How to Set Up a Google Business Profile (Without Getting It Suspended)

Setting up a Google Business Profile looks like a ten-minute form, and the form itself is quick. But a few choices on it carry rules most owners have never read. Add a keyword to your business name, leave your home address showing when customers never visit, or open a second profile for the next town, and your listing can be suspended or hidden as a duplicate. Some of those mistakes are slow to undo.

Below is every step in order, with Google’s own rule beside each one, followed by what gets profiles suspended, what to do if it happens, and how to have a professional handle it without handing over ownership.

A Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is the free listing that shows your name, location or service area, phone number, hours, photos and reviews on Google Search and Maps. Google lets you add or claim your business at no charge, and nothing in the process requires a professional. If you have time to learn the rules and keep checking the profile afterwards, you can do it yourself.

Before you start

Check your business is eligible

Google’s eligibility guidelines say a business “must make in-person contact with customers during its stated hours”. A shop, clinic or office that customers visit qualifies, and so does a trade that travels to customers. Google lists these, among others, as ineligible:

• online-only businesses and brands;
• properties for rent or sale, such as holiday homes (a letting or sales office is fine);
• lead generation companies;
• any business whose address is a PO box or a mailbox in a remote location.

Google’s wider guidelines add that a virtual office (a postal address you rent but don’t work from) isn’t eligible. A co-working space counts only with clear signage, staff during your opening hours and customers received there.

What you need to hand

• A Google Account that belongs to the business, not to a web designer or former employee. If you’re creating one, Google recommends using your business email address.
• Your business name exactly as customers see it on your signage, van, invoices and website.
• Your address, or the towns and postcodes you cover if customers don’t come to you.
• A phone number you control and answer, and your website address if you have one.
• Your real customer-facing opening hours.
• A clear idea of what the business mainly is. This becomes your primary category.

Check whether a profile already exists

Search Google Maps for your business name and town first. A listing may already exist even if you never created one.

• Unverified? Choose “Claim this business” rather than creating a new profile.
• Already verified by someone else? Request ownership. The current owner has three days to respond; if they don’t, you may get the option to claim it, though Google says that isn’t always available. A service-area business without a shop or office has to contact Google support instead.
• Nothing there? Go to step 1.

Don’t create a second profile to get round an old one. Google allows only one Business Profile for each business, and a profile treated as a duplicate won’t show on Search or Maps. If you’ve forgotten which account you used, Google points you to its Accounts troubleshooter.

How to set up your Google Business Profile, step by step

These steps follow Google’s sign-up process at the time of writing (September 2026). Screens and button names change often; the rules behind each step change far less.

We’ll follow one made-up business through it: Sample Electrical, a one-person electrician working from the owner’s home and covering a town and its surrounding villages.

1. Sign in with the right Google Account

Go to business.google.com/create and sign in with the business’s Google Account, or create one.

Google’s rule: whoever verifies the profile becomes its owner, and if an owner’s Google Account is removed, Google says it removes all the locations owned by that user.

Avoid: setting the profile up in someone’s personal account.

Check: you’re in an account the business controls, and you hold its password and recovery details.

2. Enter your business name exactly as customers see it

Type your name, or pick it from Google’s suggestions. If Google says someone else has already verified the business, stop and request ownership (see above).

Google’s rule: the name “should reflect your business’ real-world name, as used consistently on your shopfront, website, stationery and as known to customers.” Google’s guidelines for representing your business ban taglines, phone numbers, web addresses, opening hours, service or location keywords and fully capitalised words. Legal terms such as LTD are allowed only with real-world proof you trade under them. Unnecessary information in the name “could result in the suspension of your Business Profile.”

Avoid: “Sample Electrical – 24/7 Emergency Electrician Worcester”. If the van says “Sample Electrical”, that’s the name.

Check: the name matches your signage or van, invoices and website word for word.

3. Choose your primary category

Search for the category that describes what your business is.

