Google Business Profile: How to Create and Optimise Yours (24-Point Checklist)

Short answer: creating a Google Business Profile takes about ten minutes at google.com/business: enter your business name, category, address and phone number, then verify, usually with a short video. Optimising it is what brings calls: the right primary category, real photos, opening hours that include festival days, and a steady flow of reviews you reply to. The 24-point checklist below covers both, in the order to do them, with examples from Calicut.

A Google Business Profile, which most people still call Google My Business, is the box that appears on Google Search and Google Maps when someone looks for you, or for what you sell "near me". It is free, and for a local shop, clinic or restaurant it often brings more calls than the website does. We went through this list on our own profile before writing it, so the examples are real.

Is Google My Business the same as Google Business Profile?

Yes. Google renamed Google My Business to Google Business Profile in late 2021 and closed the separate app. You now manage the listing directly on Google Search or Google Maps: search for your business name while signed in, or search "my business". Everything in this guide applies whichever name you know it by.

How do you create a Google Business Profile?

If your business is not on Google Maps yet, create the profile first. It is free.

1. Go to google.com/business and sign in with a Google account the business will keep, not an employee's personal one.
2. Type your business name. If Google suggests an existing listing at your address, claim that one instead of making a duplicate.
3. Choose your business type: a shop or office that customers visit, a business that goes to customers (a service area), or online only.
4. Pick the primary category that matches your main trade. You can refine it later (see points 11 to 13).
5. Enter the address, or the areas you serve, and drag the map pin onto your building.
6. Add your phone number and website, then finish with your hours, a description and photos.

Google then asks you to verify, and the profile is not shown publicly until you do.

How do you verify a Google Business Profile in India?

Most businesses in India are now asked for a video: one continuous recording that shows the street and nearby landmarks, your signboard, and the inside of the premises, often with proof such as a GST certificate or a utility bill in shot. Some businesses are offered a phone call, SMS or email code instead.

Review usually takes a few days. Do not edit the name or address while it is pending, or the process starts again.

Once the profile is live, the work that brings calls begins.

Who owns your Business Profile, and are there duplicates?

Start here, because nothing else works if you cannot edit the listing.

1. Find out who manages it. Search for your business on Google while signed in. If you see "Edit profile", you manage it. If you see "Own this business?", someone else does, or nobody has claimed it. Many Calicut profiles were created years ago by a former employee or an agency.
2. Request access instead of making a new one. Use "Own this business?" to request ownership from the current manager. A second listing for the same business splits your reviews and can get both suspended.
3. Search for duplicates. Look up your name, your phone number and your address separately on Google Maps. If an old listing appears, report it as a duplicate so its reviews can be merged.
4. Add a second manager. Add another person you trust as a manager, so a lost phone or a forgotten password does not lock you out.

Which details must be exactly right?

Google compares your profile with your website and with listings such as JustDial and Sulekha. When they disagree, it trusts all of them less.

5. Name: your real name, as on your signboard. "Malabar Dental Clinic" is right. "Malabar Dental Clinic Best Dentist Calicut Root Canal" breaks Google's rules and is the most common reason for suspension.
6. Address and pin: write the address the way your post arrives, and then drag the pin onto your actual building. In business parks and malls the pin often lands on the main gate or the wrong block. Our office is in HiLITE Business Park, so we checked that the pin sits on Phase 2 and not on the mall next door.
7. Phone: a number that is answered during opening hours. Add a second number if you have one.
8. Website: link to your own website, not a Facebook page. Add a tag to the link so you can count visits from the profile (see point 22).
9. Hours: the hours you really keep. If you close for lunch or Friday prayers, show it.
10. Match everything else to it. Copy the same name, address and phone number, character for character, into your website footer, JustDial, Sulekha, Facebook and Instagram. Fix old listings with an old number; they still show up.

One warning from experience: changing the address on a verified profile can make Google ask you to verify again, usually by video. If the pin is right and the difference is only a comma or the order of the lines, leave it.

Which category should you choose?

The primary category decides which searches you can appear for. It matters more than anything you write in the description.

11. Pick the most specific primary category. "Dental clinic" rather than "Doctor". "Biryani restaurant" rather than "Restaurant", if biryani is what you are known for. "Boutique" rather than "Clothing store" for a designer boutique.
12. Add secondary categories for your other real services. You can add up to nine. Our own profile uses "Website designer" as the primary category, with "Software company", "Marketing agency" and "Internet marketing service" as secondary ones, because we do all four.
13. Check what the top three use. Search for your trade in Calicut, open the first three businesses on the map and note the category shown under each name. If all three use a category you do not, consider it.

Do not add categories for things you do not do. They bring calls you cannot serve, and the reviews that follow.

What should you write in services and the description?

14. List every service or product, each with a short plain description. These are searchable. A clinic should list "root canal treatment", "braces" and "teeth whitening" separately, not just "dental care".
15. Write the description for a customer, in 750 characters or fewer. Say what you do, where, for whom, and what makes you easy to deal with. No phone numbers, links, offers or strings of keywords: Google removes or rejects them.

Which photos help?

Profiles with real photos get more calls and direction requests. Stock photos do the opposite: customers notice, and so does Google.

