Google Business Profile: the guide to showing up on Maps

What it is and why it matters

Your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is the listing that shows up on Google Maps and in the map pack when someone searches “plumber near me” or your business name. For a service business it is often the first contact: hours, reviews, phone number and directions, usually before anyone visits your website. And it is free.

How Google decides which businesses to show

According to Google's own help pages, local results are based mainly on three factors:

• Relevance: how well your listing matches the search. Google asks for complete, detailed information.
• Distance: how far your business is from the searcher, or from the place they typed.
• Prominence: how well known your business is, including reviews (count and rating), links and mentions on other sites.

Step by step: create and verify your profile

1. Go to business.google.com with a Google account that belongs to the business, not the personal account of an employee who may leave. Search for your business before creating anything: Google or a customer may already have created a listing. If it exists, request ownership instead of opening a new one.
2. Choose your primary category carefully: it weighs heavily on relevance. Pick what you are (“Plumber”, “Dental clinic”), not what you'd like to sell, and never use it to stuff keywords.
3. Decide whether you serve customers at a location, at their place, or both. If you go to customers and don't receive them at your address, you're a service-area business: hide the address and set the cities or ZIP codes you cover, staying within about two hours' drive of your base.
4. Add your phone and website. Keep your name, address and phone number identical on the profile, your website and the directories you're listed in: inconsistencies confuse Google and customers.
5. Verify. Google picks the method based on your business type. It often asks for a video recorded inside the verification flow showing your signage, the location and that you manage the business; it may also ask for a live video call or a code by phone, email or postcard. Review can take several days.

Optimizing the listing: what actually makes a difference

• Name: your real name, the one on your sign. Adding keywords (“Smith Plumbing Emergency 24/7 Cheap”) breaks Google's guidelines and can get the profile suspended.
• Secondary categories: the ones that are true (for example “Heating contractor” if you also install furnaces). Few and accurate.
• Hours: regular and special hours for holidays. Hours you don't keep turn into one-star reviews.
• Services and products: a clear description for each and, if you can, a price range.
• Description: what you do, for whom and where, in plain words. No links, no promotions.
• Photos and videos: real and recent, of the place, the team and finished work. Google recommends adding them; stock photos make you look like everyone else.
• Attributes: accessibility, parking, Wi-Fi, payment methods. Whatever applies.

Reviews: getting them without breaking the rules

Reviews are the part of prominence you control most. Google counts both the number and the rating, and recommends replying to them.

• Always ask, right after the job, with the direct review link (it's in your profile dashboard). A short text with the link works better than “find us on Google”.
• Reply to every review, bad ones included: calmly, with no personal details about the customer, saying what you did to fix it. Whoever reads the bad review reads your reply too.
• Don't offer discounts or gifts in exchange, and don't ask only happy customers: both break Google's policy and can get the reviews removed.
• Don't buy reviews or write them yourself. In the US, the FTC's rule on fake reviews has banned fake and bought reviews since 2024.

What no longer works

• Public Q&A on the listing: Google has removed it from Maps and replaced it with an AI “Ask” button that answers from your replies, your reviews and your profile details. You can still answer questions from your profile dashboard, but what matters is that your services, your description and your website already answer what customers always ask.
• Keyword-stuffed names: they may rank for a while; once someone reports it, the listing drops or gets suspended.
• Several profiles for one business: without a genuinely separate location, they compete with each other and both are at risk.

Your website and your listing work together

The listing sends people to your site and your site confirms what the listing says. Make sure your website shows the same name, address and phone number, has a page for each main service and, if you serve several towns, real content about each area, not the same page copied with the city name swapped. For the rest, see the local SEO checklist.

Already have a verified profile and just want a second pair of eyes on it? Our one-time Google Business Profile Tune-up reviews your details, categories, services, hours and links, and gives you a review-request link and how to use it properly.

Ignacio Pineda

Co-founder · Business

Co-founder of Intervolutions. Strategy, marketing and client relationships: he turns the technical into business results.