Google’s rule: choose the most specific category that fits (Google’s example is “Nail salon” rather than “Salon”). You can’t invent one. Google’s category guidance says not to pick a category for every product or service, and its guidelines say to use the fewest categories possible and not to use them as keywords. A useful test: the category should complete the sentence “This business IS a…”.

Avoid: a category per service, as some guides recommend. Services belong in your services list and description. Categories do affect local ranking; our guide to the Google 3-pack explains how ranking works.

Check: “This business IS a [category]” is true. Bear in mind that changing categories later can mean verifying again.

4. Add your address or your service areas

Google asks whether customers can visit you, and your answer sets the type of profile.

• Yes (shopfront): customers come to your premises, which are staffed during your stated hours. The address will be public, and you need permanent signage there.
• No (service-area business): you visit or deliver to customers, like the plumbers and cleaners in Google’s examples. Hide your address and list the areas you serve.
• Both (hybrid): you do both. Without permanent signage, Google says you should be listed as a service-area business.

Google’s rule: its service-area rules allow up to 20 areas by city, postcode or other area, but not a radius around your base, whatever older guides say. Google recommends staying within about two hours’ driving time, though larger areas may suit some businesses.

Sample Electrical answers “No”, hides the home address and adds the town, villages and postcodes the owner actually covers.

Avoid: a virtual office, PO box or borrowed address to look local, or leaving a home address showing when customers never visit. Google suspends profiles set at a PO box, and disables a profile if it decides the business doesn’t exist where it claims.

Check: for a service-area business, the address is hidden and every area is somewhere you genuinely work; for a shopfront, the address matches your signage.

5. Add a phone number and website you control

Google’s rule: the phone number must be under the business’s direct control. With several locations, Google recommends a number per location rather than a remote call centre.

Avoid: premium-rate numbers, and numbers or web addresses that redirect people to other landing pages, including social media pages. Google doesn’t allow either.

Check: ring the number from another phone and make sure it reaches you; click the website link and make sure it lands on your own site.

6. Verify your business

Verification is Google checking that the business is real, is where you say, and that you’re entitled to manage it. Google says customers can only find a new profile once it’s done, and recommends reviewing everything first. Then choose Verify now or Verify later.

Google’s rule: you don’t choose the method. Google’s verification page says methods “are automatically determined by Google and can’t be changed”, based on things like your business type, region and hours; some businesses need more than one. At the time of writing, they include:

• phone or text (automated answering systems won’t receive the code);
• email;
• live video call, during opening hours at the business (not available to everyone);
• video recording, filmed and uploaded from your phone;
• postcard (not available to every business).

Google recommends video verification if you’re offered it. Its video recording rules are specific:

• Record live: at least 30 seconds, unedited, one continuous take.
• Show where you are: street signs, building numbers or neighbouring businesses. A home-based service-area business can film landmarks and signs in the immediate neighbourhood.
• Show the business exists: for a shopfront, the name on a permanent sign matching your profile; for a service-area business, tools, equipment, business cards or branded clothing.
• Show you manage it: opening the till or storeroom, unlocking a branded van, or an invoice or utility bill in the business name.
• Leave out bank, tax or ID numbers, private information and other people’s faces.

For Sample Electrical, that could mean a street sign near the house, then unlocking the branded van to show the tools, then an invoice in the business name, all in one take. If Google rejects a video, it says what was missing (for example “No nearby area shown”); record a new one with everything from the first attempt plus the missing part.

If you’re sent a postcard, Google says most codes arrive within 14 days and codes expire after 30 days.

Avoid: while a postcard is on its way, editing your business name, address or category (the code won’t work) or requesting a new code (which cancels the one in the post). And don’t share the code with anyone. Google says it never asks for it, and you shouldn’t share it “even with those who manage your Business Profile”.

Check: after Google’s review (up to five working days, occasionally longer), the profile no longer asks you to verify. If “Get verified” reappears later, Google couldn’t completely verify the business; a request to re-verify is likely because details were recently changed.

