How to set up your Google Business Profile

Why it matters more than your website for local search

Searches like “plumber near me” or “cafe in Swanage” show a map and a short list of businesses at the top of the page. People phone, ask for directions or visit the website straight from that list, often without scrolling any further. A profile is how you get into that list, and a well-kept one with good reviews is how you stay near the top.

Before you start

• A Google account you will keep. Use a business email address if you have one, not a staff member’s personal account.
• Your business name exactly as customers see it on your sign, van or invoices.
• The towns or areas you cover, if you go to your customers rather than them coming to you.
• A handful of good photos: your work, your premises or van, and you.

Setting it up, step by step

1. Go to google.com/business and sign in. Search for your business first: if a profile already exists (Google sometimes makes one), claim it rather than starting a second.
2. Name.Use your real business name only. Adding extra words such as “Best Web Design Dorset” breaks Google’s rules and can get the profile suspended.
3. Category. Pick the main category that describes what you are, not everything you do. It is the single biggest factor in which searches you appear for. You can add a few extra categories later.
4. Location.If customers visit you, add your address. If you work from home or travel to customers, choose to hide your address and list the areas you serve instead. This makes you a “service-area business”.
5. Contact details. Add a phone number and your website, if you have them.
6. Verify. Google chooses how you prove the business is real. Most often it is a short video showing your signage, tools or workplace, and sometimes a phone call, an email or a postcard. It can take a few days. Until it is verified, the profile will not show to the public.

The details that make a difference

• Description. You get 750 characters. Say what you do, who for, and where, in plain words. Put the most important part in the first two lines, because that is what people see first.
• Services. List each one with a line about it. These help Google match you to more specific searches.
• Hours. Keep them right, including holiday changes. Wrong hours are one of the most common complaints in reviews.
• Photos. Add real photos and keep adding them. Profiles with recent photos tend to get more clicks than ones with a single logo.
• Updates. You can post short news, offers or examples of recent work. One every week or two shows Google and customers that the business is active.

Reviews: the part most businesses skip

Reviews affect where you appear and whether people choose you. The simplest way to get them is to ask every happy customer, soon after the job, with a direct link. In your profile, look for Ask for reviews to copy your link, then put it in a short email or text.

• Reply to every review, good or bad, politely and briefly. Other customers read the replies.
• Never buy reviews, write your own, or offer discounts in return for them. It breaks Google’s rules, and since April 2025 fake or incentivised reviews are also against UK consumer law.
• Do not ask only the customers you expect to be happy. Ask everyone the same way.

Keep your details the same everywhere

Google cross-checks your business name, area and contact details with other places they appear: your website, Facebook, Yell and local directories. Make them match exactly. Two more free listings are worth adding once your Google profile is done: Bing Places, which can copy your Google profile in a few clicks, and Apple Business Connect, which feeds Apple Maps on iPhones.