How to list your business on Google: Search and Maps setup for a new business.

Google's eligibility guidelines say that to qualify, a business must make in-person contact with customers during its stated hours. That can happen at your location, or at the customer's. Online-only businesses, brands and properties for rent or sale are among the examples Google lists as ineligible, as is any business whose address is a P.O. box or a mailbox in a remote location.

Google's service area guidance is direct about the second row: if you do not serve customers at your business address, remove the address from your profile. And there should be only one profile per business, per Google's guidelines for representing your business.

1. Use a Google Account the business controls

You need a Google Account to sign up. Use one tied to an email address the business owns, not a personal account of someone who might leave. Google's ownership rules say only owners or authorized representatives may verify and manage a profile, and that agencies should be added as managers rather than own it.

2. Search for your business first

Search Google Maps for your business name and city. If a profile already exists and is unverified, claim it; if someone else has already verified it, you can request ownership. If nothing exists, create one.

3. Add or claim it

• To add a new profile: go to business.google.com/add, choose Add your business to Google and follow the steps.
• To claim an unverified profile: open it in Google Maps and select Claim this business, then Manage now.

Google says you can add or claim your business at no charge. Anyone who charges you to be listed is charging for their own service, not Google's.

Verification is how you prove the business is yours. According to Google's verification guide:

• Google chooses the method. Options can include a video recording, phone or text, email, a live video call or mail, depending on your business type, public information, region and hours. You cannot change which ones you are offered, and sometimes more than one is needed.
• Video is recommended when offered. Google suggests video verification if your business is eligible for it.
• Reviews take up to five business days, and on rare occasions longer.
• Some profiles verify instantly, for example when you have verified your website in Google Search Console.

Make sure the name, address and phone number you enter match your signage, your website and your paperwork before you start. Verification is checking that the business is what it says it is.

• Name: exactly as the business is known in the real world, on signage and branding.
• Address or service area: accurate and precise, following the storefront, service-area or hybrid rules above.
• Categories: the fewest that describe your core business, as Google's guidelines advise.
• Hours, phone and website: one authoritative phone number and website that the business owns.
• Description and photos: what makes the business different, and real photos of it.

Our guide to Google Business Profile optimization goes further on each field.

A Business Profile and a website are listed separately. To add your website to Google Search, create a property in Google Search Console, submit a sitemap and use the URL Inspection tool to check that your key pages can be indexed. A verified website in Search Console can also help your profile verify faster, as noted above.

• Ask real customers for reviews, and reply to every review, good or bad.
• Add photos of the place, the team and the work.
• Check what Google changed. In the profile editor, Edit profile, then Collected info shows information Google gathered about your business; review it for accuracy.
• Keep hours current, including holidays.
• Watch your profile's performance to see how people find you and what they do next.

Sign in to the Google Account linked to the profile, then search for your business on Google Search or open it in the Google Maps app and select Edit profile, per Google's editing guide. If a profile is suspended, our guide to a suspended Google Business Profile walks through what to do.

If you would rather have the setup handled, our Google Business Profile and local SEO services cover it.