16. Add these first: the outside of your building with the signboard readable, so people can find you; the inside; your team; and your work or products. A restaurant should add the menu and its best dishes. A clinic should add the reception and a treatment room.
17. Add a few new photos every month. A profile whose newest photo is three years old looks closed.

How do you handle Onam, Vishu, Eid and Christmas hours?

18. Set special hours before every festival and holiday. Use "Special hours" for Onam, Vishu, Eid, Christmas and any day you close, including hartal days if you shut. Otherwise Google shows "Hours might differ", and a customer who arrives at a closed door leaves a one-star review. Set them a week or two ahead; it takes two minutes.

How do you ask for reviews, and reply to them?

Reviews are where most Calicut businesses fall behind. One profile we reviewed in Kozhikode had everything else in order, from categories to photos to hours, and 4 reviews. The three businesses shown on the map for its main searches had between 150 and 220 each. The reviews were the whole gap.

19. Get your review link and use it. In your profile, choose "Ask for reviews" and copy the link. It opens the review box directly. Send it on WhatsApp right after a job is done, while the customer is happy. "Please search for us and leave a review" gets almost no one; a link gets many.
20. Reply to every review, in the language it was written in. Thank people for good ones in a sentence. For a bad one, reply calmly, say what you will do, and offer a phone number. Future customers read your replies more closely than the complaint.
21. Never buy reviews or offer discounts for them. Google forbids both, removes them in batches and can suspend the profile. Do not ask only happy customers through a filter either. Ask everyone.

How do you know what the profile brings you?

22. Tag the website link. Add ?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=gbp to the end of your website address in the profile. Google Analytics then shows visits from the profile separately from other Google visits. Ours is set up this way, which is how we know what the listing sends us.
23. Read the Performance section every month. It shows how many people called, asked for directions and clicked through to the website, and which searches showed your profile. If "directions" is high and calls are low, your phone number may be wrong or unanswered.
24. Post an update every week. A photo of new work, an offer, a festival greeting, a new service. Posts keep the profile looking alive and give Google fresh text about what you do.

Which mistakes get a profile suspended?

A suspended profile disappears from Maps, sometimes for weeks. These cause most suspensions:

• Keywords in the business name. Use the name on your signboard, nothing more.
• An address where customers cannot find you. Virtual offices, a relative's house or a co-working desk with no signboard are not allowed for a business that serves customers at its location.
• More than one profile for the same business at the same address.
• Fake or paid reviews, including reviews from staff and family.
• Changing the name, address and category all at once. Make one change, wait for it to be accepted, then make the next.

If you serve customers at their premises, such as a plumber or a caterer, set a service area and hide your address instead of inventing a shop.

The checklist

Access

1. I know which Google account manages the profile
2. I requested access rather than creating a second listing
3. No duplicate listings for my name, phone or address
4. A second trusted person is a manager

Details

5. The name is exactly the signboard name
6. The address is right and the pin is on my building
7. The phone number is answered
8. The website link goes to my own site
9. The opening hours are the real ones
10. Website, JustDial, Sulekha, Facebook and Instagram show the same name, address and phone

Categories

11. The primary category is the most specific one
12. Secondary categories cover my other real services
13. I checked the categories of the top three on the map

Services and description

14. Every service or product is listed with a description
15. The description is written for customers, under 750 characters

Photos

16. Exterior with signboard, interior, team and work are all there
17. New photos are added every month

Hours

18. Special hours are set for the next festival or holiday

Reviews

19. I have my review link and send it after every job
20. Every review has a reply
21. No paid, swapped or staff reviews

Tracking and posts

22. The website link is tagged so Analytics counts profile visits
23. I read the Performance section every month
24. One post goes up every week

Frequently asked questions

Is Google Business Profile free? Yes. Creating, verifying and managing a profile costs nothing. Be careful of callers who say they are "from Google" and ask for payment to keep your listing live. Google does not charge for it.

How do I delete or remove a Google Business Profile? Open the profile, choose the three-dot menu, then "Business Profile settings" and "Remove Business Profile". You can remove only your access, or mark the business as permanently closed if it has shut. A closed business may still appear on Maps, marked as closed, because the place itself remains public information.

Why does my business not show on Google Maps? The common reasons are an unverified or suspended profile, a primary category that does not match what people search for, a pin in the wrong place, or too few reviews compared with nearby competitors. Work through points 1, 6, 11 and 19 first.

Can I use a Business Profile without a shop? Yes, if you visit customers, such as an electrician or a home tutor. Set the areas you serve and hide your address. You cannot list an address where customers cannot actually visit you.

How many reviews do I need? There is no fixed number. What matters is how you compare with the businesses shown next to you, and that reviews keep arriving. A steady five a month does more than fifty in one week followed by silence.

The profile is one part of local SEO; for the website, listings, reviews and local links that complete it, see how to do local SEO and rank on Google Maps.

Want someone to do this for you? Wosag Tech offers local SEO and Business Profile management for businesses in Kozhikode, alongside our work as a web design company in Calicut. If you do not have a website for the profile to link to yet, start with why Calicut businesses need a website, or talk to us.