7. Finish the profile: hours, description, photos and reviews

Hours: your regular customer-facing hours. Google says appointment-only businesses shouldn’t list opening hours.

Description: what you do and where, in plain words. Google bans links of any kind and says it shouldn’t focus on promotions or prices; its example of what not to write is “Best butties in town for £5!”

Photos: real pictures of your premises, work, team or van. Google’s photo guidance says images should represent reality, accepts JPG or PNG files from 10 KB to 5 MB and recommends 720 × 720 pixels. They only appear once you’re verified.

Reviews: ask customers for honest reviews. Our guide on how to get more Google reviews covers doing it properly.

Avoid: offering anything in return for a review. Google’s contribution policy bans incentives, asking only happy customers and asking for specific content.

Check: every field matches reality, the description has no links or prices, and your photos show on the live profile. If you’re a trade, the local SEO checklist for tradespeople covers what to do next.

The mistakes that get profiles suspended or rejected

Everything here comes from Google’s help pages or the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). Google doesn’t publish how often it takes each action, so treat these as risks, not predictions.

Mistake	The rule	What can happen
Keywords, locations or taglines in the name	Use your real-world name	Profile suspended
PO box or remote mailbox as the address	Not acceptable	Profile suspended
Virtual office address	Not eligible for a profile	Disabled if Google decides the business doesn’t exist at that address
A second profile for another town or service	One profile per business	Duplicate hidden from Search and Maps; for multiple profiles in the same metropolitan area, Google says your Google Account may be suspended
A new profile after moving	Update the existing one (some venues, such as restaurants and hotels, are handled differently)	Duplicate; a move also means verifying again
Editing name, address or category while a postcard is on its way	Don’t	The code won’t work
Paid, incentivised or fake reviews	Banned by Google; fake reviews also banned by UK law since April 2025	Warning alerts on your profile and reviews switched off; CMA fines

The CMA says Google agreed to add prominent warning alerts to UK businesses that boost ratings with fake reviews and stop them receiving new ones. The CMA can now fine businesses up to 10% of global turnover for posting or commissioning them.

What happens when something goes wrong

Suspended, disabled or restricted

Google’s policy overview uses three different actions:

• Suspended: action on a profile for breaking a policy, such as a PO box address.
• Disabled: for example, Google has decided your business doesn’t exist at the location you claimed.
• Account restricted: the account holder has shown a pattern of policy breaches. Every profile on the account is suspended, and you won’t be able to create or claim other profiles.

That’s why it matters which account owns your profile, and why nobody should experiment with extra profiles on it.

Edits “Not approved”, re-verification and suggested edits

Google reviews edits to a verified profile; it says most take up to 10 minutes but some take up to 30 days. An edit can come back “Not approved” if Google can’t confirm it. UK businesses can use Google’s appeals tool for rejected edits, as well as suspensions and restricted photos, videos or posts.

Some edits send you back to verification. Google says changing your name might mean verifying again, and moving address means you must. A category change can too.

You aren’t the only one who can change your profile. Google gathers information from user reports and other sources and may update it. When it notifies you of a suggested edit, you have four days to accept or reject it; after that, Google may publish it if other public information, such as your website, supports it. Owners who don’t access their profile for long periods may also lose access after a warning. Someone has to keep an eye on it.

How to appeal a suspension

Google’s process for a suspended or disabled profile:

1. Fix the problem first. The appeals tool shows the reason and the policy involved; make the whole profile follow the guidelines.
2. Gather evidence, such as business registration documents, a business licence, tax certificates or utility bills. Check the name and address on them match the profile.
3. Submit in one sitting. Once you open the evidence form, you have 60 minutes to submit it or it won’t be attached.
4. Wait for the email. Google says decisions can take up to five working days. Statuses include Approved, Not approved and Can’t be appealed.

While you wait, don’t submit more than one appeal for the same issue, and don’t create a new profile for the same business. If your whole account is restricted, appeal the account first at myaccount.google.com/restrictions. If an appeal is refused, Google may offer an additional review where you can add new evidence.

