How to set up a Google Business Profile: a step-by-step guide for 2026

A customer looking for a renovation crew, a plumber or a beautician usually starts with Google or Google Maps. First they see businesses with a pin, a phone number and stars. If your business isn’t there, someone else gets that call, even if they work worse.

A Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is free. In this guide I go through setting it up according to Google Business Profile Help (as of 20 October 2026), from the name to the first reviews. At the end you will find an example of a well-filled-in profile and a 30-minute checklist.

Before you start: the account and an existing profile

You need a Google account. If you are creating a new one, Google advises using a business email address. Don’t set up the profile on an employee’s personal account: when that person leaves, it is easy to lose access. You can add other people to the profile later by entering their email address and choosing a role.

Then check whether the listing already exists, because someone may have added it earlier. In Google Maps, enter the business name and the town:

• if the profile exists and nobody has verified it, choose Claim this business, then Manage,
• if someone else has verified it, ask that person for owner permissions,
• if there is no profile, you create a new one.

Don’t create a second profile “from scratch”. Google states plainly in its help that an account may be suspended if it detects multiple profiles of the same business in one area.

Step 1: name and categories

You create a new profile at business.google.com/create. The following screens are described in Google Business Profile Help. You start with the name and the category.

The name should be the real one: the one on the sign, invoices, website and company car. Google’s guidelines forbid adding the following to the name:

• advertising slogans (“cheapest renovations in Masuria”),
• information about services and location (“bathrooms”, “Giżycko”),
• opening hours, phone number and website address,
• words written entirely in capital letters.

Add the legal form, for example “sp. z o.o.” (a Polish limited liability company), only if the company consistently uses it in its name: according to the guidelines you then have to prove it with authentic documents such as a sign, business cards or invoices. Instead of “Renovations Giżycko CHEAP bathrooms tiles” you simply enter the real name, for example “Remonty Lis” (a made-up company from the example at the end of this guide).

The primary category should describe what the business is, not everything it does. You choose it from Google’s list; you can’t create your own. You add secondary categories (up to 9) after creating the profile, in the Edit profile section. Google advises using as few of them as possible and choosing the most specific ones. Changing a category may lead to a request for re-verification, so don’t test them every week.

Step 2: address or service area

Google will ask whether you have a location that customers can visit.

• Yes, if you receive customers at an address: a salon, workshop, practice or shop. A permanent sign with the company name should hang at that address, and someone must work there during opening hours.
• No, if you travel to customers: a renovation crew, plumber, electrician or cleaning company. Then you enter a service area.

A business with premises that also travels to customers (for example a workshop with a tow service) can show the address and add a service area.

You set the area with towns or postal codes, a maximum of 20 entries. You can’t define it as a radius around your base. According to Google’s guidelines the whole area should not extend beyond roughly 2 hours of driving from the business’s base. Enter the towns you really travel to, not a whole voivodeship (province) just in case.

If you work from home, don’t show the address. You give it to Google, but customers see only the service area. In the dashboard: Edit profile → Location → the pencil next to “Business location” → turn off Show business address to customers → Save.

Don’t enter a virtual office, a PO box or an accounting office where nobody from your company works as the address. According to the guidelines, an address where the business doesn’t operate, for example a virtual office, doesn’t qualify for a profile. The exception is an office where your employees work during opening hours.

Step 3: phone, website and verification

On the next screen you enter the phone number and the website address. The number must be under your direct control, preferably the same as on the website, invoices and car. Numbers that charge the caller are prohibited, regardless of the size of the fee. Later you can add up to 2 additional numbers. The website should lead to your business and not redirect somewhere else.

You click Finish and choose verification: now or later. Until the profile is verified, customers won’t find it on Google.

Which verification methods Google offers

Google chooses the methods automatically and you can’t change them. They depend on the type of business, publicly available information, the region and opening hours. Sometimes you have to complete more than one. Google’s help on verification lists:

• phone or SMS with a code (you have to take the call personally; an automated switchboard won’t pick it up),
• email to the address shown on the verification screen,
• a video recording, which Google recommends if the business qualifies,
• a live video call, only during the business’s opening hours,
• a postcard with a 5-digit code: most arrive within 14 days, and the code expires after 30 days,
• in some cases instant verification, for example when the business’s website passes verification in Google Search Console.

I submit the website to Search Console as part of the Submission to Google and Bing service.

After you complete the steps, Google checks the data for up to 5 business days, in rare cases longer. While you are waiting for the postcard, don’t change the name, address or category, because the code will stop working. Remember too: Google never asks you for a verification code. If someone calls “from Google” asking for the code from an SMS, hang up.

