Blog · Local SEO
Local SEO for small businesses: Google Business Profile step by step (2026)
How to create or claim the profile, get it verified, fill it in the way Google's guidelines expect, and connect it to your website so local searches turn into calls.
- By
- Jovan Milivojević
- Published
- min read
- 9 min read
- Local SEO
- Google Business Profile
- Guide
On this page
Local SEO gets a business found by people nearby: the map in Google results, Google Maps itself, and searches like “dentist near me” or “plumber in [your city].” For a small business, the center of it is Google Business Profile, the free listing with your hours, photos, reviews and a call button. For many local searches, people see it before your website. This guide goes through it the way we set it up, with Google's own help pages in the sources.
Step by step: create, claim, verify
1. Check whether a profile already exists
Search for your business on Google Maps first; many already have a profile. If nobody on your side manages it, claim it. If someone else controls it, like a former employee or an old agency, go to business.google.com/add, find the business and choose Request access. The current owner has 3 days to respond; if they don't, you may be able to claim it yourself.
Create the profile in a Google account that belongs to the business, and add staff or an agency as managers. It's the same rule as for domains in our checklist before a new website: whoever holds the login holds the listing.
2. Storefront or service area
- Storefront: customers come to you, as in a shop, clinic or salon. Show the address, with permanent signage.
- Service-area business: you go to customers, like plumbers, electricians and cleaners. If you don't serve customers at your address, remove it and list up to 20 service areas (cities, postal codes or regions) within about 2 hours of driving.
- Hybrid: customers visit you and you also travel to them. Show the address and add service areas.
What doesn't qualify: P.O. boxes, unstaffed virtual offices, and coworking desks without signage, staff and customers.
3. Name and categories
Use the name exactly as it appears on your sign and your website: no city, keywords, slogan or phone number. “Smile Dental” is fine. “Smile Dental – Best Dentist Downtown” is a classic reason for suspension, and competitors do report it.
Pick one primary category that completes the sentence “this business is a…”, then add only extra categories that are genuinely true, up to 9 more. Google asks for the fewest it takes.
4. Verification
Google decides which verification methods you're offered: phone or text, email, a live video call, a postcard or a video recording. A submission is reviewed within up to 5 business days. While it's pending, don't edit the name, address or category.
The video recording needs the most preparation. What Google asks for:
- At least 30 seconds, one continuous and unedited take, recorded live on a phone inside the Business Profile.
- Where you are: street signs, the building number, neighboring businesses.
- That the business exists: the storefront and a permanent sign with your name. Service-area businesses show tools, equipment or branded workwear.
- That you manage it: unlocking the door, opening the till or the storeroom, or doing the work.
- Leave out: bank, tax or ID numbers, other people's faces and private information.
Fill it in like a page on your site
Services, hours and description
- Services: each one separately, in the words customers use. Add prices or “from” prices where your category allows it.
- Hours: real hours, plus special hours for public holidays. Wrong holiday hours are a fast route to a one-star review.
- Description: up to 750 characters on what you do, for whom and where. No URLs or HTML, and no focus on promotions or prices. The essentials go in the first two sentences.
- Phone and website: a local number rather than a call center, and a link to the page that best represents this location.
Photos: real, yours, recent
Skip the stock images and the AI-generated storefronts. Google's media guidance asks for photos you captured at the place and says to avoid stock photos, screenshots, collages and heavily edited or manipulated images. An invented storefront sets up a letdown, and a letdown becomes a review.
- Logo and a cover photo that shows the place or the work.
- Outside: the entrance as a customer sees it on arrival, in daylight.
- Inside and at work: the team, the workspace, finished jobs, before and after.
- Specs: JPG or PNG, 10 KB to 5 MB, 720 × 720 px recommended, sharp, well lit, no heavy filters. A phone in good daylight is enough.
Chat: WhatsApp or text messages
Google's old built-in chat ended in July 2024. In select regions, verified profiles can now add a WhatsApp link or a number for text messages; if you add both, only text shows. Put WhatsApp and Viber buttons on your website too.
Name, address, phone: identical everywhere
NAP stands for name, address and phone. Google compares the profile with your website and other listings, and so do AI assistants that answer “who does X in Y.”
- Website: the same details in the footer and on the contact page, as text rather than an image, with the phone in international format.
- Other maps: Bing Places can import a verified Google profile, and Apple Business Connect covers Apple Maps.
- Directories and social profiles: fix or remove entries with an old address or number.
- When something changes: update the profile, the site and the directories on the same day.
Link the profile to the page that matches it: the home or contact page for one location, a separate page per location for several. On this site, the company details live in one place in the code, so the footer, the contact page and the schema can't drift apart. That's the setup we recommend.
