Your complete guide to a great Google Business Profile listing (formerly Google My Business)

Google Business Profile is the new name for the rebranded Google My Business, a free tool that lets you manage your presence on Google – the world’s most popular search engine with a 91.85% share of the market (2023) – in searches and on Google Maps.

It enables you to tell the story of your business, including posts, photos and reviews, and share important information with potential customers before they’ve even clicked through to your website.

This complete guide will walk you through creating, claiming or verifying a listing as well as how to optimise the features that can help you to grow your business.

Part one: How to create a listing on Google Business Profile

Step one: Check whether you already have a presence on Google Business Profile

Even if you can’t remember setting up a Google Business Profile (or, previously, Google My Business page) for your company, it does sometimes happen that profiles have already been created but not claimed and verified.

Your first step, therefore, should be to check whether you already have a Google Business Profile presence.

Type in your business name & town/city in the Google Search bar to see if a branded Knowledge Panel comes up.

(Knowledge Panel is the information box about a business that sometimes appears on the right-hand side of search engine results pages (SERPs) on desktops or at the top of SERPs on mobile devices).

If that doesn’t bring up any results, you might want to try searching for your business address or business phone number to see what shows up in the search results.

It’s worth doing this in both Google and Google Maps to be on the safe side.

As you can see below, when I do a search for ‘SEO+ Devon’, the branded Knowledge Panel appears on the right-hand side of the search results in addition to five different listings from either my website or LinkedIn about SEO+.

Because I have control of the SEO+ Google Business Profile, I am able to provide all sorts of helpful information to potential customers about my services.

In the style of one of the old ‘Choose your own adventure’ books (remember those?!), you’ll need to take one of four paths at this point:

1. If your business has no Google Business Profile presence, go to Step two.
2. If you appear to have an unverified or unclaimed Google Business Profile page, head to Step three.
3. If your business already has a verified listing but you’re not able to modify the content, jump straight to Step four.
4. And if you need to claim a Google Maps listing, hop forward to Step Five

Step two: Create a new listing

If no Knowledge Panel comes up for your business and you don’t appear to have a Google Business Profile presence yet then it’s time to get your company on the (Google) map

Action 1: Head to Google Business Profile

Currently, you can head to https://google.com/business/ and click the ‘Manage now’ option (marked in red on the screenshot below).

If you already have a Google account, you will need to log in when prompted. If you don’t yet have a Google account, click ‘Create account’ as shown below and follow the instructions.

Note: You don’t have to go to the Business Profile Manager to set up a listing anymore.

Instead, you can now claim your business listing via a search or Google Maps. Simply search for your business name and click on Claim this business in the Knowledge Panel. This will take you through to a dedicated page where you can request to manage the business.

Action 2: Find or add your business to Google

Once you’re logged in, you’ll see a screen where you can either search for your business (if Google is already aware of it) or ‘Add your business to Google’.

Type in your business name. If Google is aware of it, the name should appear in a dropdown list for you to click on. This will take you through to your Google Business Profile Manager, which is one way you can edit your Google Business Profile.

If your business isn’t listed, click on Add your business to Google.

Action 3: Start building your business profile

You’ll now be asked to enter your business name and select the most appropriate category for your business (you can change this later). This is also where you need to read Google’s Terms of Service.

Hit Next when you’ve entered the correct information.

Currently, there are nearly 4,000 business categories associated with Google Business Profile (you can find the full list here). If you can’t find a category that perfectly describes your business, you will need to think in slightly broader terms, choosing the next best option. For example, a soft play centre would need to choose ‘Children’s amusement centre’ or a dog behaviourist would have to choose the ‘dog trainer’ category.

Action 4: Choose whether or not to add a location

Google will then ask you if you want to add a bricks and mortar location that customers can visit, such as a shop or office. If you want to attract local in-person custom, it’s important to add your location here as it will show up on Google Maps and Search.

Action 5: Add your address

If you click ‘Yes’, Google will ask you to enter the address for your business. It’s important to list this information correctly with no typos and how the address will appear on other online directories and on your website. Google looks for consistency in how businesses are listed across multiple sources and your Google Business Profile should always be correct.

