How to Add Your Business to Google Maps (and Get Verified)

Step 1: Check whether your business is already on Maps

Before creating anything, search for your business on Google Maps by name and town. Customers, Google itself or a previous owner may already have added it, and you want one profile, not two competing ones. Try the name on your sign, the name people actually use, and your street: a listing a customer created years ago may carry a misspelled name.

One of three things will happen:

• You find it, and it says “Claim this business”. The listing exists but nobody manages it. On a computer, select Claim this business, then Manage now. In the Google Maps app, open the listing, tap About, then Claim this business and Manage now. You go straight to verification (step 4 below).
• You find it, but someone else manages it. A former owner, an old employee or an agency may hold it. Go to business.google.com/add, search for the business, select it and choose Request access. Google emails the current owner, who has 3 days to respond; if they don’t, you may get the option to claim it yourself. Google’s ownership request steps have the details.
• It isn’t there. Create it, as below.

Is your business eligible, and what name should you use?

Google Maps is for businesses that meet customers in person: a shop, restaurant, salon or workshop people come to, or a plumber, cleaner or driver who goes to them. A business that only sells online, with no place customers visit and no visits to customers, isn’t eligible for a profile.

Use the name on your sign, your receipts and your shopfront. Stuffing a city or keywords into the name, like “Luigi’s Pizza Best Pizza Downtown”, goes against Google’s guidelines for representing your business and can get a profile suspended. The category and the description are where you say what you do.

Step 2: Create the profile at business.google.com/add

On a computer, or in your phone’s browser, go to business.google.com/add, sign in with the Google account you want to manage the business from, and select Add your business to Google. Pick an account the business will keep, not a staff member’s personal address; you can add managers later.

The form asks for your details one screen at a time. The wording changes now and then, but the questions are, roughly in this order:

1. Business name. As it appears on your sign.
2. Business category. Start typing and choose from Google’s list. It matters more than it looks; see the next step.
3. Whether customers can visit you. If yes, enter the address and check that the pin on the map sits on your door, not in the middle of the block.
4. Whether you also serve customers elsewhere. If you deliver or travel to customers, add the areas you cover.
5. Contact details. A phone number that rings at the business, and a website if you have one. If you only have a Facebook or Instagram page, leave the website empty; social profiles get their own place in the profile later.
6. Verification. Google shows the method available to you.

Step 3: Choose your primary category carefully

The primary category is the most consequential choice on the form. It tells Google what kind of business you are, and it switches features on: restaurants, for example, can add links for online orders, reservations and menus. Google’s advice, in its guide to business categories, is to pick the most specific category that describes the business as a whole, and to add a few secondary categories only for real departments or services, not one for every product.

Specific is better than general:

• A pizza place is better listed as Pizza restaurant than as Restaurant.
• A shop that cuts men’s hair is a Barber shop, not a Hair salon.
• A corner shop open late is a Convenience store; a full-size food shop is a Grocery store or Supermarket.
• A café that also does brunch can be a Coffee shop or Cafe first, with Brunch restaurant as a secondary category.

You can’t create your own category; if yours isn’t listed, choose the closest general one. You can change the category later, but Google may ask you to verify again when you do, so it pays to get it right now.

Storefront, service area, or both

How you answer the location questions decides what customers see on the map:

• Storefront. Customers come to you during your opening hours, so your address shows. A café, a barbershop, a corner shop.
• Service-area business. You go to customers and don’t receive them at your address: a mobile mechanic, a cleaning company, a plumber working from home. Hide the address from customers (Edit profile → Location, then turn off showing the business address) so your home isn’t on the map, and list the areas you serve instead.
• Hybrid. Both: a garage that also collects cars, a bakery that delivers. Show the address, set your hours for when staff are there to receive customers, and add a service area too.

You can add up to 20 service areas, as cities, postal codes or districts, and Google asks that they reach no further than about two hours’ drive from your base. Later changes go through Edit profile → Location; see Google’s service area guide.

