To set up a Google Business Profile, sign in with a Google account, go to Google’s create-a-profile page, enter your business name and category, then say whether customers visit you or you travel to them. Add your service areas, phone number and website, then verify the profile. It stays invisible until verification is finished, so that step matters most. After that, photos, posts and reviews are what make it useful.
Below, we explain each step for UK small businesses, including what to do if you work from home and don’t want your address on Google Maps.
TL;DR
- Setting up a profile is free. You need a Google account, your business name, a category, and either an address or a service area.
- If customers don’t come to you (plumbers, cleaners, mobile hairdressers), Google says you must hide your address and show a service area instead.
- Your profile only appears on Google once it’s verified. Google picks the verification method, and reviews can take up to five working days.
- Pick the most specific primary category you can, and only a few extra ones.
- Keep it active with real photos, occasional posts and replies to every review. Never offer anything in return for a review.
Table of Contents
- Before you start
- How to set up a Google Business Profile, step by step
- Working from home? Hiding your address
- Verifying your profile
- Choosing the right categories
- Photos, posts and reviews
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Our view: a profile and a website work together
- Getting started
- FAQ
- Sources
Before you start
Have these ready before you open the sign-up page:
- A Google account you’ll keep. Google suggests an email address on your own domain for a new account. Avoid a staff member’s personal Gmail.
- Your business name exactly as it appears on your signs, van or invoices.
- Your address, or the towns and postcodes you cover.
- A phone number that rings at your business, plus your website address and opening hours.
- A handful of good photos: your work, your premises or van, and you.
Search Google for your business name first. If a profile already exists, request ownership rather than creating a duplicate.
How to set up a Google Business Profile, step by step
Google’s own sign-up help page sets out the process. In plain terms, it goes like this.
- Sign in to your Google account and go to the Business Profile create page.
- Enter your business name. If Google shows a matching business that someone has already verified, request ownership instead.
- Choose your business category from Google’s list. More on this below.
- Say whether customers can visit you. If you have a staffed shop, salon, office or workshop, enter the address. If not, answer no.
- Set your service area. You can add up to 20 areas by town, postcode or region. Google advises staying within about two hours’ drive of your base.
- Add a phone number and website.
- Click Finish and choose to verify now or later.
Once it’s verified, you can add hours, a description, services and photos by searching your business name on Google or Maps while signed in.
What to put in your description
Write it like you’d explain your business to someone at a networking breakfast. Say what you do, who for and where. For example: “Family-run plumbing and heating firm covering Kettering, Corby and Wellingborough. Boiler servicing, repairs and bathroom installs, with no call-out charge.” Clear and specific beats clever every time.
Working from home? Hiding your address
This is one of the questions we get asked most. Plenty of sole traders run things from home: a Rushden window cleaner, a mobile dog groomer, an electrician working out of a van. You want to appear on Google Maps, but you don’t want your front door on it.
Good news: Google agrees. Its help page says that if your business doesn’t have a shopfront where you receive customers, you must hide your business address. You set yourself up as a service-area business and your profile shows the area you cover instead.
A few rules from Google’s guidelines for representing your business are worth knowing:
- A PO box or a mailbox at a remote location isn’t acceptable as an address.
- A virtual office you don’t actually work from isn’t eligible either, unless it’s staffed during business hours.
- Hybrid businesses (a garage that also does roadside call-outs, say) can show their address and a service area, as long as the premises are staffed and open to customers during the hours shown.
- You should have only one profile for the area you serve. Google may suspend accounts with several profiles for the same business.
If you already have a verified profile showing your home address, you can switch it off. In your profile, choose Edit profile, then Location, and turn off “Show business address to customers”.
Verifying your profile
Verification is how Google checks you’re a real business at the place, or in the area, you say. Until it’s done, nobody sees your profile. Google is blunt about it: customers can only find your profile after you complete verification.
The same page lists the methods you might be offered:
| Method | What happens | Things to know |
|---|---|---|
| Phone or text | Google sends a code to your business number | Use a number you can answer straight away |
| A code goes to your email address | Check your spam folder | |
| Video recording | You record a short video following Google’s on-screen prompts | Google recommends it where it’s offered |
| Live video call | You show your premises to a Google staff member on a call | Only available during your opening hours |
| Postcard | A code arrives by post | Most arrive within 14 days and the code expires after 30 days |
You don’t get to choose. Google states that verification methods are automatically determined and can’t be changed. After you submit, its review can take up to five working days, occasionally longer.
Tips for a smooth video verification
If you’re asked for a video, plan it before you press record. For a service-area business, a sensible clip shows your van or tools, something with your business name on it (an invoice, a sign, a branded uniform) and you using your equipment. Follow Google’s prompts in one continuous take. If it’s rejected, read the reason before trying again.
Choosing the right categories
Your primary category tells Google what kind of business you are, so it has a big say in which searches you show up for. Google’s category help page gives three clear rules:
- Pick the category that best describes your business, and pick the specific one over the broad one (its example is “nail salon” rather than “salon”).
- You can’t invent your own category. If nothing specific fits, use a general one.
