How to Create a Google Business Profile

Are you a local business which relies heavily on a localised target audience? If so, your business’s Google Business Profile (formerly known as a “Google My Business” listing) is vital for driving online traffic to your website or store from Google Search and Google Maps.

Data shows that potential customers are 70% more likely to visit, and 50% more likely to purchase from a business with a complete Google Business Profile. (Source: Google)

They’re relatively quick and easy to set up your Google Business Profile, but the process does change depending on which industry you fall with. For example, the options which Google provides to a restaurant business will include options for uploading a menu. However, generally speaking, 95% of the process is identical across most categories of business.

Our step-by-step guide will cover:

• What is a Google Business Profile (GBP)?
• The 3 main benefits of a GBP listing
• How to setup a Google Business Profile
• Common mistakes to avoid
• Where to get help

This information will help you get it right first-time, strengthening your local SEO and maximising the number of people who can find your business.

What is a Google Business Profile

Your Google Business Profile, or GBP for short, is a free marketing tool provided by Google that helps users find local businesses and helps to promote their brand within Google Search and Google Maps.

When you set up your Google Business Profile, you’ll be asked to provide key information about your business: photos of your business, your business’s location, and the services and products you offer. This will all help to increase your online presence and provide a more accurate service to Google’s users.

Even if you don’t have a physical location for your business, you may still be eligible for a Google Business Profile. For example, if you are an electrician who visits customers in their own homes, you can apply for a “service area” business listing. However, unfortunately, businesses that only have a virtual office are not eligible.

The 3 Main Benefits of a Google Business Profile For Your Business

As we’ve mentioned, your Google Business Profile is incredibly important, especially for local, small- and medium-sized businesses. Below are 3 of the most important reasons you should create one:

1. Customers Can Discover You On Google Search and Maps

Your Google Business Profile is incredibly important for your “Local Search Engine Optimisation” (AKA Local SEO). When someone performs a search which signals to Google that the user could benefit from knowing about local businesses in their area. The size of the catchment area, the number of businesses shown, and the order in which businesses are ranked varies depending on a number of factors. However, the proximity to the user is one of the key factors. As a result, the results displayed in one location can often be different to the same search performed in a different location.

For example, if someone searches “Thai restaurant near me” in Google Search or Maps, Google will pull information from the Google Business Profiles of nearby businesses before deciding which results are most relevant and which to show to the searcher. Therefore if you type that search in East London and the same search in Central London, you will get different results.

2. You Can Manage Your Businesses Online Information

Your Google Business Profile is also a hub of information for people interested in your business, and you can include information such as:

• Your business's opening hours.
• What kinds of products or services you offer.
• Photos.
• Customer reviews.
• Driving directions.
• Latest news, special offers, or events.
• Contact details.
• And more.

In fact, the type of information you have access to provide is determined by the primary category which you choose for your business.

For example, sticking with our earlier example of a Thai restaurant, Google knows that people will find it helpful to be able to view your menu, opening ours, and whether or not you offer a takeaway service. Therefore, a restaurant business will be presented with different fields to complete compared to, for example, an electrician or dog walker.

You can also integrate your GBP listing with various appointment or booking management systems so that clients can make a booking directly via your GBP listing.

3. Start to Build Trust With Potential Customers With Google Reviews

It’s also important to start building trust with potential customers through Google reviews. When potential customers are looking to purchase, other customer reviews are the single most important and trusted source of information, acting as social proof from other customers that you offer a quality service.

After all, if your competitor has lots of 5-star reviews and you don’t have any at all, they’re probably going to choose to purchase from a competitor.

Having a Google Business Profile with lots of positive reviews can also benefit your organic rankings for your website, as Google recognises you as a reputable business.

Is Your Business Eligible for a Google Business Profile?

Before you get started creating a Google Business Profile, you need to know if your business is eligible. To qualify for eligibility for a Google Business Profile, your business must have one of the following:

• Have a physical location that customers can visit, such as an office or storefront.
• Offer in-person contact with customers during your stated opening hours: Such as a nurse or carer who offers home visits.
• Be a service provider or business where you meet customers face-to-face: Such as a plumber or surveying company.
• Have a physical location where employees work, where you offer services to a large area: Such as a Digital Marketing agency.
• A business that offers classes or meetings with clients in a privately owned location, such as a therapist who works from their own home.

However, if your office is completely virtual, and you work from your own home with no storefront, you may not be eligible for a Google Business Profile.

