How to Set Up and Verify Your Google Business Profile

Your Google Business Profile is the listing that shows your name, phone number, hours, photos and reviews when someone looks you up on Google Search or Google Maps. It's free, and Google's local ranking tips put verifying it first on the list.

This guide walks through creating the profile, getting it verified, and filling it in afterward. Each step follows the Google help page linked in it, as those pages read in October 2026. Google moves buttons around often, so a screen may look different, but the order of the work stays the same.

1. 01

   Check whether a profile already exists

   Search Google Maps for your business name and town before you create anything. A listing may already exist, sometimes claimed years ago by a former owner, an employee or a marketing company. Google's profile guidelines say there should be only one profile per business, so making a second one causes more trouble than it solves.

   If a listing exists and nobody at the business can get into it, use Google's request ownership process. Google emails the current owner, who has 3 days to respond. If they don't, you may be offered the chance to claim the profile yourself, although Google notes that option isn't always available.

2. 02

   Create the profile

   Sign in to the Google Account you chose and start from Google's Business Profile sign-up page. Google asks for these details, in this order:

   • Business name. Type it the way it appears in the real world. Google's guidelines don't allow extra words such as a town, a service or a slogan in the name, and say breaking that rule can get a profile suspended.
   • Category. Pick the most specific one that finishes the sentence "This business is a...". You can add more later.
   • Whether customers can visit you. Choose yes only if customers come to a location that is staffed during your hours. A roofer or a house cleaner who works at the customer's home chooses no.
   • Address or map pin. Enter the real address you work from. Google does not accept PO boxes or virtual offices, meaning a rented mailing address where the business doesn't actually operate.
   • Service area. List the towns or ZIP codes you serve, if you travel to customers.
   • Phone number and website. Google's guidelines ask for a local number the business answers, rather than a central call center line, whenever possible.

   Click Finish, and Google takes you to verification.

3. 03

   Verify the profile

   Verification is how Google confirms you really run the business. Google picks the methods you're offered based on your type of business, the public information about it, your region and your hours, and you can't change them. You may see one or more of these:

   • Phone call or text message, with a code to enter.
   • Email, with instructions to follow.
   • Video recording, made on your phone through the profile. The rules are in the next section.
   • Live video call with a Google support representative, during their business hours.
   • Postcard by mail to your business address, usually within 14 days. The code on it expires after 30 days.
   • Instant verification, sometimes offered when your website is already verified in Google Search Console.

   If you're waiting on a postcard, don't change the business name, address or category in the meantime. Google's verification page warns that the code it mailed won't work after those edits.

   If Google asks for a video

   Google's video verification rules ask for one unedited recording of at least 30 seconds, recorded and uploaded from your phone through the Business Profile. A video recorded earlier can't be uploaded later. Plan your route before you press record, then show three things in one take:

   • Where you are: street signs, the building number, neighboring businesses or a landmark near your address.
   • That the business exists: for a shop or office, your sign with the business name on a permanent fixture. For a business that works at customers' locations, the tools, equipment or products you use for the job.
   • That you run it: something only staff can get to, such as the stockroom, the register or the point-of-sale screen. A service business can record you doing the work or show business documents.

   Keep other people's faces out of the shot, along with bank, tax and ID numbers. Google's review of the video can take up to 5 business days, and if it's turned down you can record a new one.

4. 04

   Fill in everything that applies

   Verification gets the profile live. What customers see next depends on what you add. Open the profile, choose Edit profile, and work through each section:

   • Hours, plus special hours for holidays, set before each holiday arrives.
   • Description, up to 750 characters on what you do, where and for whom. Google's editing guide asks you to leave out links and HTML, and not to make the description about prices or sales.
   • Services, starting with the ones Google suggests for your category, then your own, written the way a customer would ask for them.
   • More categories, only for departments or services that are a real part of the business. Google's category help asks you not to add a category for every product or service.
   • Photos. Google's photo tips ask for JPG or PNG files between 10 KB and 5 MB, at least 250 pixels on each side and ideally 720, in focus and well lit, without heavy filters or AI edits. Show your actual jobs, vehicles, shop and team.
   • Attributes, such as wheelchair access or the payment types you take, where they apply.

   Google's description help says most changes show within about 10 minutes, though some take up to 30 days. Changing a category can also send you back through verification.

5. 05

   Hide your address if customers don't come to you

   If you work at customers' homes or job sites and never receive them at your own address, Google's service-area page says to remove the address from the profile and list only the areas you cover. You can list up to 20 areas, and Google asks that the whole territory stay within about 2 hours' drive of your base. Approved service-area changes can take up to 48 hours to appear.

6. 06

   Add a second owner and keep control

   A profile can have several owners but only one primary owner. Add a partner or a trusted manager as a second owner, under Business Profile settings and then People and access, so the business isn't locked out if one person leaves or loses a password. Anyone you hire to work on the profile should get manager access under their own email, never your password. Google's owners and managers page explains what each role can do, and notes that a new owner or manager has to wait 7 days before using a few settings, such as transferring ownership.

When to get help

Most owners can do every step here in an afternoon. Get help when verification keeps failing, when an old profile is stuck with someone who won't answer, or when you manage several locations. Our local SEO service includes setting up and cleaning up Business Profiles, always with the business as the owner. Your profile sends people to your website too, so check how quickly that loads on a phone with our free website speed test.

Once the profile is verified, the next job is showing up when people nearby search. Our guide on how to show up on Google Maps covers that.