How to get your business on Google Maps (Google Business Profile), step by step

In this guide we explain how to create your profile, how to verify it and what to check if you already have one and still don’t show up.

Google My Business, Business Profile, Google listing: it’s the same thing

It used to be called Google My Business. Google renamed it Google Business Profile, and today you manage it straight from Google Search and Google Maps. Many people also just call it their Google listing.

They are different names for the same thing: the card with your name, address, hours, photos and reviews that shows up when people search for you, and the pin that marks you on the map.

Do you have to pay to be on Google Maps?

No. Creating and keeping your profile is free. The only paid part is Google’s ads (Google Ads), which are a different thing and optional.

If someone calls offering to “verify your business on Google” or “keep your listing active” for a fee, be wary: Google doesn’t charge for that.

Step by step: how to put your business on Google Maps

1. Check whether your business is already on the map

Search for your business name on Google Maps. Often the listing already exists because a customer created it or because Google built it from public data. If it’s there and you don’t manage it, don’t create a new one: open it and tap “Claim this business”, then “Manage now” (in the Google Maps app it’s under the “About” tab). If someone else already verified it, you can request access from business.google.com/add. Two listings for the same business compete with each other.

Typical situation: a neighborhood steakhouse in Córdoba that never created a listing finds out it already has one, with an old phone number and photos uploaded by customers.

2. Create the profile

Go to business.google.com/add with a Google Account (a Gmail one or one with your business email both work) and click “Add your business to Google”. It works on a computer and in your phone’s browser. (Button names change from time to time: if you can’t find them, search Google’s help for “add or claim your Business Profile”.)

It will ask you for:

• Name: your business’s real name, the one on the sign. Don’t add words like “best dentist in Palermo”: that breaks Google’s rules and can get your listing suspended.
• Primary category: the most important field of all (see step 4).
• Location: if people come to your shop or practice, enter the address and check that the pin sits on the right door.
• Service area: if you go to the customer (plumbers, electricians, locksmiths) and don’t serve people at your address, don’t enter the address and mark the neighborhoods or towns where you work (Google allows up to 20 and asks that they be within about 2 hours’ drive). Only add areas where you really work.
• Phone and website: a number where someone answers. If you don’t have a website, leave it empty and add it later.

3. Verify your business

Until you verify it, you can’t edit your profile or reply to customers as the owner. Google chooses the method based on your type of business, your area and your hours, and you can’t change it. Sometimes it asks for more than one. The current options:

• Video recording: a video of at least 30 seconds, in one continuous take with no edits, recorded and uploaded from your phone. It has to show where you are (the street, the building number, the businesses next door), that the business exists (the sign with your name, matching your profile, or your work tools) and that you run it (opening up with your key, the till, the kitchen or the storeroom). No other people’s faces or personal data.
• Live video call: the same, but shown live to someone from Google, during your business hours.
• Phone, text message or email: you get a code and enter it.
• Postcard: they mail a code to your business address. It usually arrives within 14 days and expires after 30.

Then Google reviews the details: this can take up to 5 business days (sometimes it’s instant). Meanwhile, don’t change the name, address or category: the code or the review may stop working.

Typical situation: a physiotherapy practice in Nueva Córdoba records its verification video, but the building’s sign isn’t visible and Google rejects it. They record it again from the sidewalk, showing the sign and the door, and it gets approved.

4. Choose the right category

The primary category is one of the things that weighs most in deciding which searches you show up for (Google says categories affect your local ranking). You can add a few secondary categories, but the primary one has to describe what you do most.

• Pick the most specific one available: “Dentist” or “Dental clinic” rather than “Medical center”; “Steak house” rather than “Restaurant”.
• Secondary categories are for what you also really do: a café that also sells cakes can add “Pastry shop”.
• Look at which category the businesses showing up first in your trade and neighborhood use. It’s a good clue.
• Heads up: changing your category may make Google ask you to verify again.

Typical situation: a café in Pichincha, Rosario, listed as “Grocery store”. When someone searches “café in Pichincha”, it doesn’t show up, even though it’s two blocks away.

5. Fill in everything

A complete listing gives Google more reasons to show you, and people more reasons to choose you:

• Hours, including public holidays. Outdated hours mean someone arrives and finds you closed.
• Real, recent photos: the storefront (so people recognize it when they arrive), the inside, the team and your work. For a practice, the waiting room; for a restaurant, the dishes and the dining room.
• Description: what you do, for whom and where, in your customers’ words (“dental implant appointments”, “steakhouse with patio”). No links, prices or promotions: Google doesn’t allow them there.
• Services or products: each with its own name. Practices can mention the health insurance plans they accept in the description.
• Contact buttons: phone, WhatsApp, website and, where it applies, the link to book an appointment or a table.

6. Ask for reviews and reply to them

Reviews matter to Google and they matter to people.

• Always ask, everyone. In your profile, select “Read reviews” and then “Get more reviews”: there you copy the direct link to leave a review and send it on WhatsApp after the visit. The QR code for your counter can be downloaded from a computer.
• Don’t offer anything in return (discounts, gifts) and don’t buy reviews: it breaks Google’s rules and they can remove your reviews or suspend your listing.
• Reply to all of them, good and bad. To a bad one: thank them, acknowledge what needs acknowledging and offer to continue the conversation privately. In healthcare, never share details of the visit.
• A review can’t be deleted just because you don’t like it. You can only report it if it breaks Google’s rules (for example, if it’s from someone who was never a customer or contains insults).

7. Keep it alive

A listing nobody touches goes stale. Every so often, upload new photos, update your hours before holidays and post updates (a new treatment, the seasonal menu, extended hours). And check that nobody has changed your details: anyone can suggest edits to a listing.

Why doesn’t my business show up on Google Maps?

If you already have a listing and don’t show up, check these, in this order:

1. It isn’t verified, or it’s suspended. Open your profile and look for any notice from Google.
2. It’s under review after a recent change (name, address, category). Wait a few days before touching anything else.
3. The primary category isn’t yours. It’s the most common reason for not showing up in searches like “dentist near me”.
4. The pin is in the wrong place or the address is incomplete.
5. There are duplicate listings of the same business competing with each other.
6. You’re searching from far away. Google shows what’s closest to the person searching. If you search “plumber” from your home in another part of town, you won’t see the same results as someone in Caballito.
7. There’s a lot of competition nearby and your listing is weaker than the others: fewer reviews, fewer photos, missing details.

Google says it decides which businesses to show by looking at three things: relevance (whether your listing matches what’s being searched), distance (how close you are to the person searching) and prominence (how well known your business is: reviews, ratings and websites that link to you). You can’t change distance. The other two, you can.

How do you show up first on Google Maps?

Nobody can guarantee you first place, and be wary of anyone who does (Google makes clear that local ranking can’t be requested or paid for): it depends on where the person searching is, what they search for and how the other businesses in your area are doing. What is in your hands is everything in this guide: the right category, a complete listing, recent reviews with replies, real photos and the same details on your listing, your website and your social media.

Typical situation: a dental practice in Caballito and another one three blocks away. Both are verified, but one has the “Dentist” category, up-to-date hours, 40 photos and replies to reviews, while the other is listed as “Medical center” and its latest photos are years old. When someone searches “dentist in Caballito”, the first one has a better chance of showing up.