How to set up a Google Business Profile: a step by step guide for UK service businesses

Go to business.google.com while signed in to a Google account you will always control, search for your business, then claim it or add it. Choose your category, set an address or a service area, add your phone and website, and verify by video. It is free and takes about an hour. Then add services, photos, a first post and reviews.

Most of the problems we are asked to fix later were baked in on the day the profile was made: the wrong Google account, keywords in the name, a home address on show, or a category picked in a hurry. This guide walks through each step in order, with what we do on our own profile and on clients'.

Is a Google Business Profile free?

Yes, completely. Google does not charge to create, verify or run a Business Profile, and there is no paid version that ranks higher.

What costs money is someone else's time. If a company rings you claiming to be "from Google" and offers to verify or "boost" your listing for a fee, hang up. Google does not make those calls. Paying a designer or an agency to set it up for you is a fair choice if you would rather not spend the hour, but you are paying for the work, not for the listing.

Which Google account should own the profile?

Use a Google account that belongs to the business and that you personally control, such as one tied to your business email. Never use a member of staff's personal account or let a web designer create it under their own email.

This is the mistake that causes the most grief later. The person who created the profile becomes its primary owner. If that is a former employee, a relative or a designer you no longer speak to, getting it back can take weeks. Once the profile exists, you can add other people as managers so they can post and reply to reviews without owning it. If someone sets it up for you, ask them to make you the primary owner before they finish. A good designer will do that without being asked.

Do I already have a profile I need to claim?

Possibly. Google creates listings for businesses from public information, and customers can suggest one, so a profile may already exist that nobody has claimed.

Before you add anything, search your business name and your town on Google Maps. If a listing appears and you cannot edit it, use "Own this business?" or "Claim this business" and follow the steps. If it is already claimed by someone else, Google lets you request access, and the current owner has a few days to respond before you can take it further. Adding a fresh profile instead creates a duplicate, and duplicates split your reviews and confuse Google about which one is real. If your profile already exists and simply never shows up, our guide to why a business is not showing on Google Maps covers the nine usual causes.

What should I put as the business name?

Your real business name, exactly as it appears on your signage, your van, your invoices and your website. Nothing else.

It is tempting to write "Smith Plumbing St Neots Emergency Plumber". It might rank for a while, until a competitor reports it or Google's checks catch it and the listing is suspended. We use "Get You Booked" on ours and nothing more. If your trading name genuinely includes a place or a service, such as "St Neots Dental Care", that is fine, because it is the name.

How do I choose the right category?

Pick one primary category that describes the main thing you want to be found for, as specifically as Google allows. Then add a handful of secondary categories for the other services you really offer.

The primary category does more for your map ranking than anything else you type into the profile. "Hairdresser", "Hair salon" and "Beauty salon" bring different searches. "Roofing contractor" beats "Contractor". "Massage therapist" is not the same as "Massage spa".

The quickest way to choose: search your main service plus your town, open the three businesses in the map results, and see which primary category they use. If all three use one you had not considered, that is a strong hint. You can have up to nine secondary categories, but five or six accurate ones are better than nine loose ones.

Should I show my address or set a service area?

Show your address only if customers come to it during your opening hours. If you go to them, hide the address and set a service area instead.

A salon, clinic, studio or shop with a public address gets a pin on the map. A mobile hairdresser, cleaner, roofer, dog walker or electrician working from home should not show the home address; Google's rules say so, and showing it is a common reason for suspension. You still need to enter the address privately so Google knows roughly where you are based, but you untick the option to show it.

For the service area, list the towns and districts you actually cover, up to about two hours' drive from your base. You can add up to 20. Listing every town in the East of England will not make you rank in all of them, because Google still weighs distance from where you are. Choose honestly. If you work around St Neots, that might be St Neots, Eaton Socon, Eynesbury, Little Paxton, Huntingdon, Sandy, Biggleswade and Cambourne, not Norwich.

What contact details and links should I add?

Your main phone number, your website, and a booking link if you take bookings online. Use the same phone number and the same spelling of your address that your website uses, character for character.

Google cross-checks the profile against your website and the directories that list you. A mobile number on the profile and a landline on the site, or "High St" on one and "High Street" on the other, is a small mismatch that makes Google a little less sure of you. On the website link, point to your homepage, or to a town page if you have one for the place you are based. On the booking link, use the same page your website's Book button goes to. On the site we built for Avismo Aesthetics in St Ives, that is the treatment booking into Aesthetic Nurse Software; for a salon it is usually the Fresha or Wix Bookings page.

