Setting up a Google Business Profile fits in one afternoon. When I set mine up, the slow part was waiting on Google’s code, so I’d start where verification starts: your business name and address, typed exactly the way they appear everywhere else.
Get your business name and address exactly right first
When I verified my own profile, Google checked the name and address I gave against each place they appeared.
Google adds a second reason: if your information isn’t accurate, the profile might not show up for relevant searches in your area (Google).
When you add the business, Google also asks that the address be correct and meet its guidelines (Google).
Before you open anything, I’d pull up your website footer, your Instagram bio, and the sign on your door, and write the name and address down once, the way the world already sees them. “Second Floor” or “2nd Fl.,” “and” or “&”: copy whichever one is out there, letter for letter.
You’ll also need a Google Account to sign in, Gmail or any email you already use (Google).
I’d keep that note. Each listing you add later gets pasted from it, so the two fields stay matched for years. Google asks for both the moment you add or claim the business.
Add or claim your business and request verification
They go in first, and Google says adding or claiming your business costs nothing (Google).
If you have no profile yet on Search or Maps, start at business.google.com/add and click “Add your business to Google” (Google). If a card for your business already shows up on Maps, I’d follow Google’s prompts to claim that one rather than adding a new listing; that kept my own profile from turning into two.
The last screen asks you to pick a verification option and follow the steps (Google). Google picks which options you see from your business type, public info, region, or hours, and you can’t change them (Google).
If video is offered, Google recommends it (Google). The video has to be one live, unedited recording of at least 30 seconds, made on your phone through the profile, with bank, tax, or ID numbers and other people’s faces kept out of frame (Google).
Verifying lets you edit your name or hours, reply to customers, and own the profile (Google).
I’d send that request before anything else, so the wait goes to the first choice that shapes who finds you: the category.
Choose your category and services
The category is the plainest thing you tell Google about what you do, and Google describes relevance as how well a profile matches what someone is searching for (Google).
I’d say out loud what you’d tell a neighbor who asked what you do, then choose the closest match from Google’s list. If you fix roofs, the roofing choice says more than a general one.
That pick feeds the next screen: service businesses can choose from suggested services based on their category (Google), so a good fit hands you a starter list. When the suggestions list work you don’t do, that’s a sign to choose again.
I’d read the suggested list once, slowly. Anything you’d turn down on the phone comes off, and anything customers ask for that’s missing goes on. When the work changes with the season, open that list again.
Category and services tell Google what you do; hours, logo, and photos show a customer what it’s like to walk in or call.
Fill in your hours, logo, and photos
That first look counts: Google found customers are 70% more likely to visit businesses with a complete Business Profile (Google).
Hours come first, because a wrong hour sends someone to a locked door. Then the logo, which helps customers recognize your business on Google (Google).
Photos matter in a quieter way. You and your customers can both upload photos (Google), so an empty gallery leaves a stranger’s first look to whatever someone else posts. A cover photo is worth setting too, though Google says it isn’t guaranteed to show first (Google).
I’d take five photos on your phone this afternoon: the front door from the sidewalk, the counter or the truck, and a few of the work itself.
After that, one new photo a month, after a job you’re proud of, keeps the profile looking like the place people find when they show up. Once you’re verified, the rest of the upkeep lives in the checklist I use for a finished profile.
With that filled in, a visitor has everything except what you can’t write yourself: what other customers say.
Ask for your first reviews the way Google allows
Those reviews start with asking, and Google’s review policies rule out soliciting them through incentives or review stations at your place of business (Google). So no discount for stars, and no tablet by the register.
I’d send a short thank-you text to the last few customers you know well, asking if they’d share how it went on Google, with nothing said about stars.
Then let it become part of how a job ends: the same text, the same day, so honest reviews arrive at a pace you can keep up with.
If the code never comes, or Google asks for more proof, that’s its own step, and I’m writing it up next. Until then, the thank-you text is the habit worth keeping.
If you’d rather work from a printout at the counter, the kit below has these steps as a PDF.
I hope this helps.