How to set up your Google Business Profile

Before you start

• Use a Google account you'll keep for years, ideally with your business email. This account owns the profile.
• Write down your business name, address and phone number exactly as they appear on your sign and your website. Use them the same way everywhere, because Google checks that they match.
• Search Google Maps for your business name and address. If a listing already exists, claim it rather than making a new one.

1. Create or claim your profile

Go to business.google.com and sign in. To claim an existing listing, open it on Google Maps and choose "Own this business?". If someone else already manages it, such as a past web designer, Google lets you request access from them.

Use your real business name, as on your sign. Adding your town or keywords ("Best Plumber Kilkenny") breaks Google's rules and can get the profile suspended.

2. Choose your category and location

Pick the most specific primary category that's true, such as "Hair salon" rather than "Beauty". You can add a few more for things you really do.

If customers come to you, add your address. If you go to them, as a tradesperson or a mobile groomer does, set yourself up as a service-area business: hide your address and list the towns or counties you cover.

3. Verify it

Google has to check the business is real before the profile shows. It chooses the method: often a short video showing your sign, your premises or your van and tools, and sometimes a phone call, an email or a postcard. It can take a few days. Avoid big changes while it's pending.

4. Fill in the details

• Your opening hours, the same as on your website. Add holiday hours before bank holidays and Christmas.
• Your website, and a booking link if customers can book online.
• A short description of what you do and where, in your own words.
• Your services or menu, with prices if you're happy to show them.

5. Add real photos

Add your logo, a cover photo, a few of the outside so people recognise you from the street, a few of the inside, and some of your work. Use your own photos: Google removes stock images. Ask before including anyone who can be recognised.

6. Ask for reviews

In your profile, choose "Ask for reviews" and copy the link. Send it to customers after a job or an appointment. Ask everyone, not just the happy ones, and never offer a discount or gift for a review. Both break Google's rules.

Reply to every review, good or bad, briefly and politely, without mentioning anything personal about the customer.

Keep it up to date

Post now and then: an offer, a new service or a photo of recent work. Every week or two is plenty. When your hours change, change them on your profile and your website on the same day.

Our clients' portals can send the review request for them after each appointment or job, and we help set up the profile as part of every website. Get in touch if you'd like a hand.