GUIDES
Google Business Profile for SMEs: setting it up and keeping it current
Ben Schmidt, Owner of Flowrenix · Updated:
Short answer
You can set up a Google Business Profile yourself, free of charge: you confirm that the business is yours, choose a fitting primary category and enter your name, address or service area, phone number and opening hours exactly as they appear on your website and in directories such as local.ch and search.ch. After that, the profile depends on upkeep: current photos and hours, replies to reviews and asking every customer for a review, without offering anything in return.
What the Business Profile is
The Business Profile is your business's listing in Google Search and Google Maps. Anyone searching for your name or for a service nearby sees your address, opening hours, phone number, photos and reviews there and can call you or open directions straight away. For many customers this is the first contact with your business, before the website.
Create the profile with a Google account that belongs to the business, not with the account of an agency or an employee. You can add other people as managers later and remove them again. Google requires confirmation that the business really is yours. Google decides the method, for example a short video, a phone call or a letter to the business address.
Name and categories
Enter the name your business uses in everyday life: on the sign, on your letterhead, in the commercial register. Google's guidelines prohibit adding search terms or place names that do not belong there, and a violation can lead to the profile being suspended.
The primary category describes what your business is at its core. Choose the most specific one that fits, such as «Auto repair shop» rather than «Service». Additional categories are meant for other services you offer regularly, not for everything you occasionally do as well.
Address or service area
Whether you show an address depends on where your customers meet you.
Customers come to you
Shop, practice, workshop or restaurant: the address is shown so customers can find you. It must be a place where you can actually be found during the stated hours, not a PO box or a virtual office.
You go to customers
Trades, cleaning or mobile services: you hide the address and enter a service area instead, meaning the towns or regions where you work. This also fits if you work from home and do not receive customers there.
Both
If you receive customers at your premises and also work on site at theirs, you can enter both an address and a service area.
The same details everywhere
Name, address and phone number should read the same everywhere: on your website in the footer, the legal notice and the contact page, in the Business Profile, in directories such as local.ch and search.ch, in map services such as Apple Maps or Bing and in your social media profiles. A customer who finds two different numbers may call the wrong one. According to Google, it also relies on information from across the web, such as directories and articles.
Settle on one spelling and stick to it, down to details such as «Strasse» or «Str.» and the format of the phone number. Keep a short list of every place your business is listed. If you move or your number changes, use that list to update all listings at once.
Photos, opening hours and services
Show real photos instead of stock images: the outside, so people recognise the entrance, the premises, the team and your work. Add a logo and a cover image. Replace pictures when something has visibly changed.
Keep opening hours current and enter special hours for public holidays and company holidays in advance. Describe your services in your own words and link your website. Other users can suggest changes to your profile, and Google sometimes applies such suggestions itself. So check the notices in the profile and correct anything that is wrong.
Asking for reviews fairly
Reviews are the reason many customers choose one business over another. So ask for them actively, but fairly.
- Ask all customers the same way, not only those who seem satisfied. Google prohibits selectively soliciting positive reviews.
- Do not offer anything in return, no discount, no voucher, no prize draw. Google's guidelines prohibit this too.
- Do not write reviews yourself, and do not have family or employees write them.
- Use the link or QR code the profile offers for sharing, for example in the email after a job or on the invoice.
- Reply to reviews: say thank you, respond factually to criticism and do not mention details about the customer in your reply.
Posts and ongoing upkeep
Posts let you show news, offers or events in the profile, such as company holidays or a new service. They are not mandatory. Better rare and accurate than frequent and empty.
Set aside a quarter of an hour once a month: check opening hours, reply to new reviews, review suggested changes, add a new photo if needed. Nobody can seriously promise you a particular position on the map. Google names relevance, distance and prominence as the basis of local results; what you can mainly influence is that your details are complete and correct.
How I handle this in projects
When I build a website, I check the name, address and phone number in the footer, the legal notice and the structured data against your Business Profile. The profile stays in your own Google account. If I need access, you add me as a manager and remove me afterwards. How I make websites readable for search engines is described on the page Visibility.
COMMON QUESTIONS
Frequently asked questions
No, setting up and maintaining the profile is free. Paid ads on Google are a separate offer and not a requirement for a profile.
No. If you do not receive customers there, hide the address and enter a service area. Google may still ask for the address for verification, but it does not show it publicly.
No. Google's guidelines prohibit any incentive for reviews, as well as selectively soliciting only positive ones. Ask all customers in the same way and without conditions.
Not because they are bad. If a review violates Google's guidelines, for example because it is insulting or clearly not from a customer, you can report it; Google decides. The others are best answered factually.
Nobody can promise that. Google names relevance, distance and prominence as the basis of local results. What is in your hands is complete, correct details, real photos and reviews from real customers.