Local SEO

Google Business Profile: how your business shows up locally

What a Google Business Profile is, how to create and verify one, what decides how you show up in local results, and the most common mistakes.

By Daniel Aideborn · Published 21 October 2026 · 3 min read

Short answer: a Google Business Profile is free and decides how your business shows up on Google Maps and in the local results, the box with the map that appears when someone searches for a service nearby. For a business with customers in a particular area, it is often the quickest way to be found.

Below is what the profile does, how to create it, what Google says decides how you show up, how to work with reviews, and the most common mistakes.

What the profile does

The profile gathers what a customer needs before getting in touch: the name of the business, what it does, where it is or which area it covers, opening hours, a phone number, a link to the website and reviews. It shows on Google Maps and in the search results, often above the ordinary results.

How to create it

1. Go to business.google.com and sign in with a Google account the business owns, not an employee's private one.
2. Enter the business name exactly as it is in real life.
3. Choose the category that best describes what you do. The primary category is one of the most important details in the profile.
4. Enter the address if customers visit you, or a service area if you visit them. You can hide the address if you do not receive customers there.
5. Verify the profile. Google chooses the method, such as a postcard, a phone call, an email or a short video.
6. Fill in opening hours, phone number, website, a description and your services.

What decides how you show up

Google itself says that local results are based mainly on three things:

• Relevance. How well the profile matches what someone searches for. The right category, a clear description and listed services help.
• Distance. How far the business is from the person searching, or from the place in the search. You cannot influence it.
• Prominence. How well known the business is: what is written about it online, links to the website, and the number of reviews and the rating. Google says reviews are taken into account.

Reviews

Ask happy customers for a review right after a finished job, with a link that takes them straight there. Reply to every review, the critical ones too, briefly and to the point. Never buy reviews or write them yourself: it breaks Google's rules and can get the profile restricted.

Common mistakes

• Keywords in the business name, such as the town's name after the company name. It breaks Google's guidelines.
• The wrong primary category, or ten categories where two would do.
• Different names, addresses or phone numbers on the profile, the website and in other directories.
• A profile that was never verified, or that sits in a former employee's account.
• Opening hours that were never updated for holidays.

The profile and the website belong together

The profile links to the website, and the website should say the same: the same name, the same area and the same contact details. A page per service makes it easier for Google to understand what you offer, and the technical foundation is in Technical SEO: what a small business actually needs. How long it takes before it shows is in How long does SEO take before it shows?.

Local SEO where relevant is part of Complete Launch, and every launch package gives the site its technical foundation. What each package contains is under pricing.

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