How to set up a Google Business Profile step by step (and ask for reviews)

You create a Google Business Profile for free with a Google account, at business.google.com or in the Google Maps app. You enter the business name, category, address or service area, phone number and website, then verify that the business is yours. Customers see the profile once it's verified; according to Google, the review of a verification can take up to 5 business days.

This guide is based on Google's Business Profile Help (as of 6 November 2026). Button labels may differ slightly in your interface.

What you need

• a Google account (you can create one without a Gmail address),
• the business name exactly as it appears on your sign and website,
• a main category that describes your core business (for example hair salon, accounting firm, restaurant),
• your address if customers visit you – or your service area if you go to them,
• phone number and website (if you have one),
• a phone at hand: verification often means recording a video.

Steps to create the profile

1. Check whether your business is already listed on Google Maps or Search. If so, don't create a new one – claim the existing one.
2. If there's no profile yet, open business.google.com on a computer, or in Google Maps on your phone use Contribute → Add place.
3. Enter the name – without keywords, slogans or town names. “Smith Hair” is fine; “Smith Hair – cheap haircuts Dunakeszi” isn't.
4. Choose the main category. A few categories that describe your core business are better than many.
5. Decide whether customers visit your address. If yes, enter it; if not, enter your service area (see below).
6. Add your phone number and website. The number should be under your control – not a call-forwarding or premium-rate number.
7. Verify the business with the method Google offers.

Verification: which method will you get?

Google chooses the method automatically, and it can't be changed – it depends on the business type, public information, region and opening hours. Sometimes more than one method is needed.

If the “Get verified” button appears again on your profile, verification didn't succeed: try again, or choose another method offered. Never share the verification code – Google never asks you for it.

If customers don't visit your address

If you go to your customers (say you're an electrician or a cleaner working from home), hide your address and set a service area. According to the help centre you can add up to 20 areas, and the whole area shouldn't extend further than about two hours' drive. If you both receive customers and travel to them, you can show both – but then the address needs permanent signage and staff during opening hours.

How to ask customers for reviews

In the Reviews section of your Business Profile, Google gives you a link for requesting reviews (Read reviews → Get more reviews). Share it by e-mail, message or on the receipt, and in a desktop browser you can also download a QR code for the counter or the tables – according to the help centre, QR codes can't currently be created on a phone. Reviewers need a Google account.

What Google's rules prohibit:

• Gifts or discounts for reviews. According to the help centre this “is considered fake engagement and is strictly prohibited” – including in exchange for changing or removing a negative review.
• Selective asking: asking only happy customers and discouraging negative reviews.
• Conflicts of interest: employees, family members or competitors may not review.

Consequences can include the profile not receiving new reviews for a while, or a warning shown to customers. Asking is fine – ask everyone, the same way.

Common mistakes that can lead to suspension

• keywords, slogans or a phone number in the business name,
• a virtual office or PO box as the address where you don't actually work,
• no permanent sign at the address given,
• more than one profile for the same business,
• links in the description, call-forwarding or premium-rate phone numbers.

If your profile is suspended, don't create a new one for the same business: appeal through the appeals tool – according to the help centre, only once.

If someone helps you manage the profile

The profile should stay yours. Google asks authorised representatives (agencies) to let the business owner be the profile owner and to get access as managers – and always to hand the profile over on request. You add a manager under People and access in the profile settings; everyone signs in with their own Google account, no passwords shared.

The profile is free. According to Google's help centre, Google never asks for payment or card details; if a caller asks for money to keep you listed on Google, the call isn't from Google.

What no longer exists

Google shut down the free websites created from Business Profiles in 2024, and chat on profiles on 31 July 2024 – if an older guide recommends these, it's out of date.

If you'd rather not deal with all this, we set up and look after Google Business Profiles too – with details matching your website.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Google Business Profile Help: Sign up for Business Profile, Verify your business, Verify by video recording, Service areas – accessed 6 November 2026.
• Create a link or QR code to request reviews, Prohibited & restricted content, Restrictions for policy violations – accessed 6 November 2026.
• Guidelines for representing your business on Google, Suspended profiles, Owners and managers, Eligibility – accessed 6 November 2026.
• Automated calls and texts from Google, Google Business Profile – FAQ, Chat discontinued – accessed 6 November 2026.