Action 6: Review, accept or ignore potential listings

If a close potential match to your business is found near your address, Google may ask you whether your business could be one of the existing listings. This could happen, for example, to a new hairdresser who is setting up their business a few doors down from the local barber.

Simply click on ‘None of these’ if your business isn’t already listed and hit ‘Next’.

If your business is listed (perhaps because it has an unclaimed or unverified Google Business Profile presence), you can choose the listing that matches your business and begin the process of verifying it as yours.

Action 7: Let Google know if you serve customers outside of your address or in specific areas nearby

Once you’ve entered your address, Google will ask whether you serve customers outside of this location too. For example, if you offer an online delivery service in addition to a shop, you can make it clear that your products or services are available to a wider area. Google will prompt you to add the areas you serve.

Even if you say ‘No’ to a physical location that customers can visit, you will have the option to say if you cover specific geographic areas. This will show up on your listing and help to attract local customers. You can change and amend the areas you serve once your Google Business Profile listing is set up.

At this stage, you will also be asked in which country/region of the world your business is based.

Action 8: Add your contact information

Your Google Business Profile should make it easy for potential customers to contact you. Add the best phone number to reach you, as well as your web address.

If you have a call tracking phone number, you will want to include this in your Google Business Profile.

If you don’t currently have a website, click the “I don’t have a website” checkbox.

Action 9: Verify your listing

Google will now ask you to choose a way to verify your listing. This is to ensure that you are who you say you are and that you have the authority to manage the Google Business Profile that you have just created.

Most people have to select to verify their listing by receiving a postcard featuring the verification code at their postal address. Once again, it’s essential that your address is correct in Google so that you receive the postcard ASAP. Email, phone, Google Search Console or video recording verification are offered to selected businesses. 

As soon as the postcard arrives, you simply need to enter the verification code and the Google Business Page you set up is officially yours.

You can choose to verify your page at a later date but do note that you won’t be able to fully manage your listing until it has been verified.

Action 10: Begin adding content

Once you’ve verified your listing, you can sign into the Google Business Profile Manager and begin adding content.

Another option (which Google wants all business owners to do eventually) is to manage your profile directly from Search or Google Maps. This is a quick and easy way to keep your profile up-to-date.

Now go to Part two: Managing your Google Business Profile 

As I mentioned above, it does sometimes happen that a business has a Google Business Profile even though you haven’t created it.

Any Google user can create a listing so a customer might have loved your business and done it for you.

You will need to claim and verify the listing in order to have control over the information published.

You can tell a business remains unclaimed on Google Business Profile by the ‘Own this business?’ question in the Knowledge Panel.

If you find a listing that looks like this for your business, then hit the ‘Own this business?’ link and go through the stages listed in Step two: Create a new listing above.

Note: If you work from home delivering services to clients at other locations and would rather not have your address visible on your Google Business Profile, you can remove it from an existing listing. Once your access has been verified, look for the Info option in the main Google Business Profile Manager menu, find the address and click on the pencil icon to the right of it, then choose the ‘Clear address’ option. Your address will no longer be visible in searches.

Another way to verify an unclaimed listing is to go to https://support.google.com/business/, which will take you to Google Business Help, and click on Verify Your Business at the top of the page:

Step four: Requesting ownership of a verified listing

Occasionally, people find that not only is their business already on Google Business Profile but that it’s been verified and is owned by someone else.

This is most common in the case of franchises where the overall owner/manager of the franchise group has added and verified multiple franchise locations in bulk and retains management of the different locations.

If, for any reason, someone else has claimed and verified a listing for your business, your first task is to request that the ownership of the listing be transferred to you.

Google gives a full breakdown of how to do this here.

To get you started, go to https://business.google.com/create and enter your business name. If the business has been claimed and verified by someone else, you will see the following message:

Could you have set up the page a long time ago and forgotten? If you recognise the email address as one you’ve used in the past then you will need to follow the ‘Account Recovery help guide’ link.

If not, your next step is to hit the ‘Request Access’ button, fill out the form and ‘Submit’.

It takes approximately three to seven days to process ownership requests on Google Business Profile. The current page owner will receive an email asking them to get in touch with you and you’ll also receive an email from Google confirming that your request has been logged.