LocalBusiness schema on your website
Structured data states, in a fixed format, what the page already tells people. Google requires only the name and the address; the rest is recommended. Use the most specific type that fits, such as Dentist, Plumber or HairSalon.
| Property | What goes in | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
name | The name on your sign | Identical to the profile |
address | Street, city, postal code, country | Word for word as on the profile |
telephone | The main number, with country code | The number the profile shows |
geo | Latitude and longitude | At least 5 decimal places |
openingHoursSpecification | Regular hours | Update it with the profile |
aggregateRating and review only for sites that collect reviews about other businesses, so no stars about yourself.Our own site works this way: the company is a ProfessionalService with the Paraćin address from the footer, the phone number and the founders, generated from the same data the pages display. Check any page with Google's Rich Results Test.
Reviews: ask everyone, buy nothing
Google says more reviews and positive ratings can help local ranking. They also decide whether someone calls you or the next result.
How to ask
- Get the link or QR code from the profile: Read reviews, then Get more reviews.
- Send it once the job is done: on the receipt, in a thank-you email or WhatsApp message, on a card at the counter.
- Ask every customer. Inviting only happy ones, known as review gating, is against the policy.
- One sentence and the link is enough. Don't pressure anyone on the spot or suggest what to write.
What gets a profile restricted
- Paying for reviews, or a discount, gift or free service in exchange.
- Reviews from employees, relatives or anyone else with a conflict of interest.
- Review quotas for staff, or asking for specific words.
- Discouraging or suppressing negative reviews.
Google can then block new reviews for a period, unpublish existing ones, and show a public warning that fake reviews were removed. That banner costs more trust than any one-star review.
How to reply
Reply to every review, briefly. Thank people and mention the job. For a negative one, acknowledge it, state the facts calmly and offer to sort it out by phone. You can't delete reviews, but you can flag one that breaks Google's policy.
Posts, and the changes to Q&A
Posts are short updates, offers and events on the profile. Posts older than 6 months are archived unless they have a date range, so one a month is a sensible rhythm. Keep phone numbers out of the text, or Google may reject the post.
Google shut down the Q&A API on November 3, 2025, saying it is reworking the Q&A feature, so don't rely on Q&A on the profile. Where Google's AI answers questions about places (Ask Maps launched in the US and India in March 2026), it draws on the profile, reviews and web content. So answer customers' weekly questions on your website, which ChatGPT reads too, as we describe in how we grew projektikuce.rs.
Measure calls, clicks and directions
The profile's Performance view counts views, the searches that showed you, calls, messages, bookings, direction requests and website clicks. Search terms update monthly, so check the trend once a month.
Add UTM parameters to the website link on the profile: utm_source=google, utm_medium=organic and utm_campaign=gbp. With utm_medium=organic the visits stay under Organic Search in GA4. On the site, count taps on phone, WhatsApp and Viber links as events.
Why profiles get suspended
A suspended profile disappears from Search and Maps. Most suspensions trace back to the rules above:
- Keywords, a city or a slogan in the business name.
- A virtual office, P.O. box or unstaffed coworking desk as the address.
- A service-area business showing a home address.
- Duplicate profiles for one place, often made after a lost login.
- An ineligible business, such as an online-only shop.
- Fake or incentivized reviews.
If it happens, don't create a new profile while the appeal is under review. Appeal with proof that matches the profile, such as a business registration, a business license or a utility bill, and submit the evidence form within 60 minutes of opening it.
Google Business Profile in one table
| Step | What to do | Done when |
|---|---|---|
| Ownership | A business Google account, others as managers | The business is the primary owner |
| Type | Storefront, service area or hybrid | Address hidden if customers never visit |
| Name | Exactly as on the sign | No city, keywords or slogan |
| Categories | One primary, only true extras | Each completes “this business is a…” |
| Verification | A planned 30-second video | The profile shows as verified |
| Details | Services, hours, holidays, description | Nothing blank, no URL in the description |
| Photos | Logo, cover, outside, inside, at work | All real and yours, no stock, no AI |
| NAP and schema | Same details on the site and listings | Footer, contact page and schema match |
| Reviews | Link or QR code for every customer | Every review has a reply |
| Tracking | UTM link, events for calls and chats | A monthly report someone reads |
Frequently asked questions
Where we come in
In the Kvant Partner approach we set the profile up with you: categories, the verification video, details and schema matched to the website, a tagged link, and the numbers in your monthly report. It stays in your name, with us as managers you can remove. Monthly upkeep is part of the SEO Local plan on our SEO page. Or send us your business name and city.
Sources
- Google Business Profile Help: Guidelines, Service-area businesses, Edit your profile, Verification, Video verification, Request ownership
- Google Business Profile Help: Local ranking, Photos and videos, Posts, Chat, Performance, Suspended profiles
- Reviews and media: Maps content policy, Tips for posting media, Ask for reviews, Manage reviews, Restrictions
- Changes: Q&A API change log, End of Business Profile chat, Ask Maps, Bing Places import
- Website and tracking: LocalBusiness structured data, UTM parameters, GA4 channel groups