For a full list of the eligibility guidelines for Google Business Profiles, you can check out here.

How to Set Up a Google Business Profile

Step 1. Log in to your Google Business Profile

Before setting up your Google Business Profile, you’ll need to log into your Google Account. This is the account that lets you access everything Google: Gmail, Google Docs, Google Drive etc. If you don’t have one already, then you’ll need to sign up for one here.

We advise using your work email address (if you have one) rather than your personal email address, as you may need to give other people access to the Google Business Profile in the future.

Step 2. Check to See If A GBP Already Exists For Your Business

It’s important to avoid creating a duplicate listing as having to resolve duplicates can be a pain. Therefore, the first thing to do is perform a search for your business name in Google and see if an existing Google Business Profile listing appears on the right hand of the page:

If your business appears, you can sometimes see an option to “Claim Business”. Clicking this allows you to request access to the listing and an email will normally be sent to the existing owner of that business if one exists.

If your business does not show up (this may happen if you share a similar name with another company and their GBP listing displays instead of yours), then another search to try would be a search for your industry type and location. For example if we search for “seo agency witney”, our listing appears in position 1 of the “Local Map Pack” within the Google Maps page as follows:

Step 3. Create a New GBP if One Does Not Already Exist

Head over to the Google Business Profile builder, where you can start to fill in the details for your business. You can also access this through the sidebar on Google Maps.

Step 4. Enter Your ‘Business Name’ and ‘Business Category’

Once you’ve reached this page it’s time to enter your business’s name and category.

Business Name

Important! The business name you enter must be your company’s full legal name or trading name; ideally entered as title case. It should be consistent with your website and how it is spelt across your online and offline presence. It’s important to get this correct as subsequent changes will require you to reverify the business from scratch.

Some businesses add aspects like their location to their business name on their Google Business Profile. While this has been known to benefit their rankings on Google, it is actually against Google’s guidelines and not something we recommend. It’s not worth the potential penalty from Google down the line.

Business Category

Your business category is also important to get right as it is a ranking factor in terms of determining relevancy for given searches, plus, it will determine what fields are available to you to edit throughout the rest of this process. It’s important to remember though, that this is what your business IS, not what services you offer.

For example, if you’re a pizza delivery business but you’ve incorrectly picked “Italian Restaurants”, then someone searching “Italian restaurants” isn’t going to be interested in your business, and conversely, someone searching for “pizza places near me” won’t find you, so you’ll be throwing the benefit away. This is a common mistake for people new to optimising GBP listings. You can learn more about correct categorisation here.

You can change this later if necessary such as if your business changes direction as it evolves, but it is best to aim to get it right the first time. Google also provides a dropdown menu, to show you the options available.

Depending on your business category and type, you may be given options to add specific information. For example, if you are a restaurant or delivery service, you will be given the opportunity to fill in unique information like what dining methods you offer.

Step 5. Enter Your Business Address, Contact Details, and Service Area

Google will then ask if you have a physical location that you want customers to visit. There are two branching paths you can choose here.

• Choosing ‘Yes’, You Have a Physical Storefront

  If you are in a physical location like a shop or a business with an office, then you will want to give people the opportunity to visit you. So choose ‘Yes’ and you will be taken to a page where you can fill in the location details of your business.

  This should be your physical business address, and can’t be a PO Box address or virtual office. It should be identical to what is on your Companies House listing and your website. Throughout your Google Business Profile, your name, address, and phone number must be consistent with what is on your website. For example, if your official address is “Smith Street”, then don’t type “Smith St”.

  

  

  You will be further directed to provide additional information depending on the category (such as if you provide a home delivery service) and provide the areas that you service. At the time of writing, Google advises that this does not affect rankings or when your business is shown. Instead, they simply use it to create a diagram communicating your catchment area. Google states that ideally, if you have more than one catchment area serviced by a single location, you should only target locations within around 2hrs drive time away.

  

  However, you can see from the example below that this sometimes suffers from the odd bug. This particular client only serves the UK, and so the service area has been set to “United Kingdom” but for some reason, Google is expanding the catchment area to include Turkiye.

  

  

  Therefore, if this happens to you, don’t worry - it should not have an impact on your rankings or when you are shown.

  Once you have chosen your catchment areas, you will then be directed to fill in your contact details so people know how to contact you. These clicks to the website and phone calls are tracked by Google and act as a good indicator of how effective your Google Business Profile is at bringing you potential customers.

  

  Once you have filled in these details, then you should see this screen to let you know the verification process is underway.

