Google Business Profile: a guide to showing up on Google Maps

When someone searches Google for “bakery near me” or your business name plus your city, the first thing they see isn’t your website — it’s the card with your name, hours, map and reviews. That card is your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business), and if it’s incomplete or unverified, you’re handing that first impression to a competitor.

What a Business Profile is and why it matters locally

A Google Business Profile is the free listing that shows up on Google Maps and next to search results when someone looks for your business, or a business like yours, nearby. Unlike your website, nobody has to click anything to see the basics: phone number, address, hours and directions show up right away.

For any business with a physical location or a service area (a restaurant, a clinic, a law office, a repair shop, a store), this profile is often the entry point before someone ever reaches your website or messages you. Keeping it complete and verified is, alongside a fast, well-structured website, part of the local-search work covered by technical SEO for any pyme with local customers.

Setting up and verifying your profile

To edit your business information and reply to reviews, you need to verify it — that tells Google you’re the one running it. Per Google’s official help on verifying your business, the process starts by searching for your business on Google while signed in and claiming it if it already exists, or creating it from scratch if it doesn’t.

• The verification method varies by business type and location: it can be a video recorded at your location, a code sent by phone or email, or a postal letter with a printed code. Google tells you which one applies — you don’t choose it.
• Review takes time. Don’t expect instant verification; it can take several business days while Google confirms your information.
• One account should manage the profile. Use a business Google account, not a personal one tied to whoever set it up, so you don’t lose access if that person leaves.

Until it’s verified, anyone can suggest edits to your information, and you won’t be able to correct them directly.

Categories: the choice that matters most

Your primary category is the single biggest factor in when Google shows your profile: it decides whether you show up for “dentist,” “brake shop” or “clothing store.” Per Google’s help on categories, you pick one primary category and can add additional categories that accurately describe other services you offer.

• Pick the most specific primary category available. “Brake shop” describes your business better than “auto repair shop” if that’s your specialty.
• Only add additional categories for things you genuinely offer. Don’t stack categories to show up in more searches — Google can flag that as inaccurate information, and it’s the kind of inconsistency that can trigger a review or suspension.
• Revisit it when your business changes. The category isn’t something you set once and forget.

Photos and posts that build trust

A profile with no photos of its own fills up with whatever customers upload, and those aren’t always the ones you’d pick. Upload these yourself first:

• Storefront and logo, so customers recognize your business when they arrive.
• Interior shots showing the space as a customer will find it.
• Products or services you offer, well lit, with no text or filters on top.
• Your team at work, if you run a service business where that builds trust.

Posts (updates, offers or events) signal that the business is active, and they show up directly on your listing. Per Google’s help on posts, you create them from the same Business Profile dashboard with text, a photo and a call-to-action button; they get archived automatically after a while, so it’s worth refreshing them instead of leaving the profile static.

Reviews: how to ask for them and how to reply

Reviews shape the decision of someone who doesn’t know you yet, and they also show Google that your business is active and serving real customers.

To ask for them:

• Ask right when a customer is satisfied — right after a purchase or a finished service, for example.
• Make it easy: share the direct link to your profile instead of asking customers to find it themselves.
• Never offer a discount or gift in exchange for a positive review; Google doesn’t allow incentivized reviews and can penalize the profile for it.

To reply to them, Google’s help on managing reviews explains that you can respond to any review once your profile is verified, and your reply posts publicly next to the original review:

• Thank positive reviews with more than “thanks” — mention briefly what you valued about the comment.
• On a negative review, reply calmly, without arguing in public, acknowledge the issue, and offer to resolve it through a direct channel (phone, email, WhatsApp).
• If a review is fake or doesn’t come from a real customer, you can report it from your profile; Google reviews it, but reporting it doesn’t get it removed automatically.

What to check this week

1. Search for your business on Google and Maps from your phone, the way a customer would, and confirm the name, phone number, address and hours are accurate.
2. Verify your profile if you haven’t yet, or confirm it’s managed by a business account, not a single person’s.
3. Review your primary category and remove any additional categories that don’t match something you actually offer.
4. Upload at least five of your own photos if your profile only has ones customers uploaded.
5. Reply to pending reviews, starting with the most recent and any unanswered negative ones.
6. Publish an update or offer if you haven’t posted in the last few months.

A complete, verified, active profile doesn’t guarantee you’ll show up first, but it does remove the most common reasons a real local business doesn’t show up where it should. If you want your website and your search presence working together, our technical SEO service covers both.