What is a Google Business Profile?

What is a Google Business Profile, in plain words?

It is your business listing on Google. People search for your name, or for a service near them. Google can then show a panel with your details on Google Search and Google Maps. A Google Business Profile is the free account that controls that panel.

Google's own guide to getting started with a Business Profile puts it simply. With a profile, you can manage how your business shows up on Maps and Search at no charge. You need a Google Account to sign up. Some people shorten the name to GBP (Google Business Profile).

The profile is separate from your website. It sits on Google's pages, not yours, and you edit it through Google. This guide covers what a profile is and who can have one. For the steps to set one up and verify it, read our guide to getting your business on Google.

What does a Google Business Profile show?

A profile holds the facts a customer needs before they call or visit. Google's getting started guide lists your opening hours, website, phone number and location, plus photos, videos and reviews. A typical profile shows:

• Business name. Google's guidelines for representing your business say it should match the real-world name on your shopfront, website and stationery.
• Category. The type of business you are, such as plumber or florist. The guidelines say to pick the fewest categories that describe your core business.
• Location or service area. A street address, an area you cover, or both.
• Opening hours, phone number and website. Including special hours for holidays.
• Photos and videos. Of your premises, your team and your work.
• Reviews. Customers leave them, and you can reply.
• Posts. Short updates about offers, events and news.

Some profiles also let customers book an appointment. The core is the same for most small businesses: who you are, where you work, when you are open and what customers say.

Who can have a Google Business Profile?

Any business that meets its customers face to face during its stated hours. That is the main test in Google's rules. It covers two kinds of business, plus a mix of both.

• Shopfront businesses. Customers come to you: a café, a salon, a dental practice or a garage. Your address shows on the profile, and the guidelines expect permanent signage with your business name at that address.
• Service-area businesses. You go to your customers: a plumber, a cleaner or a mobile dog groomer. Google's help page on service-area businesses defines these as businesses that visit customers but do not serve them at their business address. You list the areas you cover and hide your address.
• Hybrid businesses. You do both, such as a garden centre that also visits homes. You can show your address and a service area together.

The service-area page adds that your area should not stretch further than about two hours of driving time from where your business is based. Seasonal businesses can also have a profile, so long as they meet customers in person while they are open.

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Which businesses cannot have a Google Business Profile?

Businesses that never meet customers in person. Google's getting started guide says profiles are not for online-only businesses, or for properties for rent or sale. If customers cannot visit you and you do not visit them, you are not eligible.

The guidelines also rule out some addresses. A virtual office, where you rent a postal address but do not work from it, is not eligible. Nor is a post office box. A shared co-working desk only counts if it has clear signage and is staffed during your opening hours.

There should be one profile per business. The guidelines say duplicate profiles can cause problems with how your details show on Maps and Search. A service business with separate offices, separate service areas and separate staff at each can have one profile for each office.

Is a Google Business Profile free?

Yes. Google does not charge to create a profile or to keep it. Google's Business Profile home page describes it as a free Business Profile on Google Search and Maps. You do not need to pay to appear in the listing or to reply to reviews.

The real cost of a profile is time: keeping hours right, adding photos, answering reviews and posting updates. That is why some owners do it themselves and others hand it to someone else.

Why does a Google Business Profile matter for local search?

Because it is often the first thing a local customer sees. Google's Business Profile home page says a profile helps you be found when people search Google Maps and Search for businesses like yours. Your profile is what they see. It shows your phone number, hours and reviews without the customer needing to open your website.

Google's getting started guide says a verified profile can help customers find you and build greater trust in your business. An empty or out-of-date profile has the opposite effect. Wrong hours or an old phone number can send a customer to the business next door.

A profile is also the base for showing up in Google Maps at all. How high you appear depends on more than having one. Our guide to ranking higher on Google Maps covers what moves your position.

How can Buzzozo help with your Google Business Profile?

We look after it for you. Local search engine optimisation (SEO) is the work of helping nearby customers find you on Google, and your profile sits at the centre of it.

Our local SEO service, including Google Business Profile management, keeps your categories, photos, posts and questions up to date. We also help with reviews and with your listings on other sites.

A profile works best when it points to a good website. A managed website we build and look after gives customers somewhere to land when they tap your link. The Website plan is from £149 a month for the first 100 businesses, locked for life, and from £299 a month after the first 100. It is monthly, with no contract. Our website plans and prices list everything included.

You can see it working before you pay anything. Get your free website: we build it, it goes live in days, and you pay nothing for the first 14 days. No card needed.

If your listing is already set up, our checklist for a Google Business Profile not showing in search helps you decide what to check next. If you are closing or handing over the business, read how to delete or close a Google Business Profile first.

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