  

• Choosing ‘No’, You Don’t Have a Physical Storefront

  However, if you’re a “service area business”, like a plumber or electrician, then you likely don’t want people to visit you. It’s more important that Google, and searchers, know the areas you offer a service in. After choosing “No”, you will be directed to provide information on where you offer your services.

  

  The same caveats apply here as mentioned above. E.g. Only list locations which are within 2hrs drive, and only if you genuinely service those areas. The locations listed should not affect your ranking, and so little to be gained by spamming location names. However, the locations can sometimes be displayed on your listing for users to see. Displaying a huge list can sometimes be overwhelming, so “less is more” and pick your most important locations first.

  You will then be asked to fill in the contact details for your business. This should be your business phone number, and be the same as it is displayed on your website. These clicks to the website and phone calls are tracked by Google and act as a good indicator of how effective your Google Business Profile is at bringing you potential customers.

  

  Once you have filled in your contact details you should reach this screen to let you know that your business has been verified.

  

  Mention that the service areas you list result in a catchment area map being shown, but this has no impact (according to Google at the time of writing) on rankings.

Step 6. Let Customers Know When You’re Open For Business

It’s important to have your opening hours on your Google Business Profile. If your hours are unclear, people may not want to risk travelling to your shop or restaurant with you not even being open for business.

Alternatively, if your Google Business Profile says you’re open when you’re not, this can lead to a negative interaction for a potential customer, a negative for your business, and they may even report your business opening hours as being incorrect.

Google does actually give preference to businesses that are open, which can give you a competitive edge over your competitors if they aren’t open on bank holidays and you are. This also makes it more important that your business has its opening hours displayed.

Step 7. Write your Business Description

Your business description is your opportunity to sell, and demonstrate to readers who you are, what you do, the areas you provide a service, and talk about your most popular products or services.

Google’s guidelines for your business description recommend you include what you offer, what sets you apart, your history, and anything helpful to customers: Without exceeding the 750-character limit.

You should aim to naturally integrate relevant keywords and phrases into your business description if you know them. If you don’t you can use Google Search Console to see what keywords your website is already ranking for. Or you can use Google’s Ads Keyword Planner, to research the types of keywords people are using to find businesses like yours.

Here we’ve created an example of a great business description for our fictional Italian restaurant in London, Benji’s Pizza Parlour:

At Benji’s Pizza Parlour, we offer the finest wood-fired pizza, pasta & classic Italian dishes, in a modern, rustic-style restaurant. Bringing a taste of Italian cuisine to Soho in the heart of London, with our authentic Italian recipes: Just like Nonna used to make. We use only the finest ingredients imported from Italy to make our award-winning Neapolitan-style pizza, our homemade pasta, and our mouth-watering Tiramisu.

Step 8. Verify Your Local Google Business Profile Listing

Typically you will have to go through a verification process before Google shows your Google Business Profile to potential customers. This used to be achieved via a postcard that Google would send to your address which contained a pin number, which you subsequently needed to enter into a specific field within your GBP dashboard.. However, this was obviously not an instant process, and postcards were often thrown away accidentally as people thought they were spam.

This has recently changed, and Google now asks for a video that shows the street address of your business, the building address, and the outside and inside of the building. You may also need to provide proof of address such as a recent utility bill addressed to the business. This process is quite thorough, to ensure only genuine businesses get listed on Google, but it can be challenging for some businesses to actually achieve as there are duration limits to the video (around 30 seconds).

So if you have been sent a postcard by Google, it’s important to return it promptly. The same for if you’re asked to send over a video that shows your office to verify that your business indeed works there.

Tips For Optimising Your Google Business Profile

Now you’ve verified your business listing, it’s time to start optimising your profile. There are still some important things you need to do, to show you’re a reputable business in the eyes of Google and its users. As you can see from the screenshot below, there are still quite a lot of things you can do to optimise your Google Business Profile listing.

Step 1. Fill out all your information on your Google Business Profile

Make sure that every field that you can, as customers are 2.7x more likely to consider a business as “reputable” if their Google Business Profile is filled out on Google Search and Maps. (Source: Google) For our fictional restaurant, this would be things like:

• A menu for people to browse.
• Links to our social media profiles.
• Food delivery options.
• Answers to frequently asked questions.
• And an online booking form, to allow people to book a table through Google.

