Google Business Profile: how to set it up and get verified

What the profile is for

When someone searches for your name or your trade nearby, Google can show a profile: name, category, opening hours, phone, website, photos and reviews. The same profile feeds Google Maps. For a local business it is often the first point of contact, before the website.

Who can create one

Businesses that deal with customers in person. Google distinguishes three cases:

• Customers come to you at premises with permanent signage: your address is shown.
• You go to your customers, or work without receiving them: you declare a service area and your address stays hidden. Google calls this a service-area business.
• You do both: address and service area.

Two limits worth knowing. A business that operates only online, with no in-person service, is not eligible. And a virtual office address cannot be used to create a profile.

Setting it up, step by step

1. Go to business.google.com with the company’s Google account.
2. Enter the business name as it exists, with no added keywords.
3. Choose the most specific business category. You can add more later.
4. Say whether customers visit an address. If not, declare your service area: Google asks you to keep it within about two hours’ travel of your base.
5. Add your website and, if you wish, a phone number.
6. Start verification.

Verification: what Google decides

Without verification, customers cannot see the profile. Google determines which methods are offered, based on your business type, your region and public information about the business, and states that they cannot be changed. The existing methods are phone or text message, email, video recording, live video call and post.

After you submit, the review can take up to five business days.

Passing video verification

It is the method Google recommends when it is offered. The video is recorded and uploaded from a phone, from the profile itself. It must be filmed live, in one continuous take with no editing, and last at least 30 seconds.

For a business with no premises open to the public, it has to show three things:

1. Where you are: street signs, nearby landmarks or other identifying features at your address.
2. That the business exists: your tools, your workspace, your business cards.
3. That you run it: a document in the business name, such as a client invoice, or access to something only the business can access.

It must not show bank account numbers, tax or identity numbers, or other people’s faces. It is not shown publicly, and you can delete it at any time.

Working from home?

Many independents do, and the question comes up often: do you have to film your home? Google’s help says that if you run a service-area business from home, you can record landmarks and signs in your neighbourhood to verify the address. The rest of the video can be limited to your desk and a document.

Your address does not appear on the profile if you state that customers do not visit it. And there is no rush: an unverified profile simply stays invisible.

Filling it in so it works for you

• The description, up to 750 characters: what you do, for whom, where.
• Service areas or address, accurate.
• Opening hours, including special hours.
• Logo and cover photo, then real photos of your work.
• Website link and social profiles.
• Reviews: ask real customers and reply to each one.

Google says complete and accurate profiles are more likely to appear in nearby searches. The rest is local SEO.

Mistakes to avoid

• Adding keywords or a city to the business name.
• Using an address where you do not work.
• Declaring a service area that is too wide.
• Creating a second profile for the same business.
• Buying reviews or writing fake ones.

Sources

Pages consulted on 10 October 2026:

• Google Help: verify your business
• Google Help: verify your business with a video recording
• Google Help: guidelines for representing your business