Creating and verifying your Google profile: what to prepare

Starting a business and want to appear on Google Maps? Before filling in a form, spend a few minutes searching for your business. A profile may already exist even if you did not create it. Checking first avoids multiple representations of the same establishment and scattered access rights.

Creating the profile, proving you represent the business and improving its content are three different steps. Prepare them in that order and keep a record so that every change of staff does not mean starting again.

Check that the profile fits your activity

Google's guidelines cover, among others, businesses that receive customers at their premises or visit customers. The name and information must reflect the real activity; multiple profiles for the same establishment are not the general rule. Source: representing your business.

If you work from home and visit customers, prepare your service area. Do not present an administrative address as a shop open to the public. If your situation is unusual, check the guidance specific to your activity before continuing.

Search, reclaim or create

Search for your name and town in Google and Maps. Note profiles that appear to match your business: address, phone number and activity help distinguish them. An old address may explain an unexpected result.

If a profile exists, look at Google's claim or access-request options. If a previous provider manages it, arrange to recover access. Do not create a new profile simply to get around an access problem.

Prepare a simple reference file

Gather the information before entering it. We suggest a reference sheet and a small access register, without shared passwords.

• The name customers actually know and the proposed category.
• Business address and arrangements for visits or customer appointments.
• Confirmed phone number, website, hours and services.
• The Google account that should remain the profile owner.
• The person responsible for following up verification requests.

Test account access before a verification appointment. Someone who cannot open the relevant email account or use the registered phone may hold up the process. Choose an account the business can manage over time rather than an address outside your control.

Follow the method Google offers

Google determines the available verification methods according to the situation. You cannot insist on verification by text message or post. Follow the options displayed and prepare only the requested evidence. Do not share a verification code with a third party. Source: verifying a business.

In your records, distinguish 'information sent', 'under review' and 'verification confirmed'. Completing your part does not mean Google has already accepted it. If a request comes back, read the reason before changing several fields at once.

Check the profile after verification

Compare the public profile with your reference file. Check links, hours and the map location, then ask someone outside the business to find it on their phone. This tests the customer journey, not your ranking reliably.

You can then improve your content using the optimisation guide. In the current version of Optimaps, connecting lets you select a profile already accessible to your Google account; it does not replace Google's profile creation and verification process.