If your request is approved, you should find that the business appears in your Google Business Profile Manager and that you are able to edit the page.

If your request is denied, the email from Google stating, “Your request to access [Business Name] on Google Business Profile was rejected” should contain the option to appeal the decision with the relevant instructions.

If the current page owner doesn’t respond within three to seven days, Google may give you the option to claim or verify the listing yourself but this will depend on your individual case.

In the meantime, you may be able to suggest edits to the page even if you can’t do them yourself.

‘Suggest an edit’ and ‘Answer quick questions’ features

While I’m on the subject of being able to suggest edits, it’s important for anyone who has a Google Business Profile to be aware of the ‘Suggest an edit’ feature that appears on the Knowledge Panel in search results:

This quite literally allows any searcher to suggest changes to your Google Business Profile. This isn’t a guarantee that the changes will go live but they could if they come from what Google views as a ‘trusted’ source. In theory, this means that you could be vulnerable to a competitor trying to change your hours of business (even listing you as ‘closed’) or changing your contact details, categories or business description.

You won’t necessarily receive a notification or alert from Google about changes made to your listing so you should check your profile regularly to see whether all of the information is correct.

Another feature to be aware of is one that encourages people to not only ask but also answer questions about a business. This is because Google wants to create communities that can share useful information about businesses they love and use.

For example, if someone were to click on the ‘Know this place? Share the latest info’ option on the SEO+ Knowledge Panel, they would be able to answer questions about my business.

Here’s a typical question someone might answer: 

If the person were to click on ‘More choices’, they could even answer that my business is permanently closed!

Although this would be a worst-case scenario, it’s important to keep an eye on the responses people are giving to these questions to make sure the information circulated about your business is accurate.

Step five: You can also claim your business via Google Maps

Another way to claim and verify your Google Business Profile is to do it via Google Maps:

1. Go to Google Maps and search for your business.
2. Click on the correct listing.
3. If the list has not been claimed, you will notice an option to ‘Claim this business’.
4. Hit the ‘Manage now’ button.
5. Follow the directions to verify the listing. A postcard will be sent to your premises containing a verification code (this usually takes around four days).

Verifying multiple locations

If your business has multiple locations or you represent an agency that manages multiple client locations then Google says the best way to manage all of the profiles is via the Google Business Profile Manager.

To add a second business profile or location, go to the Businesses option in the main left-hand menu, then click on Add business and choose to add a single business or import businesses.

If your business has more than 10 locations, you may be able to apply for bulk verification.

It is also possible to set up a Business Group for multiple locations. This is ideal if you want to share location management with a co-worker, agency or one of your regions or you want to run local add campaigns.

You can find a step-by-step guide to setting up a Business Group here.

Now your Google Business Profile is up and running, we’re going to look in Part Two at how you can access it from now on and, in Part Three, how you can optimise it and make it as engaging as possible for potential customers.

Part two: Managing your Google Business Profile page

Once your Google Business Profile is up and running, there are several ways to access it to manage and update the content.

Option 1: Type your business name into a Google search

If you search for your business by its full name in Google, you should see a little control panel at the top of the SERP (the Knowledge Panel will be to the right of the screen).

At the top of this panel, there are now twelve options followed by various tiles with suggestions about what you could add to your page, e.g. set up booking, create an offer, performance and a few others.

All the tabs state what they do, for example from the Edit profile tab, you’ll be prompted to add important information about your business such as your opening hours or services.

There are different tabs and tiles to help promote your listing, such as asking for reviews, adding updates, special offers or events, and other tabs for ways to interact with potential customers, such as answering questions that have been posted to your profile recently, responding to reviews or replying to messages (if you have the messaging feature switched on).

Option 2: Search for “my business”

If you type the words “my business” in the Google search bar, it will now bring up a small panel at the top of the SERP that lists the page(s) you manage. Just click on View profile to access your Google Business Profile.

Option 3: Via Google Maps

If you open the Google Maps app on your phone and type your business name in full in the search bar, you will be taken to your Google Business Profile and shown various options to make edits and add photos, posts, etc.

