Setting up and verifying your Google Business Profile

0:00 Setting up and verifying GBP

Setting up a Google Business Profile properly is probably the single most valuable hour a local business can spend online. Get it wrong, with a keyword stuffed name or a virtual office, and you can spend months fighting suspensions. Get it right, and you have a solid foundation for everything else in this course. In this lecture you'll learn who's eligible, the guidelines that matter most at setup, how verification works, and how to protect ownership.

0:33 Why setup matters

Why does setup matter so much? Because most suspensions and ranking problems trace back to the first hour. A wrong address type, a business name with city keywords, or an agency owning the profile instead of the business. These mistakes are easy to make and slow to undo. And Google has been stricter about verification in recent years, often asking for video evidence. Preparation saves you weeks.

1:02 Who's eligible

First, eligibility. A Business Profile is for businesses that make in person contact with customers during stated hours. Storefront businesses, where customers visit you, like shops, restaurants and clinics. Service area businesses, where you visit customers, like plumbers, cleaners and tutors. And hybrids that do both. Online only businesses without in person contact generally aren't eligible. And virtual offices, mailboxes and co-working addresses where you're not staffed during business hours typically violate the guidelines.

1:34 Profile = passport

Now the guidelines that matter most. Think of your profile like a passport. It has to match reality exactly. Business name: your real world name, as it appears on your signage and stationery, with no added keywords, locations or taglines. Address: a precise, real address, or for service area businesses, a hidden address with service areas instead. Phone: a number that reaches the business. Website: the most relevant page. And hours: accurate, with special hours for Eid, Ramadan timings, Christmas and public holidays.

2:10 Setup steps

Here's the step by step. First, search Google Maps for your business name and address. A profile may already exist, created by Google or a customer. If it does, claim it rather than creating a duplicate, and if someone else owns it, use Google's request access process. Next, create or claim it with a business controlled Google account, not a freelancer's personal account. Choose the primary category, enter your location or service areas, add contact details, verify, and then complete the rest of the profile.

2:47 Video verification

Verification. Google chooses which methods are available to you. They can include a video recording, phone or text message, email, or postcard, and some businesses need more than one step. For video, record one continuous take. Start with the street or building exterior to show location context. Show your permanent signage. Walk inside to the reception or workspace. Then show proof you manage the business, like unlocking the door or showing business documents. Service area businesses show branded vehicles, tools and documents.

3:23 Example 1 (simple)

Worked example one, simple. Imran runs a mobile car wash in Karachi with no storefront. He sets up as a service area business, hides his home address and lists the neighbourhoods he genuinely serves. For video verification, he films his branded van, his equipment, and his business registration document in one continuous take. His business name on the profile is simply the name painted on the van. Nothing else. Verification succeeds on the first attempt.

3:56 Example 2 (illustrative)

Worked example two, realistic and illustrative. A new physiotherapy clinic in Manchester is set up by an agency. The agency's first draft had the name Move Well Physio, Manchester Sports Injury Clinic, and the agency's own Gmail as primary owner. We fix both. The name becomes Move Well Physio, exactly as on the sign. The clinic creates a shared business account with multi factor authentication as primary owner, and adds the agency as a manager. They prepare a verification folder in advance, as described in the lesson.

4:34 The verification folder

That folder is worth copying. A text file with your canonical name, address, phone, website and hours. Proof of business: licence or registration, a utility bill, the lease, with names and addresses that match. Photos of exterior signage in daylight and the interior. A short verification video plan. And an access file listing the primary owner account and managers. Keep it. If your profile is ever suspended, you'll need exactly the same evidence to appeal.

5:07 What's changed

A few things have changed recently, so don't trust old tutorials. Chat and messaging was discontinued in twenty twenty-four, and so were websites built with Business Profile. The classic public questions and answers section has been replaced in many markets by AI generated answers in Maps. And in twenty twenty-six, Google started rolling out the option to connect your profile to Gemini, so you can manage it and draft review replies in natural language, where it's available. Always check the current Business Profile Help pages.

5:44 Watch me do it: create + verify a profile

Watch me do it. I'll prepare and complete a verification for a new salon in Dubai Marina. First, I search Google Maps for the salon's name and phone number to make sure no profile already exists. None does. Next, I sign in with the salon's own business Google account, which has multi factor authentication switched on. Not my agency account. Then I create the profile: the exact name on the sign, Hair salon as the primary category, the real address inside the mall, the salon's direct phone, and the website's services page. I add regular hours and, because it's near Eid, special hours too. Now verification. Google offers video recording for this profile. Before I press record, I open the verification folder: trade licence, a utility bill, and a written plan. I start outside the mall entrance so the street and building are visible, walk to the corridor, show the permanent sign above the door, go inside to the chairs and equipment, and then the manager unlocks the stock room and shows the licence. One continuous take, about two minutes. I upload it. Finally, I add the agency's account as a manager, not an owner, and I note the date in the access file. Now we wait, without editing the name or address. If Google asks for more evidence, the folder is ready, and if verification fails, I use the official support route rather than creating a second profile. Duplicates only make things worse.

7:30 Common mistakes

Common mistakes. Creating a new profile when one already exists. Agencies owning client profiles. Adding city names to the business name for SEO. Using a co-working or virtual office address. And making lots of edits to core details while verification is pending, which can trigger extra checks.

7:50 Recap

Recap. Business Profiles are for businesses with in person customer contact. Use your real world name, a real address or hidden address with service areas, and accurate hours. Prepare evidence before verification, and keep ownership with the business, with agencies as managers. Try this now. Look up your own profile, check who the primary owner is, and compare your business name with your actual signage. If they don't match exactly, you've found your first fix.