Your Google Business Profile is the listing that appears beside the search results and in Google Maps: name, opening hours, directions, a call button. For a local business it is the first page a prospect sees of you — often before they click through to your website, and frequently without ever clicking through at all.
The awkward part first: the profile often beats the website
We build websites and we sell websites. This sentence still belongs at the top: for many local businesses, more enquiries come in through the Google profile than through their own website — and the profile is free. If you only have one hour for your visibility this week, spend it on the profile, not on a new design.
The reason is mundane. Someone searching for a roofer near them gets a map with three businesses first. If you are not in it, you do not exist for that search, however good the website is. And if you are in it, people call you straight from the search result, with no detour.
We say this from experience. PixelPlan runs a verified profile for its location in Offenbach am Main, and went through every step of this guide again during our own relaunch in August 2026. We deliberately quote no figures from our own profile here — they would tell you nothing about your trade or your region.
Step 1: create the profile — or claim the one that exists
Google creates listings for many businesses automatically, from map data, directories and user submissions. So search for your company name together with your town first. If a listing already exists, claim it through the “own this business?” prompt rather than creating a second one.
A duplicate listing is the most expensive mistake in this step. Two profiles for the same business split every signal across two pins, compete with each other, and have to be merged laboriously later. Five minutes of searching beforehand saves you weeks of correspondence afterwards.
- Sign in with the Google account that permanently belongs to the business — not an employee’s personal account.
- Search for company name plus town and check whether a listing already exists.
- Claim the existing listing, or create a new profile.
- Choose the primary category (step 3 — genuinely take your time over this).
- Enter an address, or define a service area.
- Add the phone number and the website address.
- Start verification, and then change nothing until it has gone through.
On the first point: put the profile on an account that belongs to the business and whose credentials the owner knows. Otherwise, when the employee leaves, access to your most important listing leaves with them. Add other people afterwards as owners or managers — that is what the role settings are for.
Step 2: verification — postcard, video or phone
Until it is verified, the profile stays limited and is shown less. Which method you are offered is Google’s decision, based on your category, country and details. You cannot pick freely, and the options change from time to time.
- A postcard to the registered address, carrying a code to type in
- A video recording showing the location, the signage, the equipment and you as the authorised person
- A video call in which the same things are checked live
- Phone or email — only for certain categories and situations
- Instant verification, if the domain is already verified in Google Search Console
The practical points where verifications actually fail: the company name has to be on the letterbox, or the card comes back. Do not change the name, the address or the category while verification is running — it resets the process. And do not request the code several times in parallel; each new request invalidates the previous one.
Video verification is worth preparing for, because it is recorded in one take with no edits. A workable sequence: street sign and house number, then the entrance, then inside, then your tools or your stock, and finally you with something that proves access — keys, the till, business paperwork. A video that only shows a desk gets rejected.
Step 3: the primary category — the most important field there is
If you fill in one field carefully, make it this one. The primary category is a major factor in which searches you are even eligible for in the map results. The wrong word here costs more visibility than any design question on your website — and this is precisely where most people choose badly.
The typical error is a category that is too broad: “construction company” instead of “roofer”, “consultancy” instead of “tax adviser”, “shop” instead of “bakery”. Broad feels safer because it covers more. In the map the opposite happens — the specific category wins the specific search, and almost everybody searches specifically.
Here is how to find the right one without guessing. Search for the query you want to be found for and open the profiles of the businesses at the top of the map block. Their category is displayed under the name. If the same category shows up across several of the top results, it is very probably yours.
- Exactly one primary category, as specific as remains factually accurate
- Secondary categories only for services you actually deliver
- Do not add everything that vaguely fits — it dilutes the profile
- Categories are predefined; you cannot write your own
- Whatever the list does not offer belongs in your services, not in the company name
Changing the primary category later can move your visibility noticeably — in either direction. So check it thoroughly once, and then stop experimenting with it week by week.
Step 4: name, address, phone — identical everywhere
NAP stands for name, address, phone. Google compares these three details across your profile, your website and directory listings. The more consistent they are, the clearer the match. Where they contradict each other, Google has to decide which version is true — and that is not a decision you want to leave to somebody else.
The company name in the profile is your real company name. Something like “Müller Electrical — Electrician Offenbach & 24/7 emergency” breaches the guidelines, sometimes helps briefly, and reliably gets reported, usually by competitors. Your services and your town belong in the categories, the services list and the description.
Settle on one spelling and carry it through everywhere: website, legal notice, invoices, directories, social profiles. One phone number, not three — the main number you actually answer, not a forwarding number that appears nowhere else. Whether you write it with or without the country code matters far less than the fact that it is the same number.
