Google Business Profile: the local business guide for 2025

If you run a local business and you have not claimed your Google Business Profile, you are leaving money on the table. It is free, it puts you on Google Maps and it can generate leads without you spending a penny on ads. Here is everything you need to know.

What is Google Business Profile?

It is the box that appears on the right side of Google search results when someone searches for your business or looks for a type of business near them. It shows your address, phone number, opening hours, photos and reviews. When someone searches for a plumber nearby, the businesses that show up in the map results are the ones with optimised Google Business Profiles.

How to claim your profile

Go to business.google.com and search for your business. If it already exists, claim it. Google often creates basic listings automatically. If nothing comes up, create one from scratch. You will need to verify your business, usually by receiving a postcard at your address with a code on it. The whole process takes about a week.

The mistakes most businesses make

Most businesses claim their profile and then leave it alone. The ones that appear at the top of local searches do these things consistently: they keep their opening hours accurate especially over holidays, they upload real photos of their work and premises on a regular basis, they respond to every review whether positive or negative, and they post updates at least once a month to show Google the profile is active.

Reviews are everything

Google uses the number and quality of your reviews as a major ranking factor. Businesses with 50 or more reviews almost always outrank those with only a handful. The easiest way to get more is simply to ask. Send a short follow-up message to happy customers with a direct link to your review page. Most people are glad to help if you make it easy for them.

What to do this week

Claim your profile if you have not already. Check that your name, address, phone number and website are all correct. Upload at least 10 photos. Then reach out to your last five happy customers and ask them to leave a review. That is genuinely all it takes to get ahead of most of your local competition.