How to Create a Google Business Profile, Step by Step

When someone searches for your trade and their town, the map and the business listings usually show before any website. Those listings come from Google Business Profiles. Creating yours is free, and Google says so on its own help page. Here is how to do it, verify it, and set it up correctly if you work at your customers' homes.

Before you start

A Google Account. It can use a Gmail address or any email you prefer, such as your business address (https://support.google.com/business/answer/7107242). Use an account you will keep; it becomes the owner of the profile.
Your real business name, exactly as it appears on your van, your invoices and your website.
Your phone number, website, hours and services, ready to type in.

Step 1: add your business

Go to business.google.com/add, select Add your business to Google, and follow the on-screen steps to add your details. Google's help page: https://support.google.com/business/answer/2911778.

Search Google Maps first for your name and town: if a profile for your business already exists but is not verified, Google lets you claim it from Maps (Claim this business, then Manage now) instead of creating a second one. If someone else verified it, the same help page explains how to request ownership.

Step 2: verify it

You cannot edit the profile or reply to customers until it is verified. Google decides which methods you get, based on your business type, public information, region and hours, and they cannot be changed; sometimes it asks for more than one. The options include phone or text (the code cannot reach an automated phone menu), email, a live video call, a video recording and, for some businesses, a postcard with a code (https://support.google.com/business/answer/7107242). If you are offered video, Google recommends it.

Step 3: if you work at customers' homes, set a service area

Plumbers, cleaners, painters and most trades are what Google calls service-area businesses: they go to the customer. Then:

Remove your address from the profile if you do not serve customers there, as Google asks, and list the areas you serve instead. A service-area business has one profile for its whole area.
Up to 20 service areas, by city or ZIP code; a radius cannot be set.
Within reach: Google says the area should not be more than about 2 hours of driving from where your business is based (https://support.google.com/business/answer/9157481).

Step 4: fill it in properly

The name is your real name, nothing added. Google's guidelines say the name must match the one you use on your storefront, website and stationery, with no taglines, phone numbers or other extra words (https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177). "Smith Plumbing" is right; "Smith Plumbing 24/7 Emergency Plumber Dallas" risks a suspension.
Categories: the one that describes your main trade first, then the others you really do.
Hours, including when you answer emergency calls if you do.
Photos of your own jobs, your van and your team.
Your website, with the same name, address and phone as the profile, so Google sees one business, not two.

Step 5: keep it alive

A profile that is set up once and left alone slowly falls behind the ones that post work, add photos and answer reviews. Two guides for that: a Google review QR code, and how to get more reviews, and how to respond to Google reviews.

If you would rather hand it over, our Local presence plan keeps the profile current every week (posts, photos, hours and services checked against your site), replies to every review, sends a review request after each job and reports each month what happened. You send a manager invitation and stay the owner. It is USD 199 a month, including the website we build and run for you.

Ask us about your profile.

Written with AI help. Sources: Google's help pages linked above, checked 2026-11-02.