How does verification work in 2026?

For most new profiles, Google asks for a short video. You film your premises or your signage, the tools or vehicle you work with, and something that shows you run the business, such as your booking system or a bill in the business name.

Some profiles still get a phone or email code, but video is now the usual route. Film it in one continuous take, in daylight, showing everything the instructions screen lists. If it is rejected, the email says why: fix that one thing and try again. Verification can take minutes or a couple of weeks, and the profile is not public until it finishes. Do not create a second profile to speed it up.

What should I fill in once it is verified?

Everything. A profile with hours, services, prices, photos and a description gives Google and customers far more to go on than one with a name and a phone number. Work through it in this order:

1. Opening hours. Your real hours, plus special hours for bank holidays and Christmas. Wrong hours lose trust faster than anything.
2. Description. Up to 750 characters. Say what you do, who for, and where, in plain sentences. No links, no prices, no capital letters shouting.
3. Services. Add each service as its own item, with a short description and a price or a "from" price. People compare on price before they ring.
4. Products. Optional, but useful for packages. On our own profile we added our three website packages and our monthly plans, each with its price and a link to its page.
5. Photos. Your logo, a cover photo, and at least ten real photos: your work, your premises or van, you. Real photos beat stock images every time.
6. Attributes. Things like online appointments, wheelchair access or "identifies as women-owned", where they are true.

If you would like a check of what a finished build covers, what you get with every site lists the Google profile work we include.

What should my first Google post say?

Something useful to a customer who has never heard of you: your main service, the area you cover, a price if you can give one, and one button to your website. Then post roughly once a week after that.

Posts are not a ranking trick on their own, but a profile that posts weekly and replies to reviews looks open and busy, and customers notice. Keep each one to a short paragraph, use a real photo, and point the button at the matching page. Do not put your phone number in the text; it is already on the profile, and posts with phone numbers are more likely to be rejected.

How do I get my review link and start getting reviews?

On your profile, find "Ask for reviews" or "Get more reviews" and copy the short link. Send it to customers by text or WhatsApp on the day the job finishes, while they are still pleased.

Reviews are the clearest signal Google has that real people use you, and they are usually what separates the three businesses in the map pack from the rest. When we checked the live map packs for web design searches on 22 October 2026, the businesses showing in Huntingdon had between 9 and 30 reviews, and in St Neots between 21 and 50. Your trade and town will differ, so check your own pack and use it as your target.

Reply to every review in a sentence or two, good or bad. Do not offer discounts or freebies in exchange for reviews, and do not only send the link to customers you know are happy. Both are against Google's rules and can cost you the reviews you already have.

Can I run more than one business from one Google account?

Yes. One Google account can own or manage several Business Profiles, and each one is verified and run separately.

What you cannot do is make several profiles for the same business, such as one per town you cover. A mobile business with one base gets one profile with a service area, however many towns it works in.

How long before my profile shows up in searches?

Your business name usually shows within days of verification. Showing for category searches like "electrician Huntingdon" takes longer, often several weeks, and depends on distance, reviews and how well your website backs up the profile.

Do not judge it by searching your own name from your own kitchen. Search the service plus the town in a private window, or ask a friend in the next town for a screenshot.

Do I need to pay someone to do this?

No. Everything in this guide is free and doable by the owner in an afternoon, and if you follow it in order you will have a better profile than most of your competitors.

Where help is worth paying for is the part that never stops: weekly posts, review replies, keeping services and prices current, and a website that names your services and towns so Google trusts the profile. If you would rather hand all of it over, our Full Launch package sets up or tidies your Google profile in your own name, lists you on Google, Bing, Apple Maps and the main UK directories, and posts weekly and answers every review for the first month. Every package and monthly plan is on our pricing page, from £395.

What is the checklist, in one list?

1. Sign in with a Google account the business owns and you control.
2. Search Google Maps for your name. Claim any existing listing instead of adding a new one.
3. Use your real business name, nothing added.
4. Pick the most specific primary category, checked against the three businesses in your map pack.
5. Show your address only if customers visit. Otherwise hide it and list up to 20 towns you really cover.
6. Add the same phone number and address your website uses, your website link and your booking link.
7. Verify by video, in one take, in daylight.
8. Fill in hours, special hours, a 750 character description, services with prices, photos and attributes.
9. Publish a first post with a real photo and one button.
10. Copy your review link and send it to every customer the day the job is done.

If you get stuck at any step, ring Curtis on 07940 022854, Monday to Saturday, 8 to 6. If it is something you can sort yourself in five minutes, we will tell you how.