Visibility basicsHow do you get your Google Business Profile right?
Choose the right primary category, make sure there's only one profile of your business, make sure you own it and ask every customer for a review. That's where I always start. The rest is filling in what's accurate and keeping it up to date.
This article picks up where the visibility basics leave off. There you'll find why your profile matters. Here's how to set it up, and what goes wrong in practice. If you're setting up in a second country, read working in two countries as well.
Don't have a profile yet, or isn't it verified? Start there. Google walks you through signing up step by step in its own guide. This article is about what comes after.
Is your business allowed a profile at all?
Only if you meet customers in person during your business hours, at your place or theirs. According to Google, a business that only works online isn't eligible.
That rules out more than many business owners think. Google lists, among others, brands and organizations, online-only businesses and lead generation companies. A P.O. box doesn't count as an address either.
If you fall outside those rules, getting found is mostly about your website, and that's what the visibility basics cover. That doesn't mean nobody without a location has a profile. Quite the opposite; see below.
Source: Google's rules on which businesses are eligible.
Can you have one without an address, as a brand for the whole country?
You can, and it happens a lot. Google's rules don't allow it. Both are true, and you need to know both before you start.
In practice I see plenty of online-only businesses with a profile that shows no address and a wide service area. A profile like that collects reviews, shows up when someone searches for your business name and gives a new customer somewhere to see what others think of you. That's valuable, especially for a business with few other listings. And unlike keywords in your name, it doesn't mislead anyone: the business exists and the reviews are real.
There's a risk on the other side. Google can suspend a profile like that, and then it disappears from Search and Maps, reviews and all. An appeal only helps if the profile follows the rules, and in this case it doesn't.
My advice: do it if you can carry that risk, and don't build your credibility on that one profile alone. Also ask customers for reviews on a platform where you do belong, like Trustpilot or a site for your industry. And never put a rating on your website that depends on one profile unless you know what you'll do if it disappears.
How does Google decide who shows up first in Maps?
On relevance, distance and prominence, Google says. You can't do anything about distance. You can about the other two.
Relevance is how well your profile matches what someone is searching for. The more complete and precise your details, the better Google can match you to the right searches.
Prominence is how well-known your business is. Google mentions, among other things, how many websites link to you and how many reviews you have. More reviews and positive ratings can help.
You can't pay for a better spot, Google adds.
Which category do you choose?
One primary category that completes the sentence "This business is a ...". That's the test Google uses itself: choose what you are, not what you have or everything you offer.
Choose as few categories as possible, and as specific as fits your core business. You don't need to add a more general category; Google says it infers that from the specific one. Using a category as a keyword isn't allowed.
If you're torn between two, look in Google Maps at which category the businesses at the top use for your main service in your own town. It's shown under their name. That's a starting point, not a rule: a competitor can have the wrong category too. So I always hold the result up against what the business actually does, case by case.
Use your real business name, the one on your storefront, your invoices and your website. Putting keywords in your name breaks Google's guidelines and can cost you your profile. It's exactly the kind of trick that works for a while and then costs you.
Why can there be only one profile of your business?
Because otherwise Google doesn't know which one is right. Reviews get split, details contradict each other, and a profile Google marks as a duplicate no longer shows up in Search and Maps.
I ran into this with my own company. Din Framvekst was on Google twice, at the same address but with a different phone number. One profile had reviews, the other didn't.
I've since closed the empty listing.
To see whether you have one too, search Google Maps separately for your business name, your address and your phone number.
How do you clean up a duplicate profile?
Decide which profile stays first, and only then remove anything. Google warns that what you remove from a profile can't be recovered.
- Choose the profile that stays. Usually the verified one with the most reviews. Move anything you want to keep into it first, like the phone number you actually use.
- Report the other profile as a duplicate in Google Maps. Open it, suggest an edit and mark it as a duplicate of the profile that stays. Google treats that as a request to merge the two and reviews it. For a merge to go through, Google says both profiles have to be the same business and should show the same details. If they're merged, the reviews are combined, but replies to reviews can be lost.
- Removing a profile from your account isn't the same as removing it from Maps. Google says so itself: after you remove a profile from your account, the business can still show up in Search and Maps.
- If the report gets nowhere, ask Google support to merge them. Sign in with an account that has access to both profiles and send the links to both. That route isn't in Google's help pages. It comes from people who do this work, on the Local Search Forum, and they also report that a merge can't be undone.
- If the other profile belongs to someone else, request access. If the owner doesn't respond within three days, you can sometimes claim the profile yourself.
