Google Business Profile checklist

1. Before you start

• Check you qualify. You do if customers come to your location, or if you travel to them. A business that only exists online doesn't.
• Use a Google account the business owns. Not an employee's personal account, and not your web company's. If that person leaves, the profile shouldn't leave with them.
• Plan on one profile. Google allows one profile per business. If you find a second listing for the same business, don't keep both.

2. Claim it or create it

• Search for your business on Google Maps first. A listing may already exist, even if you never made one.
• If it's there, claim it. Open the listing, choose "Claim this business", then "Manage now".
• If it isn't, add it at business.google.com/add. Adding or claiming costs nothing.
• If someone else already manages it (a past employee, an old marketing company), don't make a duplicate. Use Google's "request ownership" option on that listing.

3. Get verified

Google has to confirm the business is real and yours before your edits show. Google picks the method, and you can't change it.

• Do the method Google offers: a code by phone call or text, a code by email, a live video call, or a postcard in the mail.
• For a phone code, answer the business line yourself. An automated phone menu won't receive it.
• For a video call, be ready to show three things: where you are (your sign, the street, nearby businesses), what you work with (your equipment, a branded truck or tools), and proof you run the place (unlocking the door, the register, a staff-only area). Calls happen during your business hours.
• For a postcard, watch the mail. Most arrive within 14 days, and the code expires 30 days after it's sent.
• Allow up to 5 business days for Google to review after you verify. Sometimes longer.

4. Your business name

• Type your name exactly as it is on your sign, your truck, and your website.
• Add nothing else. No city, no services, no slogan, no phone number, no hours. "Bayou Air" is right. "Bayou Air - Best AC Repair Katy TX" breaks Google's rules.
• Leave off "LLC" or "Inc." unless it's part of the name on your real-world signage.

5. Address and service area

• Pick the setup that matches how you work:
  • Customers come to you (a shop): show your address, with the suite number if you have one.
  • You go to customers (most HVAC, cleaning, and mobile services): hide your address and list the areas you serve. This includes running the business from your home.
  • Both: show the address and add a service area.
• Use a real location. No P.O. boxes, and no rented mailing addresses or virtual offices where your staff don't actually work.
• List your service areas by city or ZIP code. You can add up to 20, and together they shouldn't reach more than about 2 hours' drive from your base.

6. Phone, website, and hours

• Use a phone number your business controls, local if you can, that reaches you directly.
• Make the name, address, and phone match your website exactly. Same spelling, same number.
• Link to your own website, not a directory page or a social profile, if you have one.
• Enter the hours customers can actually reach you, and change them for holidays. Nothing loses a customer faster than "Open" on a locked door.

7. Category

• Choose the most specific category that says what your business is. For example, an air conditioning repair category rather than a general contractor one.
• Add only the few others that truly fit. Google asks for as few as possible. Categories are not keywords.

8. Photos

• Add your logo and a cover photo.
• Add real photos: your team, your trucks, your shop, finished work. Customers want to see who is coming to their house.
• Keep them honest and clear: in focus, well lit, no heavy filters. Google's rule is that a photo should show reality.
• Use JPG or PNG files between 10 KB and 5 MB. Any recent phone photo is fine. Videos can run up to 30 seconds.

Google decides which photo shows first, and it may pick one a customer posted over yours.

9. Reviews

• Get your review link or QR code from your profile, and put it on invoices, texts, or a card you hand over.
• Ask every customer, the same way. Asking only the happy ones is against Google's rules.
• Never offer anything for a review. No discount, gift, or prize drawing, and nothing for removing a bad one.
• No reviews from you, your staff, or family, and no staff targets for collecting them.
• Reply to reviews, the critical ones most of all. Stay calm, thank them, say what you did about it. Future customers read your replies.

Fake and paid-for reviews are also against a federal rule in the United States, in force since October 2024. We never write, buy, or filter reviews for clients.

10. Who gets access

• Stay the primary owner yourself. Never hand that role to a marketing company, including us.
• Add helpers as managers. A manager can edit the profile, post, add photos, and reply to reviews, but can't add or remove people or delete the profile.
  • Open your profile and choose More, then Business Profile settings, then People and access.
  • Choose Add, type the person's email, pick Manager, and send the invite.
• Never share your Google password. Nobody needs it once they're added as a manager.
• Remove people who no longer work with you. Check the list once a year.

New owners and managers wait 7 days before they can remove other people or transfer ownership. That's Google's safeguard, not a fault.

11. Every month

• Check your hours, including any holiday coming up.
• Reply to every new review.
• Add a new photo of recent work.
• Confirm your name, phone, and website link still match your site.
• Look for changes you didn't make, and correct them.

Sources

Google's help pages, read on October 7, 2026:

• Guidelines for representing your business on Google (name, address, hours, categories, eligibility)
• Add or claim your Business Profile
• Verify your business
• Service-area and hybrid businesses
• Photos and videos
• Get more reviews
• Maps policy on fake engagement (review rules)
• Owners and managers

The federal rule on reviews: FTC announcement, August 2024. This page is general information, not legal advice.