service. A visitor who clicks through from the map should land somewhere that answers the question that brought them. Prominence also draws on links to the business, and the site is where those links point.
Three checks take ten minutes. The name, address and phone number on the site match the profile word for word. The website link on the profile opens a page that loads on a phone. Each service named on the profile has its own page that explains it. If those hold, the profile and the site support each other. If the site is missing from search altogether, start with the checks in why a website is not showing up on Google.
Consistency also matters beyond Google. The more places that describe the business the same way, the easier it is for any search engine, or for an AI assistant, to resolve who the business is. What AI visibility means for a growing business covers that side.
How long does it take before the business appears?
A profile can appear on Maps soon after verification, but how soon and where it shows are not fixed. Postcard codes alone take up to 14 days to arrive, and a review of submitted verification can take up to five business days. After that, how well the profile ranks for any search depends on relevance, distance and prominence, none of which has a promised timetable.
Treat the first month as setup and the following months as upkeep. Check the profile after verification by searching for the business name and then for the service plus the area, from a phone, the way a stranger would. Note what shows, what is missing and what is wrong, and fix those first.
What are the most common mistakes?
The most common mistakes are creating a duplicate profile, using a personal account, picking the wrong category, showing a home address the business does not serve customers from, and leaving old hours in place. Each one is avoidable with a record of who owns the profile and a monthly look at what customers see.
- Search for an existing listing before creating one
- Use a business-controlled Google Account and note who has access
- Choose the fewest, most specific categories
- Hide the address if customers do not visit it, and list the areas served
- Keep hours, including holiday hours, current
- Never share a verification code
Mistakes in a profile are quietly expensive: a wrong phone number is a missed inquiry, and a wrong closing time is a wasted trip for a customer who then goes elsewhere.
When is it worth getting help?
It is worth getting help when the business has several locations, a rejected verification, a listing owned by someone who has left, or no time to keep the profile accurate. A specialist can also join the profile to the website, so the two say the same thing and reporting shows which searches lead to inquiries.
Devodin works remote first, with clients across the US, the UK and Europe. Get your Google Business Profile set up and managed as part of the Search & Content service, which reports monthly on the terms found and the inquiries that came in, and does not promise a position.