Step 2. Add Photos to your GBP

Google asks for photos of your business during the registration process and after, depending on your industry. For this fictitious restaurant, it asked for pictures of our menu and of our dishes. But for every business, you should add:

• Photo of the outside of your business.
• Photo of inside your business.
• Your logo.
• Photos of your key team members.
• Photos of your services in action.

These pictures should be high-quality and original photos where possible. You can view more information about the recommended file formats and image sizes here. Avoid using stock images.

Step 3. Add/Request reviews of your GBP

Crucial for all businesses, but especially for small businesses, is to acquire high-quality, favourable reviews for your business. As we have mentioned before, they demonstrate your quality service to potential customers, act as social proof of your business, and can improve your Google rankings.

You can ask customers to review your business by sending them the unique link to your Google Business Profile, which you can find here:

Leaving a review only takes a few seconds, and users also have the ability to upload an image supporting their review.

Top Tip: We recommend you “strike whilst the iron is hot” and ask customers if they’ll be happy to leave you a review whenever you receive any positive feedback as people will be more likely to action the request whilst they’re actually talking to you as opposed to later on when they have to fit it in around other tasks.

When someone does leave you a review, you can, and should respond as soon as you can.

• For positive reviews, take the time to thank someone for their custom and for sharing their review.
• For negative reviews, also thank the customer for their review, and remain polite. If you can, and feel it’s appropriate, you can always offer a solution or fix to the issue they had, but current best practice suggests it’s better to encourage them to contact you privately with their contact details so that you can call them back to resolve the issue in person. Ultimately you want to provide a public response which is professional, proactive, and reassures any potential customers that you handle any complaints in a positive way.

If you have received reviews which you don’t think are fair or are from fake accounts, you can report them to Google here.

Step 4. Choose the right business secondary categories for your business

In the initial setup for your Google Business Profile, you were asked to select a primary business category. However, you can actually choose up to 10 secondary categories. However, we would advise remaining as highly targeted as possible. Most of the time, you will not find it possible to correctly select more than 2-3 categories.

These categories are predefined, so you can’t write your own and should use the options provided by Google that best describe your business and services. For example, in the earlier example of ‘Benji’s Pizza Parlour’, we chose Pizza Restaurant as our primary business category.

However, this fictional restaurant also offers delivery services as well as serves other Italian food. So we would want to choose ‘pizza delivery’ and ‘Italian restaurant’’. This would help give Google a holistic view of the services offered, and make sure you appear for Google searches “pizza near me”, “pizza delivery near me”, or “Italian restaurant near me”.

Step 5. Choose your attributes

Google allows you to choose different attributes for your Google Business Profile, to illustrate the unique characteristics of your business. You can find this under the ‘Business Information’ section of your Google Business Profile, under ‘More’, after your contact details, location and hours of operation.

Again, the options available here will depend on the primary category chosen, with some being universal across all categories. For example, you may want to highlight that your business is ‘wheelchair accessible’ and that you have free parking. That helps people further determine whether you’re the right business for them depending on their requirements.

Step 6. Make Sure Your Location is Verified

In our guide to setting up your Google Business Profile above, we discussed how to verify your local business listing location. We wanted to highlight this again due to just how important it is for your business to appear on Google search results.

You should check to make sure that your business is verified on Google, and that you can find it on both Google Search and Google Maps. It should also have a tick next to the profile like this:

Now You’re All Set Up

If you’ve followed all the steps above, then you’re most of, if not all the way, to having a complete Google Business Profile that will start to bring you new customers. And best of all, this is all free, and one of the best ways to advertise your business on Google.

Filling in as much information as possible correctly is critical to appearing higher on Google search results. While this guide is updated regularly, the profile options that Google provides are constantly changing, so it’s important to go through the options yourself instead of simply following the ones in this guide.

10 Common Google Business Profile Mistakes To Avoid

While we’ve walked you through how to set up your Google Business Profile, it’s just as important to discuss what not to do. Here are the most common mistakes to avoid:

• Not reading, understanding or complying with GBP requirements, rules or best practices
• Spamming the “Business Name” field with extra info
• Choosing an incorrect primary category
• Trying to list your “services” as “secondary categories”
• Including contact details, or emojis in posts
• Using stock images for GBP posts
• Not asking for reviews from customers
• Not thanking people for leaving a review
• Reacting badly to negative reviews
• Not keeping your GBP listing up to date

Not reading, understanding or complying with GBP requirements, rules or best practices

If you don’t follow Google’s requirements, rules, or best practices, they can remove your Google Business Profile with little warning, making it imperative to be aware of these guidelines and follow best practice at all times. You can find the guidelines here.

