The short answer
To optimize a Google Business Profile, verify it, choose the most specific primary category, use your real business name, and complete your address or service area, hours, phone, website, services, description and photos. Then keep it current and reply to reviews. Google says complete, accurate details help match you to searches.
Start by verifying
Most of what follows only counts once you've done this. Verification is how you take ownership of the profile, and your photos and videos appear only after it.
Google chooses the method from your kind of business, your public information, your region and your hours. You might get a call or a text with a code, an email, a live video call, a video recording or a postcard. Most reviews take up to five business days. It can be instant if you've already verified your website in Search Console, so do that first if you have a site.
If a postcard is coming, it usually arrives within 14 days. Don't change your name, address or category while you wait, and don't ask for a second code, because that cancels the first.
The fields at a glance
Good Google Business Profile optimization is mostly completing these fields accurately. The rules come from Google's guidelines for representing your business and its page on editing your profile. The sections below say how to use each one.
| Field | What Google asks for | Limit or rule |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Your real-world name | No taglines, services or locations |
| Primary category | The most specific fit for your core business | One, shared by all your locations |
| More categories | Only what you really are | Up to 9, and as few as you can |
| Address | A precise, real address | No P.O. boxes or virtual offices |
| Service area | The cities or ZIP codes you serve | Up to 20, about 2 hours' drive |
| Hours | Regular customer-facing hours | Special hours for holidays |
| Phone | A local number you control | Up to 2 extra, no premium numbers |
| Website | A page for this location | No redirects or social pages |
| Description | What you offer and what sets you apart | 750 characters, no links or offers |
| Photos | Sharp, accurate pictures | JPG or PNG, 10 KB to 5 MB |
| Videos | Short clips of your work | Up to 30 seconds and 75 MB |
Business name
Use the name on your sign, your van and your paperwork. The guidelines rule out marketing taglines, phone numbers, web addresses, service descriptions and location details. So "Hill Plumbing" is right, and "Hill Plumbing 24 Hour Emergency Plumber Columbus" isn't, unless that's truly what your sign says.
You may see a rival getting away with a stuffed name. It's still not worth copying, because Google may suspend a profile that breaks its guidelines, and then you're filing appeals instead of answering the phone. Changing your name after verification can also send you back through verification, so get it right early.
Categories
The first category you choose is your primary one. It's the field that says most plainly what you are, so give it real thought.
Google's test is simple. Finish the sentence "this business is a". A roofer is a roofing contractor. "Gutter cleaning" may be something a roofer does, and that belongs in services.
- Use the fewest categories that describe your core business, each as specific as possible.
- Don't use a category as a keyword, or to describe a feature.
- Don't copy a category because a business nearby uses it.
Start typing in the category box and see what Google offers, since you can only choose from its list. Try a few words for what you do, because the closest match isn't always the first one you think of.
Address or service area
How you fill this in depends on where you meet customers.
- Customers come to you. Enter the full address, and check the pin is on your door.
- You go to them. Hide your address and set your service areas. You can list up to 20 cities, postal codes or other areas. Radius circles aren't allowed, and the whole area shouldn't stretch much past two hours' drive from your base.
- Both. An auto shop with roadside service can show its address and set a service area too.
Google says your service area helps people find you and shows where you work. It doesn't say that listing a town raises your rank there, and distance from the searcher still counts. So list the towns you really serve, and let your website make the case for each one.
P.O. boxes and remote mailboxes aren't acceptable, and virtual offices aren't eligible. A co-working space only qualifies with clear signage, staff there during business hours and customers received on site.
Hours
Give the hours customers can reach you, and set special hours ahead of each holiday. A customer who drives over to a locked door is unlikely to give you a second try.
Seasonal businesses can use their seasonal hours as regular hours. Some kinds of business shouldn't list hours at all, including appointment-only businesses, so check the guidelines if that's you. If you have separate hours for something like delivery, use the "more hours" section.
Phone and messages
Use a local number if you can, and one the business directly controls. Google prefers it over a central call center and doesn't accept premium-rate numbers. You can add up to two more numbers beside the main one.
