Describe your business

Choose your starting point

• Describe it: start with a few notes about the business.
• Google page: paste any link to the business on Google Maps or Google Search, or type its name and town.
• Clone: reuse a public page's content and section order in a fresh design.
• Enhance: keep a public page's content with a fresh layout.

For a link, you can add optional notes and facts before choosing Build my site. Clone and Enhance read one public page, not a whole website. The result is an original design inspired by the source.

Start from your Google listing

Choose Google page, then paste the link from Share in Google Maps, the link to your business on Google Search, or your listing's address. You can also type the business's name and town, such as “Hill Plumbing Columbus”. Then choose the arrow, Find the business.

We show the business as Google lists it, so you can check it's yours before anything is built. If the name matches several businesses, pick yours. Finding a business doesn't use any of your builds.

Under What to include, choose what to use from your listing:

• Your Google rating: your rating and how many reviews it's from, linked to your listing. It starts on when you have at least 4.0 from 10 reviews.
• 6 of your 63 reviews, with your own numbers: up to six reviews in their own words, each with the reviewer's name and a link to Google. It starts off.
• Photos from Google: photos your customers added to their reviews. It starts off.
• Your address: turn it off if customers shouldn't come to you, for example if you work from home.
• Content from yourbusiness.com, with your own address: shown when your listing links to your website. We use what it says, never its design.

Only include reviews and photos you have permission to publish: they belong to the people who shared them.

A Google page builds several pages by default, picked for your kind of business, such as Services, About and Contact, and Reviews when you include reviews. Under Pages, choose a page to leave it out, and choose it again to bring it back. Leave out every page but Home for a one-page site. Each page is built as far as your listing and notes can fill it.

Choose Edit details under the business to correct your name or phone, or to add your email, the area you serve or a booking link. Then choose Build my site. Wrong business? Choose Not this one.

If Google lists the business as permanently closed, you can't build from it. If you already have a site for the business, you can open it or build another. Not on Google? Choose Describe it instead. If you paste a Google link into Describe it, choose Build from this Google listing.

Photos and reviews

Photos from Google are used before generated artwork. If a photo cannot be used, Shingle creates a replacement. Reviews keep their original words, reviewer credit and Google source link; unavailable reviews are left out.

Check the imported content before publishing. You can replace or remove photos in Visuals, and ask for reviews to be removed in Changes.

Your notes and details take priority over anything read from the listing. Ask for a new look in Changes whenever you want one.

Your site doesn't follow your listing once it's built. Changed something on Google? Change it here too, in Details. Once your site is live, add it to your Google Business Profile.

What to write

Write it the way you'd describe your business to a new customer. A few sentences or rough notes is plenty:

• What you do: your services, and anything you don't do.
• Where: your town, or the area you serve.
• Who for: homes, small businesses, families, first-timers.
• Why you: upfront prices, same-day visits, evening appointments.

For example: “Family-run plumbers in Columbus, Ohio. We fix leaks, clear clogged drains and replace water heaters. Upfront prices, and emergency calls seven days a week.”

Add your facts

Choose Details in the box to add your business name, the area you serve, your phone, your email or a booking link. We use each one exactly as you type it.

A site uses facts from your notes, details, or the public page you choose. The details you type take priority. Review imported facts before publishing.

Good to know

• A description can be up to 2,000 characters.
• Don't include passwords or payment details.
• If we can't find a business, check the link or search by its name and town. If a link still can't be read, choose Describe it.
• You can build again later from a new description, and every version you made stays in History.

When you're ready, open New site. Once it's built, you can ask for changes.