Google Business Profile checklist

A Google Business Profile is the listing that shows your business on Google Search and Maps: the map pin, hours, phone number, photos and reviews. This checklist follows Google's own help pages, linked in each section. Where Google doesn't say something affects ranking, we don't either.

How the profile relates to local search

Google names three main factors for local results (Tips to improve your local ranking):

• Relevance: how well your profile matches what someone searched for. Complete, accurate categories, services and descriptions are how Google knows what you do.
• Distance: how far you are from the person searching; if they haven't shared a location, Google uses what it knows about it. You can't change this, but a correct address or service area means it's measured from the right place.
• Prominence: how well known the business is, including how many websites link to it and how many reviews it has. Google says more reviews and positive ratings can help.

The same page recommends verifying, keeping information complete (address, hours including special hours, category, attributes), responding to reviews and adding photos. Your website feeds the prominence side too, so the website checker is worth running alongside this list.

1. Verify the profile

• Claim and verify the profile. Google picks the method (phone or text, email, video recording, live video call or postcard) and it “can't be changed” (Verify your business on Google).
• Allow time: verification reviews take up to 5 business days; postcard codes usually arrive within 14 days and expire after 30.
• Verification matters beyond the badge. You can't reply to reviews until the business is verified (Manage customer reviews).

2. Choose the right categories

• Pick a primary category that best describes the business, and the most specific one that fits: Google's example is “nail salon” rather than “salon” (Manage your business category).
• Add a few additional categories only for real departments or services. Google says not to add a category for every product or service, and you can't create your own.
• Describe what the business is, not what it has, and don't use categories as keywords (Guidelines for representing your business).

3. Match your name, address and phone to your website

NAP stands for name, address and phone. They should read the same on the profile, your website and other directories, so people and search engines can tell they're the same business.

• Name: your real-world name, as on your sign and stationery. Google's guidelines forbid adding taglines, service descriptions, locations or phone numbers to it.
• Address: a precise physical address, with suite numbers on line 2. P.O. boxes and virtual offices aren't eligible.
• Service-area businesses (plumbers, cleaners, mobile services): remove the address if customers don't come to you, and list up to 20 service areas. Google's tip is to keep the whole area within about 2 hours' drive of your base (Manage your service areas).
• Phone: a local number under the business's direct control, not a call centre, where possible.
• On your website, put the same details in the footer, make the phone a tap-to-call link, show the address with a map link, and add LocalBusiness structured data with a sameAs link to the profile.

4. Set hours, including special hours

• Set regular, customer-facing hours. Google says businesses with varied hours or that operate only by appointment shouldn't list hours (guidelines).
• Add special hours for holidays and events so your regular hours stay unchanged. Google suggests confirming holiday hours even when they match your usual ones (How to set special hours).
• Use more hours for things with their own times, such as delivery or senior hours.
• Closed for 7 days or more, or for an unknown time? Mark the business temporarily closed instead. Seasonal businesses do the same in the off-season.
• Keep the hours on your website and in your opening-hours schema identical to the profile.

5. Link your website and write the description

• Enter the full website address, including https:// (Edit your Business Profile). Some categories can also add order, reservation or booking links.
• Make sure the link works and loads quickly on a phone, since it's where profile visitors go next. Google's guidelines rule out URLs that redirect or refer people to landing pages other than the business's own.
• Write the “From the business” description: up to 750 characters, no URLs or HTML. Say what you do, for whom and where.

6. Add real photos

• Upload a logo and a cover photo, then photos of your premises, team and work (Manage your Business Profile photos).
• Google's specs: JPG or PNG, 10 KB to 5 MB, recommended 720 × 720 pixels, minimum 250 × 250.
• Use your own photos, not stock. Add new ones when something changes: a renovation, new team, seasonal work.

7. List services and products

• Add services from Google's suggestions for your category, or create custom ones, with a description and price where you can (Manage your services). Keep prices and phone numbers out of service names.
• Food and drink businesses can keep menu items and prices current in the menu editor.
• Showing in-store products is a limited feature for eligible retailers, connected through a point-of-sale system.

8. Post updates, offers and events

• Posts come in three types: updates, offers (with dates and a “View offer” button) and events (with start and end dates) (Create & manage posts).
• “Posts older than 6 months are archived unless a date range is set,” so post regularly if you want something current showing.
• A post can sit as Pending or be marked Not approved, and then doesn't show on Search or Maps; check its status after posting.

9. Ask for reviews and reply to them

• Ask every customer, not just happy ones, with your profile's review link or QR code (Tips to get more reviews).
• Never offer discounts, gifts or payment for reviews, and don't “selectively solicit positive reviews” or have staff pressure people on the spot; Google removes such reviews (Prohibited & restricted content). Reviews from employees or anyone with a conflict of interest aren't allowed either.
• Reply promptly, briefly and personally: name the reviewer, respond to what they said, don't make it promotional, and never share a customer's private information.
• Replies are public, are checked against Google's policies (usually within 10 minutes, sometimes up to 30 days) and the reviewer is notified (Manage customer reviews). Flag reviews that break the policies rather than arguing with them.

10. Check whether Q&A applies to you

Google's help pages say the Q&A section is available only for select categories and regions, and that its appearance and functionality may change (Edit your Business Profile). Google discontinued the Q&A API, used by third-party tools, on 3 November 2025 while “updating the Q&A functionality and user experience” (Google for Developers).

If your profile shows a Q&A section, answer the questions there. Either way, put the answers customers keep asking for (parking, payment, areas served, booking) in your description, services and website, where you control them.

11. Check the profile once a month

• Look up your business on Google Maps as a customer would and read every field.
• Confirm hours, phone, address and website still match your site, and add special hours for the month's holidays.
• Reply to new reviews, add a photo or post, and update services or prices that changed.
• Edits are reviewed before they go live, so check back a few days after any change.

Sources

• Google: Tips to improve your local ranking on Google (relevance, distance, prominence)
• Google: Guidelines for representing your business on Google
• Google: Verify your business on Google
• Google: Manage your business category
• Google: How to set special hours
• Google: Manage customer reviews
• Google Maps: Prohibited & restricted content (fake and incentivised reviews)
• Google for Developers: Q&A API change log

Common questions

Check the website side too. Your profile sends people to your site, and the website checker shows whether your address, tap-to-call phone, hours schema and contact details are there when they arrive. If you'd like the profile set up and kept current for you, that's part of our local SEO and Google Business Profile work.