Google Business Profile setup: get it right, and fix it when it stops showing

For many small businesses, Google is where a new customer meets you first. They search for a plumber, a salon or an accountant nearby, and the map at the top of the results shows names, hours, reviews and a button to call. Each of those entries is a Google Business Profile, and adding or claiming one costs nothing.

The trouble is that a profile is easy to set up badly, and you rarely find out until it has stopped working. A few extra words in the business name can get it suspended. A profile that was never verified does not show at all. Here is how to set one up properly, why a profile stops showing, and what to do if Google suspends it, checked against Google's own help pages on 6 November 2026.

Check your business is eligible

Google's guidelines for representing your business are the rules every profile is judged against. The core test: your business either has a place customers can visit or travels to customers where they are, and it deals with them in person during the hours it states.

Google's policy overview names businesses that do not qualify, including online-only businesses, lead generation companies, and properties for rent or sale. A virtual office does not qualify either. If you only sell online, your website is your route to being found, not a Business Profile.

Google Business Profile setup, step by step

Look before you add. Search Google Maps for your business first: it may already be listed. If nobody has verified it, claim it. If someone else manages it, you can request ownership from them. Both routes are on Google's add or claim page. Never create a second profile for the same business.

Your name, exactly as customers know it. Use the name on your shopfront, website and stationery, and nothing else. Google's guidelines rule out straplines, service or product words, location words, opening hours, phone numbers, web addresses and words written all in capitals. If your van says one name, the profile says that name, not that name plus "emergency electrician" and your town. Google says unnecessary information in a business name "could result in the suspension" of your profile.

As few categories as possible. Choose the most specific category for your core business. Google's test is that a category finishes the sentence "this business is a", not "this business has a". Categories are not there to carry keywords.

Address or service area. This depends on where you meet customers.

• If customers come to you, use your precise, real address, with permanent signage showing your business name. PO boxes and remote mailboxes are not accepted. A co-working space only counts if your business has clear signage there, staffs it and receives customers there during your opening hours.
• If you go to customers, set up as a service-area business and hide your address. Google's own example is a plumber who works from home. The service area should not stretch much beyond about two hours' drive from your base.
• If you do both, such as a shop that also goes out to customers, you can show the address, as long as it is staffed and open to customers.

Phone, website and hours. Use a phone number your business controls, a local one rather than a call centre where you can, and never a premium-rate number. Link to your own website. Give your regular customer-facing hours, add special hours for bank holidays, and if you are seasonal, mark the business temporarily closed in the off-season.

Verification: what to expect now

Verification proves you are entitled to manage the profile, and nothing on this list matters more: Google says only verified businesses can show their business information on Maps and Search.

You do not choose the method: Google decides, depending on things such as your type of business, region and opening hours. Its verification page lists the options: a code by phone, text or email, a video recording, a live video call during your opening hours, or a postcard.

Where a video recording is offered, Google recommends it. It needs to show where you are (signs outside or a street sign), the business itself (products, branded equipment or your tools), and proof that you manage it (a staff-only area, the till, or unlocking the door with your keys). Also from Google's page:

• Reviews take up to five working days, and some profiles are verified straight away.
• A postcard code usually arrives within 14 days and expires after 30. While you wait, do not change your name, address or category, and do not request a new code.
• Google says it will never ask you for your verification code. Keep it to yourself.

Why your Google Business Profile is not showing up

Search for your business name and your town. If the profile appears, it is working, and the real issue is ranking: it does not show for the searches you want. If it does not appear at all, Google's page on finding your business covers the checks:

1. It is not verified. Unverified profiles do not show on Maps and Search.
2. It was edited recently. Google says changes can take up to three days to appear.
3. It is new. Google says rankings for new businesses can take up to a month to appear.
4. It has been suspended or disabled. Google tells you through the Google Account that manages the profile, so check that account's email.