Video recording: what to show

According to Google’s instructions the video must be at least 30 seconds long and recorded with a phone from within the profile, in one take, without editing. You can’t upload a video recorded earlier, so plan the route before recording:

1. Location: a street name sign, the building number or a distinctive place in the neighborhood.
2. Business: a sign with a name matching the profile, and for a business without premises, a car with the logo, tools and equipment.
3. Proof of management: an action that only an employee can perform, for example opening the cash register or the storeroom, and for a business without premises, opening the car with the logo, or an invoice or utility bill with a name matching the profile.

Don’t show account numbers, your NIP (Polish tax ID), identity documents or other people’s faces. On an invoice, cover these details with a sheet of paper.

Step 4: hours, description, photos, reviews and posts

After verification, fill in the rest in Edit profile. Google checks changes before showing them to customers.

Hours and description

Enter the hours when you serve customers. Holidays and vacations you set as special hours: how to do it and what to publish then, I describe in the guide on the Google Business Profile for the holidays.

The description has up to 750 characters, with no links. Write what you do, for whom and where. According to the guidelines, the description must not focus on promotions, prices and sales offers.

Photos

Google accepts JPG or PNG photos from 10 KB to 5 MB, and the recommended resolution is 720 × 720 pixels. They should be sharp and well lit, without heavy filters. To start, add:

• the logo,
• the entrance with the sign, or the company car with its markings,
• 5–10 photos of completed projects, ideally before and after,
• the team at work, with the consent of the people in the photo.

First reviews and posts

Collect the first reviews from customers of recent weeks: send them the review link by SMS or email. I describe ready-made messages in the guide how to get Google reviews. The most important point: no discounts or freebies for a review, because Google treats this as fake engagement. You can check for free how many reviews the businesses around you have in my competitor audit.

You add your first post in Posts → Add post: an update, an offer or an event. To start, an update with a photo of a fresh project and two sentences of description is enough. Posts without a date range go to the archive after 6 months, so add new ones every 2–4 weeks. Don’t put a phone number in the text, because such a post may be rejected.

Example and a 30-minute checklist

Example: a made-up renovation company from Giżycko

“Remonty Lis” is a company made up for the purposes of this guide, and the data in the table are examples. Still, such a profile is typical for Masuria: a two-person crew for bathrooms and finishing work, with no showroom, traveling to customers.

An example description for this made-up profile:

Remonty Lis is a family company from Giżycko. We carry out renovations of apartments and houses: bathrooms, tiling, skim coating, painting and drywall structures. We work in Giżycko and the surrounding area, including Wilkasy, Ryn, Węgorzewo, Kętrzyn, Mikołajki and Orzysz. Before giving a quote, we inspect the site, and we put the scope and the deadline in writing in a contract.

The category names in the example are approximate: you choose them from Google’s list, so in your dashboard they may read differently. All the towns in the example lie within roughly an hour’s drive of Giżycko.

Checklist: a profile ready in 30 minutes

1. 3 min: check in Maps whether the business already has a profile.
2. 2 min: log in to the business Google account.
3. 5 min: the name as on the sign, the primary category.
4. 5 min: the address or service area.
5. 2 min: phone and website, the same as everywhere else.
6. 5 min: start verification (sign, car and document ready before recording).
7. 5 min: hours, description and secondary categories.
8. 3 min: the logo and 5–10 photos.

Prepare the description and photos beforehand so you can paste them right after verification. Ask for reviews only once the profile is visible in Maps.

Mistakes for which Google suspends profiles

A suspension is the result of violating the guidelines, and most of the violations are easy to commit already when setting up the profile:

• keywords and a city in the name, when they are not part of the real name,
• an address where the business doesn’t operate: a virtual office, a PO box, an accountant’s address,
• a visible home address for a business that only travels to customers,
• a second profile of the same business, created “as a trial” or for a neighboring city without a separate premises,
• a service area far beyond 2 hours of driving,
• a number you don’t control, for example an external hotline,
• reviews from family and employees, or in exchange for a discount.

Be careful with changes too. According to Google Help, changing the name or address after verification requires re-verification, and changing the category may end in it, so change this data only when it has really changed. If the profile is already suspended, don’t create a new one. The appeal steps and the list of evidence I describe in the guide on the suspended Google listing.

Summary

You set up a Google Business Profile once, and customers nearby see it every day. A real name, a fitting category, an honest service area and a few good photos are enough to pass verification and start collecting reviews. If you would rather outsource it, I will set up and complete your Google Business Profile from PLN 490 net, and new clients get a 20% discount on their first order.