Spamming the “Business Name” field with extra info

It’s not uncommon to see businesses add extra information to their “Business Name” on their Google Business Profile listing, either to try and influence Google rankings or simply being unaware this is against Google guidelines. For example, adding their location, or more information about the services they provide alongside their business name.

While we have no intention to name and shame, below is an example for educational purposes of adding additional information to a business name on Google Business Profile.

Frustratingly, we know that adding certain keywords here does (currently) benefit SEO. This therefore rewards those who don’t follow the rules, and penalises those who do. However, Google’s rules are clear - this should be just your full legal business name (or Trading As names are ok) - without additional info such as your county or what you do.

You may get away with it for now, but could equally get banned if Google subsequently changes their view on intentional spam in this field. So it is not something we advise.

Choosing an incorrect primary category

When adding the ‘primary category’ of your business, it’s important to look at all the options Google provides and choose the one that is most relevant for your business. As touched on earlier in this article, choosing the wrong type could mean you don’t get shown at the optimum time. Remember: The primary category should be a descriptor of what type of business you are; not what services you offer!

For example, if you’re a pizza takeaway, you may consider yourself an ‘Italian Restaurant’, but people searching for you are more likely to search ‘pizza takeaway’ or ‘pizza delivery’, making them a better choice for your business category.

You can find more information on how to choose the correct primary category here.

Trying to list your “services” as “secondary categories”

When choosing your secondary categories, it’s important to only include genuine ‘secondary categories’ that also describe your business, not just trying to list the services your business offers.

Google does actually provide a separate “products” section and a “services” section where you can provide more information for each.

Including contact details, or emojis in posts

When creating your ‘business description’ or writing a post from your Google Business Profile, you must avoid including contact details or any emojis; both are against Google’s guidelines and will usually result in your post or description being automatically rejected by the algorithm.

Using stock images for GBP posts

Whilst this is often unavoidable for some businesses, remember - Google wants and loves unique content, that it doesn't already have. Therefore, use high-quality, relevant images unique to your business which show it off in its best light, and you will be rewarded!

Not asking for reviews from customers

One of the most powerful parts of your Google Business Profile is its reviews and the impact they have on your rankings in the local map pack.

In addition, many customers check reviews prior to making a purchase or reaching out to a company, and so positive reviews from other happy customers helps build trust and confidence in your brand and your offering.

Conversely, potential customers can be negatively influenced by a lack of positive reviews.

Whilst you can’t necessarily determine what people will say, you can maximise your chances of having more good reviews than bad (a) by providing exceptional service of course but also (b) by reaching out to clients who have already expressed happiness and asking if they will be happy to leave you a review. You can access a unique link from within your GBP which you can provide clients with. This takes them directly to the review form, and allows them to leave a review in a matter of seconds.

Important Note: You are not allowed to incentivise or reward people in exchange for reviews.

Not thanking people for leaving a review

When people do leave you a review, it’s important to thank them for sharing their experience. People have given up their time to leave a review, and it can appear rude to not reply.

In addition, Google’s algorithm like it each time you’re engaging with your GBP as it shows it’s being actively used, monitored and maintained, so it’s more likely to give you a slight edge over those which are stagnant and rarely logged into.

Reacting badly to negative reviews

When you receive negative reviews it’s important to remain calm, unbiased and professional when you reply. Show everyone watching how you can handle negative (and potentially even unfair) feedback in a calm, professional and reasonable manner.

The last thing that anyone wants to see in a review section, is the owner of a business appearing aggressive, defensive, or unwilling to take feedback or criticism.

Not keeping your GBP listing up to date

Out-of-date info can harm your listing; especially if it’s out-of-date information like opening hours. Rankings fluctuate all the time based on a number of factors, and whether you're open or not at the time the user searches is one of those.

Don't put in fake hours to get more traffic, but equally, don't accidentally forget to change if you've extended your opening hours in the build-up to a popular holiday such as Christmas.

Don’t Lose Out On Customers. Get Help From The Experts With Your Google Business Profile

Setting up, optimising, and managing the Google Business Profile of the businesses we work with is just one of the many ways in which we help small to medium-sized businesses improve their local SEO and bring in more customers and more organic traffic.

If you’re interested in bringing in new clients or customers through your online presence, we can help. We’re experts at helping SMEs to grow online, and start to receive a positive ROI from their online efforts. Get in touch below, to discuss how we can help you!

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