Step 4: Get verified by video, phone, email or postcard

A new profile doesn’t show on Maps until Google verifies it. You don’t pick the method: Google offers options based on your business type, public information, region and hours. They can include:

• Video recording, now common, and the one Google recommends when it is offered.
• Phone call or text message with a code.
• Email with a code.
• Live video call with Google.
• Postcard with a code, mailed to your address.

Video verification is recorded on a phone or tablet: on your Business Profile, tap Get verified, then Business video, and record one live, unedited, continuous video of at least 30 seconds. Google wants to see three things:

1. Where you are: a street sign, a building number or a landmark near the entrance.
2. That the business exists: your signage or storefront, with the name on a permanent fixture. A service-area business shows its tools, equipment, products, or branded clothing or vehicle.
3. That you run it: something only staff can reach, like the till, the stockroom or the point-of-sale system. A service business can show a permit, an invoice or a utility bill, or you doing the work.

Plan the route before you press record: start on the street sign, walk to the name over your door, go in and step behind the counter. Google says reviews take up to 5 business days, and if a video is rejected you are told what was missing and can record a new one. The full requirements are in Google’s video verification guide.

If you are sent a postcard: most arrive within 14 days, and the code expires after 30. Don’t request a new code while you wait, because that cancels the first one. And don’t change your business name, address or category until you have entered the code, or it won’t work.

What to do while you wait

Use the waiting days to finish the profile, so it is complete the moment it goes public:

• Hours. Your regular hours, plus special hours for the next public holidays. A seasonal business can use the current season’s hours.
• Photos. A logo, a cover photo, the outside as people see it when they arrive (it helps them recognise you), the inside, and your best products or work. JPG or PNG, between 10 KB and 5 MB, ideally 720 × 720 pixels or more, well lit and not heavily filtered. They stay pending until you are verified, then appear.
• Description. Up to 750 characters, no links. Say what you do, who it is for and what is particular about you, in plain words.
• Services or menu. List what you offer. Restaurants and cafés can add a menu; how to add a menu to Google Maps covers the options.
• Opening date. Not open yet? You can set an opening date up to a year ahead, and it shows on the profile from 90 days before.

If you are waiting for a postcard, finish everything except the name, address and category.

Step 5: Get your first reviews

A verified profile with no reviews is real but quiet. Reviews are what new customers read first, and they count toward how prominent Google considers you: its page on how local ranking works says more reviews and positive ratings can help.

Get your review link on a computer: open your Business Profile, select Read reviews, then Get more reviews. Copy the link, or right-click the QR code to save it; Google only generates the QR code in a computer browser. Then:

• Ask in person, at the moment the customer is pleased: the end of a haircut, handing back a repaired car.
• Send the link to regulars by message, and print the QR code where people wait. A table card with a QR code is the simplest version.
• Ask everyone, not only the customers you expect to be happy. Google’s rules forbid selectively asking for positive reviews, and offering a discount or a freebie in exchange for a review is prohibited.
• Reply to every review, good and bad. How to respond to Google reviews has examples for both.

Next step: put a website on the listing

A Maps listing answers “where” and “when”. A website answers the questions people have just before they decide: what is on the menu, which services you offer, whether there is a gluten-free option, what the place looks like inside. The Website field on your profile is where that link goes, and how to add a website to your Google Business Profile covers the steps and the common mistakes.

If you don’t have a site, you can build one from the listing you just created. blasa reads your Google Maps listing (reviews, photos, hours, category, booking or ordering links) and publishes a website from it in a few minutes, with nothing to write. It works best once the listing has some substance, because the site is written from what customers say and nothing is invented to fill gaps. Give the listing a few weeks to collect real photos and a handful of reviews; a listing with two reviews gives a site little to say. When it is ready, create your website for free and paste its address into the Website field. Turning your Google Maps listing into a website shows what you get.

For the wider picture, how to get a free website for your small business compares the options, and does a website help you rank on Google Maps? covers what a site changes for your place on the map.