What is a Google Business Profile?
A Google Business Profile is the free listing Google shows for a business in Search and Maps, with its name, address or service area, phone number, hours, photos and reviews. It was formerly called Google My Business. For a multi-location business, each location has its own profile.
The profile is what appears in Google Maps, and in the map results on Google Search, when someone looks up the business by name or searches for what it offers nearby. It carries the business name, primary and secondary categories, address or service area, phone number, website, hours, services, photos and reviews, and members of the public can suggest edits to it. The owner has to claim and verify the profile before they control it, and an unverified or suspended profile may not show to customers at all. Service-area businesses that travel to customers, such as plumbers or roofers, can hide their address and list the areas they serve instead. Because Google uses the profile’s details to judge relevance, the primary category, the services listed and accurate hours matter as much as the photos. For a multi-location business each location has its own profile, usually managed together in one account, which makes a wrong phone number or stale hours on one location easy to miss.
Related: Local SEO & AI Visibility · Local Pack (Map Pack) · NAP Consistency · Local SEO
Is a Google Business Profile free?
Yes. Creating and managing a profile costs nothing, and Google states that there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking.
Why is my business not showing on Google Maps?
The usual causes are a profile that is not yet verified, a suspended profile, an address or service area Google cannot confirm, or a category that does not match what people search for. The profile’s status is shown in the owner’s dashboard.
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