Sources: Google on duplicate profiles and on removing a profile from your account. Also two threads on the Local Search Forum, on getting a duplicate removed and on merged profiles.
Who owns your profile?
You do, not your web designer or your agency. A profile can have several owners but only one primary owner, and that person should be in your own company.
Google distinguishes owners from managers. A manager can do almost everything, except add or remove people and remove the profile. An agency doesn't need more than manager access.
Google is strict with agencies on this, too. Anyone who manages a profile on someone else's behalf should encourage the business owner to own it, and has to hand over ownership immediately when asked. If you're an agency, those are the rules you're held to.
Still, it often goes wrong. Whoever once set up the profile for you has often stayed its owner. As long as things go well, you don't notice. When the working relationship ends, you find out you can't edit your own listing.
So check your profile settings for who has access, and in which role. If you've just been added as an owner, Google makes you wait seven days before you can remove other owners or managers, or move primary ownership. Keep that in mind during a handover.
I always work so that the client is and stays the owner. I get access, nothing more. The same goes for your ad accounts.
Sources: Google on owners and managers and Google's rules for managing a profile on someone else's behalf.
Should you show your address?
Only if customers really come there. If you work at your customers' locations or from home, Google's guidelines tell you to hide your address and set a service area instead. It's not a matter of taste.
Google has more requirements. An address you rent but don't work from, a so-called virtual office, doesn't qualify. An office in a co-working space only counts if it has clear signage, receives customers and is staffed by your own people during business hours. And if you show your address, there should be permanent signage with your business name.
Sources: Google Business Profile Help on service-area businesses and Google's guidelines.
How do you ask for reviews without breaking the rules?
Ask every customer, not just the happy ones, and offer nothing in return.
Google's rules are clear on this. You can't pay or give a discount for a review, or offer anything to get a negative review changed or removed. You can't discourage negative reviews, and you can't ask only happy customers. You also can't pressure people into reviewing on the spot, or ask for specific content. More recently, Google added that you can't give staff a quota of reviews to collect, or have them ask for reviews that mention a staff member by name.
In practice, a short email after a finished job works best, with the direct link to your review form. You'll find that link in your profile.
Respond to every review, including the critical ones. A calm, specific reply to criticism often tells a new customer more than one more five-star review.
Which reviews count depends on the market. In Norway I see people look past Google reviews; where they look instead is in my comparison of the two markets.
What if you work in two countries?
Then you only get a profile in each country where you meet the requirements: a real place where you meet customers in person, during your business hours. Having customers in a country isn't enough.
Your service area stays close to where you're based. Google says it shouldn't reach much further than about two hours' drive, though some businesses may need more. So a profile in Norway won't bring you Dutch customers through Maps, or the other way around. Even between neighboring countries, it won't cover a whole market.
Each profile speaks the language of its country. You write the description, your services and your replies to reviews in the language of the customers there. That's localization, not translation, even if it's only a profile.
Each profile points to the right language version of your website. Google asks for a website that represents that location. A Dutch profile that links to a Norwegian homepage sends a visitor to a page they can't read. A local phone number per country finishes the job.
The name can differ per country, if that's really what you're called there. Within one country, all your locations carry the same name. Google allows a different name elsewhere if you're consistently known by it there.
Don't add up the reviews. Show the Dutch rating on your Dutch website and the Norwegian one on your Norwegian site. Anyone who clicks through and sees a different number than you promised starts to doubt you, which is exactly the opposite of what reviews are for.
If you only work remotely in one of the two countries, you don't qualify there under the rules. What happens in practice, and what it risks, is under profiles without an address.
Sources: Google's guidelines for your Business Profile, the rules on which businesses are eligible and Google's sign-up guide, which also gives the advice on service areas.
What do you keep up with after that?
Your hours around holidays, new reviews and edits other people suggest. Anyone can suggest a change to your profile, and not every suggestion is right.
Whether posting updates on your profile improves your position, Google doesn't say. I wouldn't put time into it until the rest is right.
What doesn't a good profile do?
It doesn't bring you closer. Someone searching from far away usually sees nearby businesses first, however good your profile is. And a profile doesn't replace a website: it brings people to you, but convincing them is up to you after that. Local visibility is one of the things I work on in SEO and AI visibility.
Not sure your profile is right?
Email me what your business does and where you're getting stuck with your profile. You'll get an honest first take.
Dominique@framvekst.noYou'll hear back within three business days.
See my contact details