What is a Google Business Profile, and do you need one?

A Google Business Profile is the free listing that puts your business on Google Search and Google Maps, with your name, hours, phone, photos and reviews. If a customer could find you on Google at all, you need one, and you need it verified, because until it is verified you cannot change what it says.

Google's help page states the basics in one line: "When you add and verify your Business Profile, customers can find your business on Search and Maps." (Source: Google Business Profile Help.) The cost: "You can add or claim your business at no charge." (Source: Google Business Profile Help.) Google's product page says the same in its FAQ: "creating a Business Profile and listing your business on Google is free" (Source: Google Business Profile, product page).

It is the panel that appears on the right of a search for your business name on a laptop, and the pin with your name on Maps. It is also where the reviews live. The profile exists whether or not you have a website.

Who can have one

Google's guideline: a business is eligible if it "either has a physical location that customers can visit, or travels to customers where they are" (Source: Google Business Profile Help). Every trade qualifies under the second half.

If you work at the customer's place and nobody visits yours, Google calls you a service-area business: "A business that visits or delivers to customers directly but doesn't serve customers at their business address." (Source: Google Business Profile Help.) For that case Google's instruction is direct: "If you don't serve customers at your business address, remove your address from your Business Profile." (Source: Google Business Profile Help.) So a plumber working out of a home in Latham does not need to publish the home. You set service areas instead: "You can set up to 20 service areas based on the cities, postal codes, or other areas you serve." (Source: Google Business Profile Help.) Google adds that the boundaries of your overall area "shouldn't be more than about 2 hours of driving time from where your business is based" (Source: Google Business Profile Help).

The name rule, because it is where people get suspended

Your profile name must "reflect your business's real-world name, as used consistently on your storefront, website, stationery, and as known to customers" (Source: Google Business Profile Help). Google lists what cannot be added to the name: marketing taglines, store codes, trademark symbols, fully capitalized words, business hours, phone numbers, URLs or special characters (Source: Google Business Profile Help). Special characters, and legal terms such as LLC, are allowed only with real-world proof such as signage, business cards or invoices that they are part of the name (Source: Google Business Profile Help). "Example Plumbing" is a name. "Example Plumbing Best Plumber Albany 24/7" is a suspension waiting to happen.

Verification

Google says why: "To edit your business info on Google, such as business name or business hours, and interact with customers, you need to verify your business." (Source: Google Business Profile Help.) Google chooses the method; the help page states that "Verification methods are automatically determined by Google and can't be changed," and that the options "depend on your business type, public info, region, or business hours" (Source: Google Business Profile Help). The methods it describes are a phone call or text with a code, an email, a live video call with a support representative, and a mailed postcard with a code (Source: Google Business Profile Help).

Do you need one?

Yes, if any of these is true:

• Customers search your business name and you want them to see your hours and phone, not a competitor's ad.
• You want reviews somewhere Google shows them.
• You want to appear on Maps when someone searches for your trade near them.

What a profile does not do: it does not promise a position on the map or in search. Google decides that, and nobody can guarantee it. What you control is whether the profile exists, whether it is verified, whether every field is filled in and whether it is accurate.

How to check yours in five minutes

1. Search your exact business name on your phone. If a panel appears with "Own this business?" or "Claim this business," it is not verified.
2. Open Maps and search your trade plus your town. Note whether you appear at all.
3. Open your profile if you have one and count the empty fields: categories, services, hours, photos, service areas, the website link, the phone.

Next step

If the profile is unclaimed, claim it tonight; it is free and it is yours. If it is claimed and half empty, completing it is part of Search and AI Foundations: categories, services, hours, photos and Q&A filled in, plus structured data on your site, an answer page from real customer questions, and Search Console verified, for $650. Details at /services#aeo.