How to add your business to Google Maps, step by step

If you want to list your business on Google, what you are really creating is a Google Business Profile. That profile is what shows up on Google Maps and in the map results on Google Search, with your hours, phone number, photos and reviews. Google's help page says you can add or claim your business at no charge.

This post is for owners whose business isn't on Google at all yet. If you already have a listing and it just won't appear, read why a business is not showing on Google Maps instead.

Before you start: check you're not already there

Search Google Maps for your business name and town. Somebody may already have added it. Customers can add missing places, and older businesses sometimes have a listing nobody remembers making.

• It's there but nobody manages it. Open the listing and look for "Claim this business" (on the phone app it sits under the About tab). Choose "Manage now" and follow the steps. Don't create a second listing alongside it.
• It's there and someone else has verified it. That might be a former partner, an old web designer or a previous owner. Go to business.google.com/add, find the business and choose "Request access". Google emails the current owner and gives them a few days to reply. If they don't, you may be offered a way to verify it yourself.
• It isn't there. Carry on below.

How to add your business, step by step

Google's sign-up runs like this at the time of writing. The wording on screen changes now and then, so treat this as a rough order.

1. Sign in to the Google account you want to manage the listing with. A business email address is better than a personal one, since you may want to hand it over or add staff later.
2. Go to business.google.com/add.
3. Type your business name. If Google suggests a match, check it carefully before choosing it.
4. Search for and choose your business category.
5. Say whether customers can visit you at a shopfront that is staffed during opening hours.
6. Enter your address, or the areas you serve if you go to customers.
7. Add your phone number and website.
8. Finish, then choose how to verify. You can start straight away or come back to it.

Google Maps also has a way for the public to add a missing place, under "Contribute" in the app. That is meant for customers. As the owner, use the Business Profile route above so the listing is yours to manage.

The choices that matter for ranking later

Most of these are easy to change afterwards. Getting them right on day one still saves you edits, and some edits are checked by Google before they appear.

Your business name

Use your real name, exactly as it appears on your sign, website and invoices. Google's guidelines say not to add keywords, marketing taglines or locations to the name. "Bright Smile Dental" is fine. "Bright Smile Dental | Emergency Dentist Leeds" breaks the rules and can get a listing suspended.

Your primary category

This is one of the clearest hints you give Google about which searches you belong in. Google says the categories you choose affect your local ranking, and suggests choosing the most specific one that describes your business as a whole. Think "this business is a nail salon" rather than "this business has nail polish".

Before you pick, search your main service in your town and look at the category shown under the top results. You can add a few additional categories later, but Google advises against adding one for every product or service. Our post on Google Business Profile optimisation goes into categories in more depth.

Shopfront or service area

If customers come to you, keep your address showing. If you go to them and have no staffed premises (most plumbers, mobile hairdressers and cleaners), Google says you must hide your address and set service areas instead. You can list up to 20, and Google suggests keeping them within about two hours' drive.

Hiding the address doesn't stop you showing on the map. Google still knows where you are based, and your results tend to be strongest close to that address. Virtual offices and PO boxes aren't allowed as addresses.

Hours and phone number

Enter your normal customer-facing hours, and add holiday hours when they come round. For the phone, Google wants a number that reaches your business directly rather than a call centre. Use your main number, not an ad tracking number, and use the same one on your website and every directory. NAP consistency explains why that matters.

Verification comes before anything shows

Google's sign-up page puts it plainly: customers can only find your Business Profile on Google after you complete verification. Until then, the listing is a draft.

Google offers several ways to verify, such as a phone or text code, email, a video call or a postcard, but you only see the ones it offers for your business. Some of these are reviewed, and Google says that review can take up to five working days. Our guide to verifying your Google Business Profile covers each method and what to do when it stalls.

Your first week once you're live

A brand new listing with no photos and no reviews looks thin next to businesses that have been there for years. Use the first week to fill it in.

• Photos. Add your sign or shopfront, the inside, your team and your work. Real photos help people recognise you when they arrive.
• Services or products. List the things people actually search for, in plain words. Use the description to say what you do and where.
• First reviews. Ask a handful of recent, happy customers. A direct link and a short, friendly message make it easy for them. Our guide on how to get more Google reviews has wording you can copy.
• Check your details. Look at the listing on your phone as a customer would, and correct anything that looks off.

Try not to keep editing every day. Make your changes, then give it a few weeks.

Where a new listing tends to show

Google ranks local results on relevance, distance and prominence. A new listing has little prominence yet (few reviews, no history), so distance does most of the work. In practice that usually means you show near your address first and get weaker the further out the searcher is.

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Searching from your own premises tells you very little, because that is the best possible spot for you. To see the wider picture, our free rank check looks up a search from 25 spots around your business and shows where you appear in the map results from each one. Run it once you're verified, then again after a month of photos and reviews to see whether your reach has grown.

Common questions