Google publishes no success rates, and nobody can honestly promise a reinstatement. For the full step-by-step route, including what to do if your appeal is refused, see our guide to what to do when your Google Business Profile is suspended.

Owners, managers and keeping control

Google’s owners and managers page says that to manage a profile without sharing your password, “each user needs their own Google Account.” So ignore any guide that tells you to share your login with trusted people.

• Owners have full control, including adding or removing users and deleting the profile. There can be several owners but only one primary owner.
• Managers can do almost everything else, but can’t add or remove users or remove the profile.

At the time of writing, you add people under “People and access” in the profile’s settings. New users wait seven days before they can delete the profile, remove users or transfer primary ownership.

For most businesses, the safest set-up has the owner’s Google Account as primary owner, with staff and any agency as managers. If you sell the business, Google says you must transfer primary ownership so reviews and information are kept.

Should you pay a professional to do it?

Google is even-handed here. Its notice on working with a third party says you can consider one if you need help or expert advice, but points out that Business Profile is free, third parties often charge, and it doesn’t take long to learn. Its page on whether you need an SEO says a small local business “can probably do much of the work yourself”, and that hiring help can save you time.

Here’s our view, as an agency that does this work.

Doing it yourself makes sense if you have one signed location or a simple service area, you’re offered a straightforward verification method, and you’ll answer Google’s notifications within days.

For most busy owners, we think a professional setting it up and looking after it is the better option, for reasons that come straight from Google’s rules:

• The first choices matter most. Name, address type, service areas and category are where suspensions and duplicates start, and changing them later can mean verifying again.
• Verification has traps. One edit while a postcard is in the post, or one request for a new code, and you start again. A video missing one element is rejected.
• Mistakes are slow to undo. Edits can take up to 30 days to review; appeals need matching documents within an hour and can end in “Can’t be appealed”.
• The profile needs watching. Some suggested edits can go live four days after you’re notified.

None of that makes DIY impossible. It makes it a job that rewards knowing the rules and keeping watch.

How to hire help safely

Google’s third-party policies set out what a legitimate agency must do:

• You stay the owner. Customers “must retain ownership or co-ownership” at all times. The agency should make the business the owner and itself a manager, or ask you to invite it as a manager.
• No shared passwords. Google tells agencies not to share them with clients.
• You can take back control, within seven working days of asking.
• They tell you it’s free. An agency charging a management fee must tell you in writing, before managing your profile, that Business Profile costs nothing.
• No guaranteed placement. Google says third parties can’t promise or directly influence your ranking. A guaranteed top spot, or a claim to work for Google, is a warning sign.

Be wary of cold calls. Google says it never asks for payment or passwords, and “if a caller asks for money to keep your business on Google, it is not a call from Google.” Its advice on fraudulent calls is to hang up. Google also bans agencies from threatening that you’ll lose your profile or holding one hostage for money.

Our guide on how to choose an SEO agency has more questions to ask, and how much SEO costs in the UK helps you weigh the cost.

How Get Found sets up and looks after your profile

Get Found is a local SEO, AI SEO and web design agency on Foregate Street in Worcester, with a second office in Stockport. We have 22 years’ experience, work with businesses across the UK and don’t tie clients into long contracts.

We set your profile up properly, then keep it active:

• It sits in your own Google Account. You’re the owner; we’re added as a manager, the set-up Google’s third-party policies describe.
• We do the setup work: checking for existing or duplicate listings, setting up the right type of profile for how you actually work, and getting every detail right.
• We guide you through verification. Google says not to share verification codes with anyone, even whoever manages your profile, so we’ll talk you through entering yours.
• We keep watching it, checking the edits Google and the public suggest, keeping details and photos current, and dealing with duplicates.

Business Profile itself is free; you’d be paying for our time and experience. We won’t promise rankings or a date, and we’d be wary of anyone who does. Read about our Google Business Profile management and local SEO service, get in touch, or start with a free visibility audit to see where your business stands now.