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How to Add Your Business to Google Maps, Step by Step
5 min read
You search for your own company on your phone, to see how it looks to someone who has never heard of it. Your website is there, and so is your Instagram. But there is no map, no opening hours, no call button. Right next to it, a competitor shows all of that in a panel front and centre.
That panel does not appear on its own. Knowing how to add your business to Google Maps means knowing how to create a Business Profile, the free listing Google uses to show your company on the map and in searches that include a city. It takes an afternoon, and plenty of people put it off for months.
The short answer: you add your business to Google Maps by creating and verifying a Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business). There are five steps: create the profile with your real business name, choose a category, enter your address or service area, add your contact details, and confirm the business is yours through Google’s verification.
What is a Google Business Profile?
It is your business listing inside Google. It shows up on Google Maps and in search, with name, category, hours, phone, photos, website and a directions button. It costs nothing to create and does not depend on you having a website, although a website makes the profile work better.
Think of it as the storefront Google builds for you, instead of waiting for people to reach your site. In a search with a city, like “nutritionist in Jacareí”, it is often the first contact someone has with your company.
How to add your business to Google Maps, step by step
- Sign in with the Google account that will own the profile. Use a company account, not an employee’s or an agency’s. If that person leaves, the profile goes with them.
- Search for “Google Business Profile” and choose to create a profile. First, search for your company name: a listing may already exist, created by Google or by customers, and in that case you claim it instead of creating a second one.
- Type the business name exactly as it is in real life. No sales slogan and no city in the name. Google asks for the name on your sign, your invoice and your website.
- Choose the primary category. It is the choice that matters most. Pick the most specific one, such as “dentist” rather than “health services”. Secondary categories come later.
- Enter your address or service area (see the next section), your phone number and your website.
- Go through verification. Google confirms the business exists and is yours. The method varies by case: it can be a call, a text message, an email or a video. Follow whatever Google offers for your account.
Once verified, fill in the rest: hours (holidays included), description, services and real photos.
What if my business does not receive clients at its address?
This is the most common question from people who work from home, visit clients on site or run a 100% online business. The good news is that a Business Profile supports this: you can hide the address and list only your service area, the cities or regions where you work.
The mistake to avoid is using a friend’s address, a coworking space you never use or a room rented just to have an address. That breaks Google’s rules and can get the profile suspended. If your business has no storefront, say so when you set it up.
From the studio: a profile for a business with no storefront
L’Atelier 54 is 100% online, and that is the route we took. Our own Business Profile is a service-area profile, with the address hidden and the service area listed. It made sense because it is the truth: people who hire us talk to us by WhatsApp, email and video call, from any city.
On the client side, the TEG Monitor and TEG Rental case study shows a different use: the studio manages the Google profile of each of the two brands, with posts kept up to date, because it is what appears first for people searching for the service near them. A profile is not a one-time registration. It is a channel that needs upkeep.
What to fill in so the profile works for you
| Field | What to enter | Common mistake |
|---|---|---|
| Name | The real business name | Adding a keyword or a city |
| Primary category | The most specific one available | Picking a generic one |
| Hours | The real ones, holidays included | Leaving it blank or outdated |
| Website | The home page address | Pointing to a page that loads badly on mobile |
| Photos | Your work, your space, your team | Using stock images |
| Description | What you do and for whom, in plain language | Pasting the whole website text |
Profile created, now what?
It will not lift the business by itself. Google compares the profile with your website and with local searches, and a slow site or one without a clear page for each service weakens the whole. To find out whether Google already sees your site, read how to check if your website shows up on Google. To see where the profile fits among the free options, read how to show up on Google without paying for ads.
It also helps to keep the same name, phone number and address (or service area) on the profile, the website and Instagram. When they disagree, Google does not know which one to believe.
Want the profile and the website working together?
Setting up the profile is the easy part. Making it, the website and your city’s search results tell the same story is more work, and that is where we come in. See our web design service or, if you would like to talk right away, request a website quote.