If the profile shows for your name but not for "electrician near me", read Google's explanation of how local results are ranked. It weighs three things:

• Relevance: how well your profile matches the search. Complete information and the right category help here.
• Distance: how far you are from the person searching.
• Prominence: how well known your business is. Google says this draws partly on links to your business from around the web and on your reviews, and that more reviews and positive ratings can help.

Google is also clear that there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking, so be wary of anyone selling a guaranteed place in the map results.

Why Google suspends a Business Profile

Google may suspend or disable profiles that do not follow its guidelines. Its policy overview sets out what gets a profile suspended, disabled or restricted. These are the points most likely to catch a small business:

• Extra words in the name, such as a service or town added to rank.
• An ineligible business, such as one with no in-person contact with customers.
• A business that is not where the profile says it is, which gets the profile disabled.
• A PO box as the business address.
• A problem with the Google Account itself. If the account that manages the profile is restricted, its profiles are suspended.
• Turning it into a different business. Google may reject edits that change what the business is. If a new business takes over your premises, mark the old profile permanently closed.
• Leaving it untouched. Google may remove an owner's access, after a warning, when a profile goes unused for long periods.

Whatever the notice says, Google's appeals tool shows the decision, the reason given and a link to the policy concerned. Read that before you change anything.

How to appeal a suspended Google Business Profile

Google's page on fixing suspended or disabled profiles and its appeals guidance set out the route.

1. Do not create a new profile. Google says not to create a new Business Profile for the same business.
2. Fix the account first. If your Google Account is restricted, lift that restriction before you appeal the profile.
3. Fix the cause. Correct whatever breaks the guidelines before you appeal.
4. Gather proof. Google suggests documents such as your business registration, a business licence, tax certificates or a utility bill, with a name and address that match the profile.
5. Appeal once, properly. Use Google's appeals tool, signed in with the account that manages the profile. Google says appeals can only be submitted once, so do not send a rough one first.
6. Wait for the email. Google says decisions can take up to five working days.

If the appeal is refused, Google's suspension page links to a form for requesting a further review.

Keeping it working

A few habits keep a profile out of trouble:

• Sign in regularly, and link the profile to an email address somebody reads.
• Add a second owner or manager, so the profile never depends on one person's login.
• Change the real world first. If you rename, move or rebrand, update your signage and website, then the profile. Google may ask you to verify again.
• Keep your hours honest, including bank holidays and closures.
• Reply to reviews and add photos. Google lists both among its tips for local ranking.
• Make your website agree with your profile: the same name, address, phone number and hours.

A profile gets you found; your website wins the work

A Business Profile puts you on the map. What a customer does next usually depends on your website, and whether it answers what they searched for.

At The Anchor, our own venue, the old website described the business in its own words while people nearby searched in completely different ones. Rebuilding it around what they actually search for grew its Google Search visibility by 828%. The Anchor is a pub, but every small business can have the same gap: customers search in their words, not yours. The full case study explains what changed.

Local search is part of the growth work on every one of our plans, alongside improving the pages that turn search visitors into enquiries. Plans start at £350 a month plus VAT on a 12-month agreement, and the full list is on our pricing page. We never promise rankings: we commit to the work and report honestly on the results. If you run a pub, our Business Profile guide written around pubs covers the parts specific to them.

If your business is in Staines or Spelthorne

Orange Jelly is based in Stanwell Moor, Staines, so Staines and Spelthorne is where we look for clients first. If your business is local too, here is how we work with businesses in the area.

The short version

• Check you are eligible: customers visit you, or you go to them, and you deal with them in person.
• Use your real-world name and nothing else, as few categories as possible, and your real address or a service area with the address hidden.
• Verify, because Google only shows verified businesses on Maps and Search.
• If it does not show, check verification, recent edits and your Google Account email before worrying about ranking.
• If it is suspended, do not start a new profile. Fix the cause, gather documents that match, and appeal once through Google's appeals tool.