A Google Business Profile is the free listing that puts your business in the map results and in the panel that appears beside search results when someone looks you up. For a business that serves customers in a particular area, it is usually the highest-return hour you will spend on marketing, and it costs nothing.
It is also the listing most small businesses set up once, half-complete, and never touch again.
One naming note, because it causes confusion: this used to be called Google My Business. Google retired that name, and the standalone app with it. You now manage the profile directly from Google Search and Google Maps while signed in to the Google account that owns it.
Why it matters more than a website for local search
When someone searches for a service near them, the map pack usually sits above the ordinary results. Businesses in that pack get the clicks and the calls, and a business with no profile is not eligible for it at all.
The profile also answers the questions that decide whether someone contacts you: are you open now, where exactly are you, what is the number, do other people rate you. Most of that gets answered before anyone visits your site.
For a business without a website, the profile effectively is the website. For a business with one, it is the front door.
Setting it up
Search for your business name on Google while signed in to the Google account you want to own the listing. If a listing already exists, which is common because Google generates them from other sources, claim it rather than creating a duplicate. If nothing exists, create one from Google Maps or from the business section of Google.
Use the account that should own this long term. A profile created on a former employee’s personal account becomes a problem the day they leave, and recovering it is slow.
Enter the business name exactly as you trade, with no keywords stuffed into it. Adding your service to the name breaks Google’s rules and risks suspension. Pick the most specific primary category that fits, then add secondary categories for the other things you genuinely do, because the primary category carries the most weight in what you rank for.
You will need to verify, usually by video, phone, email or post depending on the business type. Keep the verification step honest, since a failed or reversed verification is painful to unwind.
Service area or address
This trips people up. If customers come to you, publish the address. If you travel to customers, set a service area and hide the address, which is the correct setting for a mobile business run from home.
Do not invent an address you do not operate from. Google actively removes listings for this, and it is the single most common reason a small business loses a profile it depended on.
Fill in everything, then keep it current
A complete profile outperforms a sparse one, and completeness is mostly free effort.
Hours matter more than anything else on the listing, because a wasted trip produces a bad review faster than poor service does. Set your public holiday hours in advance, since a business marked open on a day it is closed is actively costing itself goodwill.
Add real photographs rather than stock: the premises, the team, the work, the products. A profile with real images gets more engagement, and stock photography is obvious to a local customer. Add your services or products with short descriptions and prices where you can. List the practical attributes people filter on, such as parking, wheelchair access, card payments or delivery.
Then keep it alive. Post occasionally about something genuinely useful, and update the profile whenever anything changes. An out-of-date profile is worse than a sparse one because it actively misleads.
Reviews are the part that actually moves the needle
Reviews influence both whether you appear and whether anyone chooses you, and most small businesses simply never ask.
Ask at the moment the customer is happiest, which is usually right after the job is done, and make it easy by sending the direct review link rather than instructions. Never buy reviews or write them yourself. It is against Google’s policies, it is a misleading representation, and locals can spot a fake review far more easily than people assume.
Reply to all of them, including the bad ones, and reply calmly. The reply is not really for the reviewer, it is for everyone reading afterwards who is deciding whether to risk you. A measured response to an unfair review does more good than ten five-star ratings.
Do not argue about facts in public or disclose anything about the customer’s dealings with you while defending yourself. Take the detail to a private channel.
Use the questions section before customers do
Anyone can ask a question on your profile, and anyone can answer, which means a competitor or a confused member of the public can answer for you.
Get ahead of it. Post the questions you are genuinely asked most often and answer them yourself: parking, payment methods, whether you deliver, whether an appointment is needed. Then check periodically for new questions, because an unanswered one sits there looking like indifference.
Watch what it tells you
The profile reports how people found you, what they did next, and which search terms brought them in.
The useful numbers are calls, direction requests and website clicks rather than raw views. The search terms are the most valuable part, because they show the words real customers use, which is usually not the language you would have chosen for yourself. Feed that back into your website and your content.
Our roundup of Google tools for businesses covers the rest of the free set, most of which small businesses never switch on.
Frequently asked questions
Is Google My Business still a thing?
The name was retired. It is now the Google Business Profile, and you manage it directly through Google Search and Google Maps rather than through a separate app.
Does it cost anything?
No. Creating, verifying and managing the profile is free, and you do not need to advertise with Google to appear in the map results.
I work from home, do I have to show my address?
No. Set a service area and hide the address. That is the correct configuration for a business that travels to customers.
How do I get more reviews?
Ask right after the work is done and send the direct review link. Never buy reviews or write your own, and reply to every review, particularly the negative ones.
Someone answered a question on my profile incorrectly. Can I fix it?
Anyone can answer, so post the common questions yourself with your own answers and check regularly for new ones rather than leaving them unattended.
Further reading
Originally published in July 2023. Updated September 2026 to reflect how the profile is managed now that the separate app has been retired. Google changes its interface regularly, so the exact menus may differ from what you see.