Where it's available in your region, a verified profile can also add WhatsApp or text messaging. Only turn it on if someone will answer, since a question left unanswered is worse than no button.
Website and links
Enter your full address, starting with https://. Google asks for a website that represents your location, and tells you not to use addresses that redirect people to landing pages, including pages on social networks. If you have no site, leave the field empty until you do. See what happened to Google's free websites.
Some categories can add extra links, like one for orders or reservations. In some regions you can also add one link for each social network you use.
Description
You have 750 characters. Say what you offer, what sets you apart and how long you've been open. Leave out web addresses, prices, sales and promotions, which Google doesn't allow here.
Write it for the person reading, in the words they'd use. Here's a made-up example.
Northside Plumbing is a family-run plumber serving Dayton and Kettering since 2009. We fix leaks, clear blocked drains and replace water heaters for homes and small shops. You get a price before we start, and we clean up before we leave. Our plumbers are licensed in Ohio and carry their own parts, so most jobs are finished on the first visit.
Everything in it should be true, and easy to check on your website.
Services, menu and products
If your category offers it, add your services. Pick from Google's suggestions or write your own, then group them and add a description and price where you're happy to. Google says services may be highlighted when someone searches for what you offer, and customers can read them under Services on Maps.
Custom service names can't include prices or phone numbers, and those that break the rules are rejected automatically.
Food and drink businesses get a menu editor. Retail businesses in some countries can show products, which needs a connection to your point-of-sale system.
Photos and videos
Google lists photos and videos among its tips for local ranking, and they're what customers look at first. Aim for sharp, well-lit, accurate pictures without heavy filters.
- Logo. It helps people recognize you, and shows most prominently once your basic details are complete.
- Cover photo. Choose your best picture of the business. Google may not always show it first.
- The outside. An exterior photo helps customers find your door, so take it from the street.
- The work. Finished jobs, the team on site, the van, the food, the chair, whatever customers buy.
Add new ones as you go. Five photos from this month say more about a working business than fifty from one day three years ago. Skip stock photos, because customers can tell, and Google asks for pictures that show your business accurately.
Attributes
Attributes are short facts, such as outdoor seating. You can edit the factual ones yourself, and the ones that depend on opinion come from people who've visited. The list changes by category, so open Edit profile and tick each one that's true.
Posts
Posts come in three kinds: updates, offers and events. Posts older than six months are archived unless you've set a date range. A post with a phone number in its text may be rejected if Google can't connect the number to you.
Posts aren't on Google's list of local ranking tips, so treat them as a way to tell people what's happening. A seasonal offer, a new service or a change in opening times are all good reasons to post. Skip them if they'd feel like a chore, because the fields above matter more.
Reviews and replies
Google says replying to reviews shows customers you value their feedback. Keep replies short, personal and prompt, and don't use them to promote anything. Replies appear publicly as coming from your business, and Google checks them first, which usually takes up to 10 minutes.
Getting more reviews is a job of its own. See how to get more Google reviews, and make your direct link with the free review link generator.
Check it every few months
Your profile doesn't stay how you left it. Google can gather information about your business from elsewhere, and the edit page has a place to review what it found. Put a reminder in your calendar every three months to:
- search for your business as a customer would, on a phone
- check your name, phone, hours and service areas are still right
- set special hours for the holidays ahead
- add recent photos
- read the Performance report for the searches people used to find you
Those search terms are worth reading closely. If customers keep using a phrase you never use, put it in your services and on your site.
What puts a profile at risk
Google may suspend or disable a profile that doesn't follow its guidelines, or every profile on an account that's been restricted. The usual ways to get there are the ones above: a stuffed name, a fake address, or more than one profile for the same place.
If it happens, don't create a new profile for the same business. Check your profile against the guidelines, gather proof such as a business license or utility bill with a matching name and address, and use Google's appeals tool. You can submit each appeal only once, so make it complete.
Next steps
A complete profile also gives you a head start on your website, because the facts are already written. Shingle can read your listing and build a site from it, and the local SEO checklist shows what to do after the profile is done.