Option 4: Via Google Apps

If you use Google Chrome as your browser, click on the Apps icon at the top right of the screen and then choose the Business Profile option from the dropdown list of icons:

Option 5: Go straight to your Profile Manager

Another way to edit your Profile is to go into your Google Business Profile Manager via www.google.co.uk/business. (As mentioned elsewhere in this article, Google moving away from this for single location businesses but says it’s still the best option for managing multiple locations).

If you have several pages or businesses in several locations, just hit the ‘Businesses’ option to navigate between profiles.

Insights/Performance

The Performance option on the main menu in your Manager takes you through to some helpful data about how your profile is performing. This includes:

1. The search terms most used to find you
2. Whether searches were for your business specifically or for your products/services
3. Whether people found your business in searches or on Google Maps
4. Customer actions (e.g. website visits, request directions, calls)
5. Phone call data
6. Photo views and quantity in comparison to your competitors

These insights can be a good source of inspiration about how to improve your profile and what search terms to target.

Part three: How to build an engaging Google Business Profile

Now your Google Business Profile is set up, how can you use it to attract new customers? Google offers a number of different features to help you. (When new features are rolled out, it’s always worth looking into how you might utilise them to grow your business.)

Note: Certain features to manage your Business Profile may differ between Google Maps and Search, and the operating system you’re using.

Let’s take a look:

1. Add Update

There are various updates that you can add to your Google Business Profile. These are a bit like having an advert or a social media status within the Knowledge Panel in Google searches.

The great thing about the update feature is that you can tell searchers about your special offers, events or updates on the search results page before they’ve ever clicked through to your website.

Depending on which option you choose, you will be able to add specific information to your post such as:

1. A photo
2. A short piece of promotional copy
3. The dates, times and venue of an event
4. The nature and duration of an offer

You can also add a call to action button to any Google Business Profile post, such as:

1. Book [an appointment]
2. Order online
3. Buy
4. Learn more
5. Sign up
6. Call now

The Booking facility is particularly powerful because searchers can book an appointment with you without even having to visit your website. This feature is available if you use scheduling software that currently integrates with Google Business Profile – you can find a full list of current and forthcoming integrations here.

Ideas for posts

If you’re not sure what to post about, why not try some or all of the following ideas?

1. Advertise new products or services you’re offering
2. Share the details of a forthcoming event or provide a link to an ‘Early Bird’ ticket deal
3. Showcase a trending new product with a link to your web store
4. Attract signups to your next webinar
5. Advertise your next networking event
6. Let people book a place on your next training course
7. Post a seasonal message such as wishing searchers a Happy New Year
8. Tell people about a time-limited offer and discount and how they can take advantage
9. Tell searchers about your latest blog article or an old article that’s still popular. Here’s an example of my latest Google Business Profile post:

As you can see, posts are a fantastic way to provide extra value and stand out on search results pages.

2. Adding your info

If you click on the ‘Info’ option in the left-hand menu of your Google Business Profile Manager, you will have the opportunity to add to and edit the information you publish about your business in the Knowledge Panel. This includes your:

1. Business name
2. Category
3. Address
4. Service area (e.g. specific towns, counties or countries)
5. Opening hours
6. Special opening hours (e.g. on public holidays)
7. Contact numbers
8. Web address
9. A specific URL for booking appointments (if applicable)
10. Products (it’s well worth showcasing some of your most popular products or product collections here)
11. Services
12. Highlights/attributes/features of your business (this is the place to tell people about what sets your business apart, be it health and safety measures, outdoor seating, free Wi-Fi, online appointment booking, women-led business, etc.)
13. Business description
14. Opening date
15. Photos

There are also some advanced features for those of you who use Google AdWords or have multiple store locations with associated Google Business Profile listings.

The Services feature is ideal if your business has a list of priced services. This is the perfect place to list your current menu or price list so that people know how much you charge before they even make an enquiry.

Always remember to update your services list and the associated prices if anything changes so that you’re publishing the most up-to-date information.

The Business description allows you to add up to 750 characters describing your business – sort of an elevator pitch to attract potential customers. Google has posted more information about this feature in its Help documents, including an example.

Google only shows the first 250 characters in the Knowledge Panel so I recommend putting the most relevant information first in the Business Description.

