Resources · Local search

How to set up a Google Business Profile that gets found (and stays live)

By Francis Valente, Navaro Systems · Updated 17 October 2026

Short answer: A Google Business Profile is the free listing that puts your business in Google Maps and in the panel beside search results. Set it up at business.google.com with your real business name and nothing added, the most specific primary category Google offers, your phone number and website, and either your address or the areas you serve. Google then verifies you, often with a short video. After that, the profiles that get found are the ones with complete details, a steady flow of reviews and real photos.

Key points

  • Use your real-world business name exactly as customers see it. Adding keywords to the name breaks Google's rules and is a common reason profiles get suspended.
  • Your primary category matters more than almost anything else you fill in. Pick the most specific one that fits.
  • If customers don't come to you, hide your address and list the areas you serve instead.
  • Ask every happy customer for a review, one at a time, and reply to every review you get.
  • Keep your name, phone number and website identical to what's on your own site.

What a Google Business Profile does

It's the listing behind the map results and the panel that appears when someone searches your business name: hours, phone number, reviews, photos and a link to your site. For local searches like electrician near me, Google says it ranks profiles mainly on three things: relevance to the search, distance from the person searching, and prominence, which takes in reviews and how well known the business is across the web.

It's free, and for a local business it's often the first thing a customer sees, before your website.

Before you start

  • Use a Google account you'll keep for the long term, ideally on a business email, and add a second owner later so you can't be locked out.
  • Settle your details first: the business name as it appears on your signage and invoices, one phone number, your website, and hours you'll actually keep.
  • Search for your business on Google Maps first. Google sometimes creates a profile from public information, and if one exists you should claim it rather than create a duplicate.

Setting it up, step by step

  1. Go to business.google.com and add your business.
  2. Name: your real business name only. No suburb and no service keywords, unless they're actually part of your registered or trading name.
  3. Primary category: the most specific match, such as Plumber rather than Contractor. You can add secondary categories for other services once the profile is live.
  4. Location: if customers visit you, enter the address. If you go to them, choose not to show an address and add service areas instead: the suburbs or regions you actually cover. Google's guidance is to keep service areas within about two hours' drive of your base.
  5. Phone and website: the same ones that are on your site, so your details match everywhere.
  6. Verification: Google chooses the method. A short, unedited video is common. It usually needs to show where you are (street signs or nearby businesses), your equipment, vehicle or signage, and that you run the business, such as unlocking the premises or opening a tool box.

Fill out everything once you're verified

  • Description: what you do, for whom and where, in plain words, within Google's 750-character limit. Keep links and promotional offers out of it; Google's guidelines don't allow them there.
  • Services, with prices where you can give them. Services are the place for prices.
  • Hours, including public holidays. A profile that says open when you're closed costs you trust and phone calls.
  • Photos: your logo, a cover photo, and real photos of your work, your team and your premises or vehicle. Keep adding them over time.
  • Attributes that apply to you, such as wheelchair access or online appointments.

Reviews: the part that compounds

Reviews feed the prominence side of Google's ranking, and they're what people read before they ring you. The steady approach works best: ask every satisfied customer, at the moment they're happiest, and send them your profile's direct review link (the Ask for reviews button on your profile gives you one).

  • Don't offer discounts, gifts or anything else for a review. Google prohibits incentivised reviews.
  • Don't filter who you ask so only happy customers get the link, and don't post reviews for yourself, your staff or your family.
  • In Australia, fake or misleading reviews can also breach the Australian Consumer Law, and the ACCC has taken action over them.
  • Reply to every review, good or bad, briefly and without arguing. Future customers read the replies as much as the reviews.

Posts and keeping it current

Updates you post show on your profile. They won't rescue a thin profile, but a post a month showing real work, a new service or a seasonal reminder signals the business is active. More useful still is keeping the basics right: hours, phone number and photos that match what a customer finds when they turn up.

What gets profiles suspended

  • Keywords or suburbs stuffed into the business name.
  • A virtual office, PO box or co-working address listed as a place customers can visit when it isn't staffed during your hours.
  • Two profiles for the same business at the same address.
  • Service areas far beyond where you actually work.
  • Changing your name, address and category all at once, which can trigger re-verification.

If it happens, fix the cause first, then request reinstatement through Google's appeal process with evidence such as your ABN registration and photos of your signage or vehicle.

Questions people ask

Can I have a Google Business Profile without a shop or office?

Yes. Service-area businesses that go to their customers can hide their address and list the areas they serve. You still give Google an address to verify, but it isn't shown publicly.

How long does verification take?

It varies. Video verifications are often reviewed within about five business days, and it can take longer if Google asks for more evidence.

Do I need a website to have a profile?

No, but a profile that links to a site with matching details does better, and the site gives Google and AI assistants more to confirm what you do.

Should I pay someone to manage my profile?

Setting it up is an afternoon's job most owners can do themselves. What takes discipline is the ongoing part: asking for reviews, replying to them, adding photos and keeping your details current.

Free 60-second website read at navaro.com.au, no sign-up. Or ring Francis Valente on 0426 951 399.