If you have no premises that customers walk into, define a service area and hide the address. That is the route explicitly provided for everyone who travels to the customer. Google still wants your address during verification — it simply is not shown publicly afterwards.
Every field at a glance
| Field | Why it matters | Common mistake |
|---|---|---|
| Primary category | A major factor in which searches you are eligible for at all | Chosen too broadly |
| Secondary categories | Cover further services without displacing the primary one | Everything vaguely relevant added |
| Company name | Has to match the real name | Search terms appended |
| Address or service area | Determines the radius in which you appear on the map | An address that is not actually used |
| Phone number | Gets dialled straight from the search result | A number that appears nowhere else |
| Website link | Sends clicks to the page that matches the search | Always pointed at the homepage |
| Opening hours | Drive the “open now” label in the search result | Public holidays never maintained |
| Services | Answer, inside the profile, what you concretely do | Left empty or reduced to buzzwords |
| Description | The running text prospects skim | Marketing phrases instead of plain facts |
| Photos | The first visual check that you really exist | Only a logo and stock images |
| Attributes | Filterable in Maps, e.g. step-free access or parking | Never reviewed |
| Questions & answers | Publicly visible, and anyone may answer | Left unattended |
Opening hours, photos and attributes
Opening hours, public holidays included
Opening hours drive the “open now” label, and with it whether someone calls immediately or keeps looking. The special hours matter more than the regular ones: Google asks about public holidays in advance, and ignoring that prompt sends customers to a locked door. Enter company holidays and bridge days ahead of time too — this is the kind of detail nobody praises and everybody notices when it is missing.
Photos that show something
A logo and a cover image are the minimum. Photos that show what someone will find are far more useful: the entrance with the house number, the inside, your people at work, finished jobs. A phone photo in daylight reads as more credible here than a bought image that is visibly from a stock library. Do not upload thirty pictures at once and then nothing for a year — spread them out.
Attributes under “More”
Attributes sit in the profile editor under “More”, or under the additional details, depending on the view. That is where things like step-free access, parking, appointment required, accepted payment methods and ownership details live. Some of them are filterable in Google Maps — someone filtering for step-free access only sees profiles where it is entered. Which attributes are offered depends on your category, so work through the list once in full. And enter nothing that is not true: attributes can be checked on site.
Posts and the questions & answers section
Posts are short updates with an image, text and a link that appear in the profile. They date quickly and slide down, so one post every few weeks works better than a burst in the first week followed by silence. Use them for real occasions: closures, a new service, a finished job, changed hours.
The questions and answers section is the most overlooked part of the profile. Anyone may ask a question there — and anyone may answer it, not only you. Otherwise a stranger’s wrong answer sits publicly in your profile for months, and you never find out unless notifications are switched on.
You are allowed to post and answer questions yourself. Take the five questions you already hear on the phone constantly — parking, directions, what a first consultation costs, weekend emergency cover, whether you can walk in — and answer them briefly, in exactly the words you would use on the phone.
Reviews are the second big lever in the profile and a subject of their own: how to ask for them systematically without becoming a nuisance is covered in a separate article.
After that: twenty minutes a month
- Check opening hours and upcoming public holidays
- Answer new questions in the questions and answers section
- Upload one or two current photos
- Publish a post when there is a genuine reason to
- Review third-party edit suggestions — Google accepts input from users, and it is not always right
- Look at the numbers: calls, direction requests, clicks through to the website
The profile does not replace a website, and the website does not replace the profile. The profile answers “does this business exist, and how do I reach it?” The website answers “are they right for what I need?” Maintain both and you win locally. If you can only maintain one, start with the profile — it costs nothing beyond the care described on this page.
Frequently asked questions about Google Business Profiles
Nothing. Creating, verifying and maintaining it are free. The only thing that costs money is advertising through Google Ads, which is separate. If someone calls you demanding a fee for your listing or for a “verification”, that is not an offer from Google.
It depends on the method: post takes the longest, while video and phone methods are quicker but still reviewed. Assume it will not be done the same day. Change nothing on the profile in the meantime, or the process starts over.
No. Businesses without walk-in customers define a service area and hide the address. Google still requires a real address during verification, but does not publish it. This is the intended route for trades, consultants and anyone who travels to the customer.
Every location with its own staff and its own opening hours needs its own profile. Several profiles can be managed together in a business group. What is not allowed is creating profiles for places where you do not actually operate a location.
No, and usually the homepage is not the best choice. Link the page that matches your primary category — for a roofer, the roofing service page rather than the general homepage. A click that lands directly on the relevant answer is abandoned far less often.
The most common reasons are: not verified, a primary category that is wrong or too broad, a second duplicate listing, or you are searching from outside your own area — map results depend heavily on where the searcher is. There are no guarantees here: anyone promising you the top spot on the map should make you suspicious.
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