Your Google Business Profile is the free listing that puts you on Google Maps and in front of people searching nearby. Here is how to set it up properly, in plain steps, plus the one thing most businesses get wrong.
A Google Business Profile is the panel that shows your business on Google with your hours, photos, reviews, phone number and a map pin. For most local businesses it is the highest-impact free marketing there is, and it takes about half an hour to set up. Work through the steps below in order, and pay close attention to the section on keeping your details consistent, because that is what quietly makes or breaks your local ranking.
Step by step
Nine straightforward steps. Do them in order and you will have a solid profile.
Use a Google account that belongs to the business, not your personal one. If you do not have one, create a free Gmail for the business first. This keeps ownership clean if anything changes later.
Go to google.com/business and follow the prompts. Search for your business first in case a listing already exists that you need to claim rather than create.
Type your real business name and nothing else. Do not add your town or services to it (no “Smith Plumbing Hassocks Emergency”). This is where getting your details consistent begins, more on that below.
If customers come to you, add your address. If you travel to them, choose a service area and list the towns you cover. Service businesses can hide the address and still show the areas they serve.
This is the single most important setting. Pick the category that best matches your main job, for example “Electrician” or “Bakery”. Add a few secondary categories for your other services.
Google needs to confirm you are real, usually by phone, video or a postcard with a code. Do it as soon as you can, because your profile will not show publicly until it is verified.
Opening hours, services, a plain-English description, and your website link. A complete profile is trusted and shown more often than a half-finished one. Set special hours for bank holidays too.
Your logo, a few shots of your actual work, and your premises or van. Real photos beat stock every time and make the listing look active, which customers and Google both like.
Reviews are one of the biggest factors in local ranking. Ask happy customers for a quick review, and reply to every one, good or bad, politely and briefly.
The single biggest mistake local businesses make is letting their NAP, your Name, Address and Phone number, drift out of line across the web. Google cross-checks your details wherever they appear to decide whether it can trust that your business is real and where you say it is. When they do not match, that trust drops, and so can your ranking.
New business? Use the name customers actually know
If you have just registered as a limited company, you do not have to use the full legal name on your profile. Google wants the name people know you by, the one on your van, your signage and your ads, and it should be the same across all of them. That usually means dropping the “Ltd” or “Limited” and using your trading name, for example “Smith Plumbing” rather than “Smith Plumbing Ltd”. Decide on that customer-facing name now, while you are new and nothing is set in stone, then use it everywhere as below.
The fix is simple: decide the exact wording once and use that identical version everywhere. Write it down as your master copy and copy and paste it every single time:
Example Plumbing Ltd
14 Keymer Road, Hassocks, BN6 8AR
01273 000000
Then use that exact version on every one of these:
The details that trip people up are the small ones, so pick one way and stick to it:
It sounds fussy, but getting this right is free, takes ten minutes, and is one of the most reliable local-SEO wins there is.
Quick checklist
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FAQ
A few quick answers as you set yours up.