Google Business Profile checklist for small businesses

The short answer

A Google Business Profile is the listing that puts your business on Google Maps and in the local results above the regular search results. Getting it right is mostly about accuracy and consistency: the real name of the business, the right category, a real address or service area, current hours and a steady flow of genuine reviews. Google is explicit that there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking, so the work below is what moves it.

How Google decides who shows up in the map results

Google names three factors: relevance (how well your profile matches the search), distance (how far you are from the person searching, or from the place in their query) and prominence (how well known the business is, including links to its website and the number of reviews) (Google Business Profile Help).

You cannot change distance. Relevance and prominence are where your profile, your website and your reviews do the work, and every item below feeds one of the two.

1. Use the business name exactly as it appears in real life

The name should match your signage, website and invoices. Google’s guidelines do not allow taglines, service descriptions, location details or phone numbers in the name, so “Smith Plumbing” is correct and “Smith Plumbing – 24/7 Emergency Plumber Austin” is not (Google’s guidelines for representing your business).

A keyword-stuffed name breaks the guidelines, and anyone can suggest an edit to a listing on Google Maps, competitors included. It is not worth the risk to a profile you depend on for calls.

2. Show your address, or set a service area

If customers come to you, use the full street address of a location that is staffed during your opening hours and has permanent signage. If you travel to customers and do not receive them at your premises, hide the address and set a service area instead. Google’s guidelines say a service area should generally not reach beyond about two hours’ driving time from where the business is based.

Virtual offices and P.O. boxes are not eligible. A co-working space only qualifies if it has your signage, your staff on site and receives customers during your posted hours.

3. Pick the most specific primary category

Categories tell Google what the business is, so they feed directly into relevance. Choose the most specific one that completes the sentence “This business is a…”, and add only as many extra categories as describe your core business. A category is what you are, not a list of what you do: services and products have their own sections in the profile.

4. Keep hours and special hours current

List the hours customers can actually reach you, and add special hours for holidays before they happen. Wrong hours cost more than a missed search: someone who drives to a closed door rarely comes back. Seasonal businesses should mark the profile as temporarily closed during the off-season rather than leave normal hours showing.

5. Use a local phone number and link to the right page

Google asks for a number under your direct control that reaches the specific location, ideally a local number rather than a central call centre. The website link should go to a site you control, not to a social media page. A single-location business can link to its home page; a business with several locations should link each profile to that location’s own page.

Add tracking parameters to the website link, for example ?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=business_profile, so visits from the profile show up separately in Google Analytics instead of disappearing into organic search.

6. Verify the profile

Verification confirms that you are allowed to manage the business, and Google says verified businesses are more likely to show up in results. The profile shows which verification methods are available for your business; follow the one it offers, and keep the details you entered unchanged until verification is complete.

7. Fill in services, products, attributes and the description

The description should say what you do, for whom and where, in plain language and without a list of keywords. Add the services you offer, products if you sell them, and attributes such as accessibility, parking or payment options. Each of these gives Google more to match against a search, which is what relevance means in practice.

8. Add real photos, and keep adding them

Photos of the storefront, the team, the work and the interior help people recognise the place and judge the quality of what you do. Use your own photos rather than stock images, and add new ones as the business changes. A customer who can see the entrance before arriving is one less phone call asking for directions.

9. Ask every customer for a review, and reply to every review

Reviews feed prominence, and they are what people read before they call. The rules matter here:

• Ask everyone, not just happy customers. Google’s policy forbids selectively asking satisfied customers for reviews or discouraging negative ones (Google’s review policy).
• No incentives. Google does not allow discounts, gifts or payment in exchange for reviews. In the U.S., the FTC’s rule on fake reviews, announced in August 2024, also bans incentives that depend on a review being positive or negative (FTC).
• No reviews from staff or family. Google treats them as a conflict of interest and may remove them.
• Reply to every review, especially the bad ones. A calm, specific reply to a complaint shows the next reader how you handle problems.

The simplest system is a short link to your review form, sent by text or email right after the job is done, to every customer. Make it a step in the job, not something you remember once a month.

10. Make your website agree with the profile

The name, address and phone number on your website should match the profile exactly, ideally in the footer and on the contact page. If you have a page per location, give each one its address, hours and a map, and add LocalBusiness structured data so search engines can read those details reliably. A profile and a website that disagree leave Google guessing which one is right.

Mistakes that get profiles suspended or ignored

• Keywords, cities or slogans added to the business name.
• A virtual office, P.O. box or home address for a business that does not receive customers there.
• Two profiles for the same location, often created by accident when someone else in the company also signs up.
• Paid, incentivised or staff-written reviews.
• A website link or phone number that redirects somewhere else, such as a social media page.

The checklist

• Name matches signage and website, with nothing added.
• Address shown with signage, or hidden with a service area of reasonable size.
• Most specific primary category, few extras.
• Regular hours correct, special hours added before holidays.
• Local phone number; website link with tracking parameters.
• Profile verified.
• Services, products, attributes and description filled in.
• Your own photos added, and refreshed over time.
• A review request sent after every job, and every review answered.
• Name, address and phone number identical on the website.

The profile handles the map results; the website handles everything else. If you are weighing the two, our guide to how long SEO takes explains what to expect from the website side.

Frequently asked questions