At the moment, this feature appears near the bottom of the Knowledge Panel below the Reviews section and is headed, From <business name, e.g. SEO+>. Searchers have to click on ‘more’ to read the full description.

Note: You can now also add this information via the panel in Google search if you don’t want to do it via the Manager.

New in 2023:

You can now add your social media profiles to your Google Business Listing

Here’s how to add a social media link:
Go to your Business Profile.
Click Edit profile >> Business information >> Contact.
To edit, click Social Profiles. Down arrow.
In the drop-down that opens, select the social media link you would like to add.
In the web address field, add the link.
Click Save.
Wait 10 minutes while it’s reviewed.

It’s currently possible to add the following social media links to your Google Business Profile:

• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Pinterest
• TikTok
• Twitter (X)
• YouTube
• Facebook

3. Adding photos and videos

Another way to make an impact is to add some photos and videos to your Google Business Profile.

Don’t worry, you don’t need to bring a professional production crew in and spend loads of money – a few snaps from your smartphone are more than enough.

Google Business Profile gives you the opportunity to add a profile picture (the same as on your social media channels is ideal for continuity), a cover photo, photos of the outside of your premises and much more.

People love pictures of you and/or your team going about your day, services being delivered, products being created and so on.

Keep forgetting to add pictures to Google Business Profile? There’s now a service called LocalPics that will text you a reminder at whatever intervals you set for up to ten different business locations. You don’t even have to login to Google Business Profile to post new images via this service (it’s currently available on a 14-day free trial and then costs $9/month).

If you only have one location and/or one person managing your Google Business Profile then it would be enough to set a regular reminder on your phone or computer. Or why not upload a picture to Google every time you post one of your business on social media?

Do note that customers can also add photos of your business, products or services to your Google Business Profile page. They do this by choosing the ‘Add a photo’ option in the top-right of the Reviews panel.

You can manage the photos that other people upload via your Google Business Profile Manager.

It’s now also possible for you to add videos to your Google Business Profile. Google recommends that any videos are:

1. Duration: Up to 30 seconds long
2. File Size: Up to 75 MB
3. Resolution: 720p or higher

The content of the video should reflect your business without being overly promotional. As with the photos, people want to see what your business is actually like – a sneak peek through the door at your premises and customers – so that they know what to expect if they pop in for a visit or get in touch.

In fact, Google expressly says in its photo and video content policies that photos and videos must be taken at and relevant to the location in question.

If you feature two or more videos on your page, a special ‘Videos’ sub-tab will appear within your business’s Knowledge Panel in mobile searches.

4. Messaging

You can turn on the chat/messaging feature to enable people to contact you in real-time via your Google Business Profile.

All messages are saved to the Google account you manage your Google Business Profile with so that you can refer back to them.

(You can also share photos, track average response times and block people, if necessary.)

The messaging feature is a fantastic way to encourage searchers to contact you without even having to visit your website. As with any real-time messaging service though, it’s important that you only use it if you’re able to respond in a timely manner. Google reserves the right to turn off the messaging feature if you do not consistently reply within 24 hours.

5. Answering questions

As we mentioned briefly earlier in this guide, people are able to publically ask questions about your business in the Knowledge Panel. In addition to other people being able to answer (which is what we talked about above), you also have the opportunity to respond and have your answers visible to potential customers.

This is a great way of answering common customer questions and helping people to decide whether or not they want to buy from your business.

When someone clicks on the ‘Be the first to ask a question’ option or the ‘Ask a question’ button and sends a question, you should receive an email notification so that you can respond.

Tip: Compile your own list of frequently asked questions and answers and post them to your Google Business Profile under the Questions & Answers feature. This can help to pre-empt common questions.

If someone asks a question that is particularly important or asked regularly, it’s fine to upvote it with a ‘Thumbs up’ as Google says this can help to make specific Q&As more visible.

And here’s another reminder that, like the ‘Suggest an edit’ feature, other people can answer questions so it’s important to check that your customers are responding accurately if anyone replies before you.

6. Attracting reviews

Each year, the BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey shows us how important genuine customer reviews are to businesses.

