What Is a Google Business Profile? A Guide to Local Business Visibility
A Google Business Profile, formerly Google My Business, is the free listing that shows a business on Google Search and Google Maps, including the local results that appear for nearby searches. It holds the business’s name, location or service area, phone number, hours, categories, photos, posts, and reviews. For local visibility it is the central record. Google’s local ranking help page states: “Businesses with complete and accurate info are more likely to show up in local search results.”
How Google Ranks Local Results
The same help page names three main factors for local results and describes them under the headings Relevance, Distance, and Prominence:
- Relevance is how well the profile matches the search, which complete and detailed business information helps Google judge.
- Distance is how far the business is from the person searching; when the searcher shares no location, Google uses what it knows about where they are.
- Prominence reflects how well known the business is, which Google bases partly on how many websites link to the business and how many reviews it has.
Google adds that more reviews and positive ratings can help a business’s local ranking.
Setting Up and Verifying a Profile
Verification confirms to Google that you are authorized to represent the business; Google’s ranking page notes that a verified business is “more likely to show up in search results.” The verification guide sets the rule for methods: “Verification methods are automatically determined by Google and can’t be changed.” Some businesses need more than one.
| Method | How it works | What Google says about timing |
|---|---|---|
| Phone or SMS | A code arrives by call or text | Entered when received |
| A link or code arrives by email | Follow the steps in the email | |
| Postcard | A code arrives by mail at the business address | "Most codes arrive within 14 days"; codes expire after 30 days |
| Video recording | A recorded video of the location and signage | Reviewed by Google |
| Live video call | A call with Google during business hours | Not available for all businesses |
Google recommends video when a business is eligible for it. After the steps are complete, “verification reviews take up to 5 business days,” and occasionally longer. Plan a launch or rebrand with that time in hand.
Completing the Profile
Google’s Business Profile guidelines and its ranking page set out what to fill in and how:
- Name. Use the real-world name, as on signage and the website, with no added keywords.
- Location or service area. “There should only be one profile per business.” A business that serves customers at their locations normally keeps one profile for its central office with a defined service area. A service business with several locations, each with its own staff and its own service area, may have one profile per location. The guidelines also set out exceptions for the same address: “Individual practitioners and departments within businesses, universities, hospitals, and government buildings may have separate pages,” under the conditions they describe.
- Category. Choose the most specific primary category, and add secondary categories for other real services.
- Hours, including special hours for holidays.
- Products and services, which describe the offer in more detail than a category can.
- Description. A plain account of what the business does and for whom.
- Photos and videos. Google notes that they let a business “show customers what you offer and tell the story of your business.”
- Reviews. Google’s advice is to respond, since a reply “shows that you value their feedback.”
Within one metro, neighborhoods and neighboring cities can behave like separate local markets. Rank Nashville, an SEO company in Nashville, describes working with businesses whether they are “based in Midtown, Franklin, or downtown”; Midtown and downtown are parts of Nashville, while Franklin is a separate city, the seat of Williamson County. That is one agency’s account of where its clients are, not evidence about how Google ranks them. The practical point stands on Google’s own guidelines: the category should describe what the business does, and the description and service area should describe the part of the metro it serves.
Posts
Google’s guide to posts lists three types:
- Updates share information and can include a photo, video, and an action button.
- Offers require a title, dates, and time, and include a “View Offer” button automatically.
- Events require a title, start and end dates, and times.
Posts appear in the Updates or Overview tabs on mobile and in the “From the owner” section on a computer. The posts guide sets no posting frequency; what a post offers customers is current information about the business.
Measuring Performance
The profile’s performance view reports how customers found the business and the actions they took on the profile. Read it as week-over-week and month-over-month trends rather than day to day, and compare it with calls and visits recorded by the business itself.
Common Problems
- Guideline violations, such as a virtual office that is not staffed or keywords added to the business name, which put the profile at risk of suspension.
- Duplicate profiles for the same location, which conflict with the one-profile rule.
- Outdated details after a move, a new phone number, or changed hours.
- Unanswered reviews.
Questions About Google Business Profile
Do I need a website to have a profile?
No. A profile can be created and verified without one; linking a website gives customers more information.
Can a business have more than one profile for the same location?
Not as a rule. Google’s guidelines call for one profile per business, with set exceptions such as individual practitioners and departments in larger organizations; duplicates outside those exceptions can cause problems with how the business appears on Maps and Search.