Quick Answer: Adding a Google Business Profile is free. Go to business.google.com/add, enter your details and verify that you run the business. Then fill in everything: the right category, your services, hours, a description and real photos. The form takes an afternoon, but verifying can take a couple of weeks if Google sends a postcard. The category is the setting most worth slowing down for.
Your Google Business Profile is the panel that appears when someone searches for your business, and it’s what gets you onto Google Maps.
Plenty of owners set one up in a hurry and never look at it again. Others have one they don’t even know about, set up years ago by somebody else.
Here’s how to do it properly, in the order I’d do it. I checked these steps against Google’s help pages in November 2026, but its screens do change.
Do you qualify for a Google Business Profile?
You do if customers can visit you, or you travel to them. That covers most local businesses, from a salon or a shop to a mobile mechanic or a dog walker.
You only get one profile per business. Before you add anything, search Google Maps for your business name in case a listing already exists. If it does, claim it rather than making a second one. If someone else controls it, such as an old web designer, request access.
Step 1: How do I add my business?
Go to business.google.com/add and follow Google’s steps. It asks for your name, category, location and contact details, and then how you’d like to verify.
Use a Google account you’ll still have in five years. I’d use one tied to your business email rather than an old personal one or your web designer’s.
Step 2: How do I verify my profile?
Verifying proves you’re allowed to manage the business, and it’s what lets you show on Search and Maps. Google’s options include a phone or text code, email, a live video call, a recorded video or a postcard.
You can only pick from what Google offers, and some businesses have to do more than one.
- Video: live calls need you at the business, with things to show such as signage, branded equipment or your keys. They only run during your opening hours.
- Postcard: it usually arrives within 14 days and the code expires after 30. Don’t edit your name, address or category while you wait.
- Phone: automated phone menus can’t take the code, so use a line a person answers.
- Search Console: if your website is already verified in Google Search Console, you may be able to verify instantly.
- Timing: once you’ve finished, Google says its review takes up to five working days, and occasionally longer.
One more thing. Google says it will never ask you for your verification code, so anyone who rings asking for it isn’t from Google.
Step 3: What should my business name be?
Your real name, as it appears on your signage and branding. That’s it.
Google’s guidelines rule out adding taglines, towns, phone numbers or a list of what you do. So “Smith Plumbing” is fine and “Smith Plumbing Emergency Boiler Repairs Burnley” isn’t, even if you’ve seen competitors get away with it.
Step 4: Which category should I choose?
This is the setting I’d spend the most time on, because Google says categories affect your local ranking.
You get one main category and up to nine others. Google’s advice is to use as few as possible and to choose the most specific ones that fit. Its test is simple: the category should finish the sentence “This business is a…”, rather than “This business has a…”.
So a salon that does nails is probably a “Nail salon” or a “Beauty salon”, whichever is really the main thing it does. Don’t use categories to squeeze in extra searches, and don’t just copy nearby businesses.
Step 5: Should I show my address?
If customers come to you, yes. If you go to them, no.
Google’s own example is a plumber who works from home: they should remove the address and list service areas instead. You can list up to 20 service areas by town or postcode, within about two hours’ drive of your base. You can’t set a radius.
Don’t use a virtual office or a PO box to get a smarter address. Google says neither is eligible.
Step 6: What goes in the rest of the profile?
Google says complete, accurate information makes you more likely to show up, so fill in the lot.
- Services: add each thing you do, picking from Google’s suggestions or adding your own. A short description helps people see what they’d be paying for. Your category decides whether services are available to you, and custom service names can’t include prices or phone numbers.
- Hours: set your normal hours and add special hours for bank holidays. If you work by appointment only, Google says not to list hours.
- Description: you get 750 characters. Say what you do, who for and where, without links, prices or sales talk.
- Phone: use a local number you control. Premium-rate numbers aren’t allowed.
- Website: link straight to your own site, not a page that redirects somewhere else.
Step 7: What photos should I add?
Real ones of your work, your premises, your van or your team. Google’s guidance is sharp, well-lit pictures without heavy filters, and it recommends 720 x 720 pixels, with a minimum of 250 x 250. Photos only appear after you’ve verified, and can take a day or two to show.
Take them on your phone as you go. A few honest photos of real jobs will tell a customer more than a stock picture of a smiling plumber.
Do I need to keep posting on it?
You can publish updates, offers and events on your profile, and they can be scheduled. Google’s page says posts can help customers decide to visit, but not that they help your ranking.
I’d treat them as a nice extra. Keeping your hours and services right, and getting a steady flow of reviews, matters more. Here’s how to get more Google reviews.
Does linking to my Google Business Profile help my rankings?
I wouldn’t count on it. I’ve found nothing from Google saying that links to your profile help you rank.
What Google does say is that how many websites link to your business counts towards prominence, and that’s about your business generally. So link to your profile from your site because it’s useful, as people can read your reviews and get directions. Just don’t expect a boost from it.
What should I do once it’s set up?
Search for your business on your phone and see what a customer sees. Then ask your next few customers for a review, and check your details whenever something changes.
If you still can’t find yourself, I’ve written up why a business doesn’t show on Google Maps.
Rather not do it yourself?
Setting this up properly is part of what Digimill does. I work with local businesses across Lancashire and Yorkshire, and your Google listing gets set up and connected to a website built for your business.
Tell me about your business and I’ll build you a free preview of what your site could look like, with nothing to pay unless you go ahead.