The most recent survey (2023) found that 76% of consumers “regularly” read online reviews when browsing for local businesses. In addition, positive reviews make 94% of consumers more likely to use a local business.

People also stated that they would want to see at least 10 reviews for a business, all as recent as possible, before deciding whether to make an enquiry or purchase.

Google is one of the most important sources of customer reviews. If you can attract reviews on your profile, it’s a fantastic way of standing out from your competitors in local searches.

Asking for reviews

Although you’re dependent on your customers to leave reviews, Google is happy for you to ask clients to provide feedback (as long as there’s no bribery, coercion or payment to secure reviews, of course!).

To make things as easy as possible, you could always send a link to your customers taking them straight through to the Google Reviews feature. There are several ways to do this:

• Click on the Ask for Reviews tab on your Google Business listing

• Click to copy the URL or share it to Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter or via email.
• Send the link to recent clients/customers telling them how important their feedback is to your business.

Whenever someone leaves a review on your Google Business Profile, I always recommend posting a response, even if it’s just a short and sweet, “Thank you”.

Dealing with negative reviews

If someone leaves a negative review, it’s important to respond in a courteous and professional manner. Tell the reviewer that you would like to hear more about their experience to see if you can help in some way. This will serve you better than responding defensively.

People don’t expect or fully trust a profile that has 100% five-star reviews but they will want to see how you respond to feedback.

What happens if someone leaves a fake review? Unfortunately, this does happen from time to time. It could be a competitor trying to dis your reputation or a disgruntled past employee, as just two examples.

Google won’t just allow you to delete a review but you can flag it as inappropriate. To do this, go to the Reviews option in the left-hand menu of your Google Business Profile Manager. This will bring up all of the reviews on your profile. Find the fake review and click on the column of three dots in the right-hand corner. You should now be able to click on the pop-up option Flag as inappropriate.

You may also be able to speed up Google’s response by contacting them via the Support option, which you’ll find near the bottom of the main navigation menu for your Google Business Profile Manager.

While the fake review remains in place, it is worth posting a response. You could try something along the following lines:

Hi <insert name, if known>. We take comments like yours very seriously. Unfortunately, we have no record of any incident with a customer as described in the review. We have also been unable to verify your identity from our customer records. If you were indeed a customer, we would like to investigate this further. Please contact <name> at <email address> as soon as possible so that we can resolve this issue immediately.

This response sounds professional but also tells anyone reading it that the review is probably fake.

7. Creating a web presence (if you don’t have a website)

In the Google Business Profile Manager, you will also see a Website option in the left-hand menu. This is a feature that Google rolled out back in 2017, as reported by Search Engine Land and others.

The Google Business Profile website builder is aimed at small businesses that need a web presence but don’t yet have the time, budget or focus to create a business website.

The website builder draws all of its information from your Google Business Profile and presents it as a simple, attractive one-page website.

This service is free to use, mobile-friendly and easy to update. However, you need to buy a custom domain name through Google if you don’t want to use the more generic URL you’re assigned.

The most important features

While all the features on your Google Business listing play an important part in helping to increase the visibility and credibility of your business, the 5 areas on your Google Business Listing that have a *direct* impact on rankings are as follows:

1. Business name
2. Categories
3. Attributes
4. Services
5. Reviews

Why every business should optimise their Google Business Profile listing(s)

We know that Google is always exploring ways to provide searchers with the information that’s most relevant to their search quickly and easily.

Google Business Profile is the ideal platform to show the search engine that you’re engaged with potential and existing customers. You can show this by providing as much helpful information as possible, relevant images and videos, contact details and more.

If Google sees that people are clicking to read your reviews, opting to call you, reading your posts, visiting your website or viewing your pictures, all from your Google Business Profile, it’s a strong signal about the relevance of your content.

In turn, this should help you to achieve more appearances in the ‘local pack’ of local search pages and increase your organic rankings overall.

When was the last time you updated your Google Business Profile? Are you using all of the features mentioned above? If not, are there any that you might start using now? I’d love to hear your thoughts about Google Business Profile.

Need some help?

Let’s chat… book a free 20-minute call with me here and tell me about your business and your goals and we’ll take a look at the best way to help you achieve them.

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