Set up your Google Business Profile properly
For a local firm, your Google Business Profile is the shop window most of your customers see first. Half-finished, it quietly loses you work every week. Here's how to set it up yourself, and the rules that get profiles suspended.
The short answer
Create or claim the free profile at business.google.com, choose the right business type (customers come to you, you go to them, or both), use your real-world business name and the most specific category, verify (usually by video these days), then fill in every field Google offers. After that it's upkeep: a steady trickle of real reviews you reply to, fresh photos, and a monthly check that nobody has "suggested" your hours away. The two things that sink profiles are fake addresses and stuffed names, so we'll get those right first.
Why this one listing outranks your website
When someone searches "plumber near me" or "barber gloucester", the map and the three businesses under it get the calls. That block is built entirely from Business Profiles, not websites. For most local firms the profile gets seen far more than the site does, it's free, and most competitors have filled in a third of it. That's the opportunity.
It also feeds the AI answers. When assistants recommend local businesses they lean heavily on profile data: categories, reviews, opening hours. A complete profile is how you exist in those answers at all.
1. Claim it before you create it
Search your business name on Google Maps first. If a profile already exists (old owner, a directory, Google generating one from public data), claim that one rather than creating a duplicate; duplicates fight each other and one usually gets suspended.
Sign in at business.google.com with a Google account the business controls and will keep forever. Not an employee's personal Gmail, not the web designer's agency account: profiles get orphaned that way and getting access back is painful.
2. Choose the right business type, and be honest about the address
Google asks whether customers visit your premises (a shop or salon), you travel to customers (a plumber or mobile groomer), or both. If you go to customers, set it up as a service-area business: your address stays hidden and you list the towns or postcodes you cover instead.
The address rule is the one that gets small firms suspended: the location must be a place you actually staff and work from. A virtual office, your accountant's address or a mail-forwarding service will get the profile taken down, sometimes months later, and reinstatement is slow. Home-based and service-area is completely fine; a rented address you never visit is not.
3. Use your real name and the most specific category
The name field must be your real-world business name, exactly as it appears on your van or sign. "Smith Plumbing" is right; "Smith Plumbing | 24/7 Emergency Plumber Gloucester" is keyword stuffing, and it's the second most common suspension trigger after fake addresses.
The primary category does more ranking work than anything else you'll set. Pick the most specific one that fits: "Emergency plumber" beats "Plumber" if that's the work you want, "Barber shop" beats "Hair salon" if that's what you are. Add two or three secondary categories for the rest of what you do, and stop there.
4. Verify, and don't panic about the video
Most new profiles now verify by video rather than postcard. Google asks you to film a short walkthrough on your phone showing three things: where you are (street sign, shopfront or your van in context), evidence of the business (tools, stock, equipment, branded workwear), and proof you're in charge (unlocking the premises or van, opening the till, logging into the booking system).
Film it in one take, don't include customers or paperwork with other people's details, and expect the review to take up to about five working days. If it bounces, you can retry with a fuller video. Whatever you do, don't create a second profile while you wait; that reads as suspicious and tangles both.
5. Fill in everything Google lets you fill in
The description gives you 750 characters: say what you do, where you cover and who you're for, in plain English. No phone numbers, links or offers in it (Google rejects those), and the first sentence matters most because it's what gets truncated.
Then services: add each thing you actually sell as its own service with a line of description in your own words, not just the suggested tick-boxes. Set hours honestly, including holiday hours when they come round; "permanently closed-looking" hours lose calls. Add real photos (your work, your van, the premises, you mid-job) rather than stock, and a logo and cover photo so the profile looks owned. Turn on messaging only if someone will genuinely answer it.
6. Reviews are the flywheel, so build the habit
Your profile has a share link and QR code for reviews (look for "Ask for reviews"). Send it right after a job's gone well, ideally the same day, by text or WhatsApp. A steady trickle of genuine reviews with real detail beats a burst of five one week and silence after.
Reply to every review, including the bad ones: calm, factual, no arguing. Replies are read by the next hundred people deciding whether to call, not by the reviewer. And never buy, swap or fake reviews; Google removes them in sweeps and increasingly suspends the profile too.
Where this gets hard
Suspensions are the big one. They arrive without warning, often triggered by an address that breaks the rules, a name edit, or a flurry of changes in one sitting, and the reinstatement process is a slow, faceless form with no phone number behind it. Getting the setup right first time matters more here than almost anywhere else on the internet.
Old listings squat. A previous owner's profile, an agency-created one nobody can log into, or a Google-generated duplicate with wrong hours: merging or claiming these involves ownership-request emails with three-day timers and, sometimes, support tickets that go quiet.
And the public can edit your profile. Google lets anyone "suggest an edit", and accepted suggestions change your live hours or categories without telling you loudly. A monthly two-minute check of the profile catches it; most firms find out from an angry customer standing outside at 9am instead.
What you end up with
- A verified profile with the right type, honest address setup and the most specific category, so it ranks instead of risking suspension
- Every field filled: description, services in your own words, real photos, honest hours
- The review link and QR ready to send, and a reply habit that wins the next customer
- A monthly two-minute check so public edit suggestions never rewrite your hours
Facts on this page last checked 14 July 2026, against support.google.com.
Related fixes
If verification keeps bouncing, an old listing is squatting on your name, or the profile got suspended and the form's gone quiet, that's exactly the fiddly untangling I take on.