When someone searches for "salon near me" or "dentist in Malviya Nagar", the first thing they often see isn't a website. It's a map with a few businesses pinned on it, each with its timings, phone number, photos and reviews. Those listings come from Google Business Profile.
A Business Profile is free, and for a local business it's one of the most useful things you can set up online. This guide explains who can have one, how to set it up, what to fill in, and why it works best together with your own website.
What a Google Business Profile is
It's your business's listing on Google Search and Google Maps. A complete profile shows:
- your business name, category and a short description
- your address, or the area you serve
- opening hours, including special hours on festival days
- your phone number and a link to your website
- photos of your place, your work and your products
- reviews from customers, and your replies to them
Customers can call you, get directions or open your website straight from the listing, often without visiting anything else.
Can your business have one?
Not every business qualifies, so check this first. Google's rule is that a business must meet its customers in person during its stated hours. That works in two ways:
- A place customers visit, such as a shop, restaurant, clinic, salon or coaching centre. Your address is shown on the map.
- A service-area business that goes to its customers, such as a home tutor, a plumber or a mobile beautician. You set the areas you serve and can keep your home address hidden.
A business that works only online, with no face-to-face contact, isn't eligible. Neither is an address you don't actually operate from, such as a virtual office or a friend's shop. Profiles that break these rules can be suspended.
How to set it up
- Go to google.com/business and sign in with a Google account that belongs to the business, not a personal one you might lose access to.
- Enter your business name exactly as it appears in real life, on your signboard and bills. Don't add extra words like "best" or your city; that's against Google's rules and can get the profile suspended.
- Choose the primary category that describes your main service, such as "Dental clinic" or "Beauty salon". You can add a few secondary categories later.
- Add your address, or your service areas if you go to customers.
- Add your phone number and your website address.
- Verify the profile. Google chooses the methods you're offered, which can include a phone call or text, an email, a short video of your business or a postcard. The profile only shows publicly once it's verified.
What to fill in after verification
A verified but empty profile does little. Take an hour to complete it:
- Hours: your regular timings, plus special hours for holidays and festivals, so nobody arrives to a closed shutter.
- Description: up to 750 characters on what you do, who you serve and what makes you different. Write it for customers, not for search engines.
- Photos: the outside of your place, so people recognise it, the inside, your work or products, and your team at work if you're comfortable with that. Real photos work better than stock images.
- Products and services: list your main services, with prices where you're happy to share them.
- Updates: post offers, new services and events from time to time. It shows the profile is active.
Reviews: ask, reply, never fake
Reviews are among the first things people read, and they're one of the signals Google uses.
- Ask every happy customer. Your profile has a review link you can share on WhatsApp or print as a QR code at your counter.
- Reply to every review, good or bad, politely and briefly. A calm reply to a complaint often reassures future customers more than another five-star review.
- Never buy reviews, write your own, or offer discounts in exchange for them. It's against Google's policies, reviews can be removed, and the profile can be restricted.
How Google decides which businesses to show
Google explains that local results depend mainly on three things:
- Relevance: how well your profile matches what the person searched for. Complete, accurate categories and services help here.
- Distance: how far your business is from the searcher or the location they searched for.
- Prominence: how well known your business is, including your reviews and what's written about you elsewhere on the web.
You can't change your distance, but you can improve relevance with a complete profile, and prominence over time with reviews and a good website.
Why you still need a website
A Business Profile is a summary. It has limited space and limited control: you can't fully explain your services, show a full menu or price list, or answer the questions customers usually ask before they decide.
That's what the website link on your profile is for. Someone finds you on the map, taps your website, and finds your services, prices, photos and a WhatsApp button in one organised place. Your website also adds to your prominence, because Google sees a real business with real information behind the listing.
Keep the two consistent. Your business name, address, phone number and timings should match exactly on your profile, your website and everywhere else, so neither customers nor Google get confused.
Common mistakes to avoid
- keywords stuffed into the business name
- the wrong primary category
- different phone numbers or addresses on the profile and the website
- old timings, especially during festivals
- two profiles for the same business
- reviews left unanswered for months
Putting it together
Set up your profile, verify it and fill in every section. Ask for reviews and reply to them. Then make sure the website link leads somewhere useful.
Would you rather not do it yourself? Our local SEO and Google Business Profile service sets up and verifies your profile, keeps it complete and up to date, and keeps your details the same everywhere.
If you don't have a website yet, a business website gives your profile a proper place to send people, with your services, a WhatsApp button and your Google Maps location built in. See how we build websites, or check prices to get started.