- Add extra categories for genuine departments or services, but use only a few. Don’t add one for every product you sell.
Here’s how that plays out for some local examples:
| Business | Sensible primary category | Possible extra categories |
|---|---|---|
| Kettering plumber who also fits boilers | Plumber | Heating contractor |
| Northampton salon specialising in colour | Hair salon | Beauty salon (only if you really offer treatments) |
| Mobile car valeter in Corby | Car detailing service | Car wash (only if it fits) |
Category names vary, so type a few words and see what Google suggests. It also helps to look at how similar local businesses describe themselves on Google Maps.
Photos, posts and reviews
Setting up the profile gets you on the map. Keeping it active is what helps it get chosen. Google’s guide to improving your local ranking says results are based on relevance, distance and prominence, and that businesses with complete and accurate information are more likely to appear. It also says there’s no way to pay for a better local ranking. You earn it.
Photos
Add your logo, a cover photo and real pictures of your work. Sharp, well-lit phone photos are fine. A Rushden cleaner might add before-and-after shots of driveways; a café, the counter and the people behind it. Skip stock images. Add a few new photos every month rather than fifty on day one and nothing after.
Posts
Posts are short updates that appear on your profile. Google’s posts help page describes three types: updates, offers and events. Each can include a photo and a button, such as Book or Learn more. Posts older than six months are archived unless you set a date range, so a fresh post every week or two keeps the profile looking alive.
Good post ideas: a job you finished this week, a seasonal reminder (“time to book your boiler service before winter”), a new service, or an event. If you write blog posts on your own site, a short summary with a link back works well as a post.
Reviews
Reviews are the part most owners care about, and rightly so. Google’s tips for getting reviews suggest sharing a review link or QR code with customers and replying to reviews to show their feedback matters.
One rule to take seriously: offering anything in return for a review, such as a discount or freebie, is strictly prohibited. The same goes for incentives to change or remove a bad review.
What works in practice is asking at the right moment. Text the link when a customer thanks you, put the QR code on your invoice, and reply to every review, good or bad. A calm reply to a poor review can reassure future customers. Once you have a few, you can show them on your site too; our guide to testimonials on your website explains how.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Stuffing keywords into your name. “Smith Plumbing Kettering Boilers Cheap” breaks Google’s rules. Its guidelines say your name should reflect your real-world name, without taglines, locations or service descriptions added.
- Using your home address when nobody visits. Hide it and use a service area.
- Creating a second profile because you lost access to the first. Recover the original instead.
- Letting hours go out of date. Set special hours for bank holidays and Christmas.
- Linking to a weak website. If the site is slow or broken on a phone, you lose the people who click through.
For more ways to show up in your area, see our 12 local SEO quick wins and why regular website updates help local search.
Our view: a profile and a website work together
A common pattern: a tradesperson sets up a profile, gets a handful of reviews, then leaves it. Six months later the photos are old and the hours are wrong. It still works a bit, but nowhere near as well as it could.
The profile is often the first thing a local customer sees. Your website is where they go to decide. The two should say the same things: the same name, phone number, services and areas. When they match, and both are kept current, you give Google and customers every reason to trust you.
Our honest advice: set up the profile yourself if you have an hour. It’s free and it’s worth it. Then put a reminder in your diary to add a photo and a post every couple of weeks and to reply to reviews. If that reminder keeps getting ignored, that’s when it’s worth handing it to someone else.
— Mark Jones
Getting started
If you’d rather not do this yourself, our Local Visibility service looks after your Google Business Profile, citations and local listings for £59.99 a month plus VAT, with no setup fee and on a monthly rolling basis. Pair it with our Weekly Blog and the two together are £69.99 a month plus VAT.
New to all this? Our 90-day SEO plan for small businesses is a sensible next read. And if you want a second pair of eyes on your site and profile, ask for a free, no-obligation website review. You’ll speak to Mark directly.
FAQ
Is a Google Business Profile free?
Yes. Creating and managing a profile costs nothing. Google also says there’s no way to pay for a better local ranking. Be wary of anyone offering to “guarantee” a top spot on Maps.
Can I have a Google Business Profile without a shop or office?
Yes, if you visit customers. Set up as a service-area business and hide your address. Google says that if you don’t receive customers at your address, you must hide it. Google’s eligibility rules are built around businesses that meet customers in person, either at premises or at the customer’s location.
How long does Google Business Profile verification take?
Google says its review can take up to five working days, and occasionally longer. If you’re sent a postcard, most arrive within 14 days.
Why is my Google Business Profile not showing?
The most common reason is that verification isn’t finished. After that, check that your category, service area and hours are correct, and that the profile hasn’t been suspended for a guideline issue such as a keyword-stuffed name.
Sources
- Sign up for a Business Profile (Google Business Profile Help)
- Verify your business on Google (Google Business Profile Help)
- Guidelines for representing your business on Google (Google Business Profile Help)
- Choose a business category (Google Business Profile Help)
- How to improve your local ranking on Google (Google Business Profile Help)
- Create a post for your Business Profile (Google Business Profile Help)
- Tips to get more Google reviews (Google Business Profile Help)
