What Is Google Business Profile (Formerly Google My Business) and Why It Matters

Google Business Profile is the profile through which you manage how your business appears on Google Search and Google Maps at no charge, and it holds the name, address, hours, phone, photos, customer reviews and your replies. It used to be called Google My Business. You create it with a Google account and verify your ownership, and only a business that deals with customers in person qualifies.

What follows is from Google's official help pages as we read them on 20 October 2026: "Get started with Google Business Profile", "Guidelines for representing your business on Google", "Verify your business on Google" and "Manage your Business Profile owners & managers".

What is a Business Profile?

Google says Business Profile lets you manage how your business appears on Google Maps and Google Search at no charge. It is the card that appears when a customer searches for your name or your kind of business in their city. Anyone who asks a fee "to register on Google Maps" is selling a management service, not a registration fee.

What does it let you do?

According to Google, from the profile you can:

• Keep your business information accurate online: hours, website, phone number and location.
• Engage customers: post photos and videos of the business, products and services, and collect and reply to customer reviews.
• Attract new customers: improve how your business appears, and direct customers to your website, social media and booking links.
• Keep track of your presence online on an ongoing basis.

Who can create a Business Profile?

Google says only businesses that make in-person contact with customers are eligible to create a Business Profile. In its representation guidelines, you can create a profile if your business has a physical address customers can visit, or if it serves customers wherever they are. And conversely:

• A business that is online only, with no premises customers visit and no in-person visits, is not eligible.
• A virtual office, meaning a rented mailing address from which the business does not operate, does not qualify for a profile.
• P.O. boxes at remote locations are not accepted as an address.
• An office in a shared workspace qualifies only with clear signage, customers received on site, and the business's own staff there during opening hours.
• One profile per physical location, no more, whether in one account or several.

For a chain, each branch has its own profile, and Google offers a Business Profile Manager tool for bulk management of locations. The detail is in Google Maps SEO for multi-branch businesses.

How do you start?

You need a Google account, whether a Gmail address or your preferred email. Then you add your business or claim it if it is already on the map. The steps to add are in how to add your business to Google Maps.

Verification: what does it unlock?

Google says: to interact with customers and edit your business information on Google, such as the business name or hours, you must verify your business. Its local ranking tips page says verifying tells Google you are authorised to represent the business, making it more likely to show up in search results. Without verification you cannot reply to reviews. The ways to verify:

• Phone or text message: make sure you can answer calls or receive texts on the business number, since interactive voice response (IVR) systems cannot receive the code.
• Email: follow the steps in the message.
• A live video call: you must be at your business and show signage, equipment and proof that you run it; it is available only during opening hours, and may not be available to some businesses.

Google says it determines the verification methods automatically and they cannot be changed, so try the options available to you. The other methods and video verification are covered in verifying your business on Google Maps.

If you want help with that first verification, SMTAK offers a paid Google Maps verification service covering the verification process.

Owner and manager

According to Google, an owner has full control of the profile: adding and removing users, managing the information, and even deleting it. A profile can have several owners but only one primary owner. Managers, formerly called "site managers", have most of the owner's permissions, except that they cannot add or remove users or remove the profile. Each user needs their own Google account instead of sharing a password. Google Groups cannot be added as owners or managers. If the profile is in the name of a former employee or an agency, ask for primary ownership as described in transferring ownership of a Business Profile.

What do you fill in?

Google advises making your information as complete as possible: the full address, hours with special hours, the type of business, and attributes such as parking and Wi-Fi, plus photos and replying to reviews. It says businesses with complete and accurate information are more likely to show up in local search results. The fields, with their rules and mistakes, are in the Google Business Profile audit.

Why did the name change?

Google renamed Google My Business to Google Business Profile, and businesses now manage their profiles directly from Google Search and Google Maps instead of a separate app. If you are searching for "Google My Business" you are looking for the same thing under its new name.

Common mistakes that risk suspension

• Stuffing the name with promotional phrases, the neighbourhood or a phone number. Google says adding unnecessary information to the name can lead to suspension.
• A fake address, a P.O. box or a virtual office.
• Two profiles for one location.
• A phone number the business does not control directly.
• Many categories used as keywords.
• A profile registered to the personal account of a single employee with no backup owner.

The profile and reviews: where SMTAK's work starts

Reviews are part of the profile that every searcher sees, and you reply to them from within the profile itself. SMTAK connects the profile through Google's official sign-in with permission to manage the profile only, so every branch's reviews reach one dashboard and each gets a draft reply in your tone for you to approve before it is published in the profile. SMTAK does not edit your profile's fields for you; you edit them in Google.

Start here

• Not created your profile yet? How to add your business to Google Maps and verify it step by step.
• Have a profile? Check the audit checklist, since empty fields are the first thing that loses a customer.
• Then create a review link and QR code for each branch with the Google review link and QR tool, and ask every customer for a review with nothing in return.