A proper Google Business Profile comes down to a handful of things: your real business name, the right primary category, an honest address or service area, real photos and a steady flow of genuine reviews. Get those right, keep the profile active, and you’ve got a real shot at showing up on Google Maps when locals search for what you do.
Most of it takes an afternoon. Verification takes a few days.
Here’s the checklist, plus the traps that catch Australian businesses out.
Before you start
Google only gives profiles to businesses that meet customers face to face. Either people come to you (a shop or a clinic) or you go to them (a plumber or a mobile dog groomer). Running the business from home is fine. A web shop that only posts orders, where customers never deal with you in person, doesn’t qualify.
Next, work out which type you are. If customers visit, show your address. If you travel to them, you’re a service-area business: Google still needs your address to verify you, but you hide it and list the suburbs and towns you cover instead. You can add up to 20, and Google says the whole area shouldn’t stretch much past two hours’ drive from your base. Do both? Show the address and add a service area.
This is where the first Australian trap sits. Plenty of small businesses here run their mail through a PO Box, and Google won’t accept one as your address. A virtual office or an unstaffed co-working desk won’t pass either. Work from home? Use your home address to verify, then hide it. Your front door doesn’t need to be on Google Maps.
The checklist
Tick off every line before you call the profile finished.
| Item | What good looks like |
|---|---|
| Business name | Your real name, exactly as it appears on your signage and invoices. Nothing tacked on. |
| Primary category | The most specific one that finishes the sentence “This business is a…” |
| Extra categories | As few as you need, and only for things you genuinely are. |
| Address or service area | Address shown if customers visit. Hidden, with up to 20 suburbs and towns listed, if you go to them. |
| Phone | A local landline or mobile you answer during business hours. |
| Website link | Your most relevant page, tagged so profile visits show up separately in your analytics. |
| Hours | Your real hours, plus special hours for public holidays and the Christmas closedown. |
| Description | Up to 750 characters on what you do and where you do it. No links, prices or sale banners. |
| Services | Each service listed separately with a line about it. Any price you show includes GST. |
| Photos | Real ones of your work and your premises or van. Logo and cover photo set. |
| Reviews | A short link or QR code you send every customer, and a reply to every review. |
| Posts | A short update every week or two, like a recent job or a seasonal tip. |
Four details worth getting right
The category does the heavy lifting. Google’s own test is to finish the sentence “This business is a…” rather than “This business has a…”. Search your main service in Google Maps, look at who comes up first, and check the category shown under their name. Then pick the closest honest match for you.
Reviews are the next big lever, and Google’s rules are stricter than most people think. Ask every customer, every time, with a direct link or QR code. No discounts or freebies in return, and no asking only the happy ones. Don’t pressure people to do it on the spot or tell them what to write. Here in Australia the ACCC also treats undisclosed incentivised reviews as likely to mislead customers, so it’s a legal risk as well as a Google one.
Your phone number counts too. Google asks for a local number over a central helpline, so a landline or mobile beats a 1300 number where you can manage it.
Finally, tag your website link. Add ?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=gbp to the end of it and your analytics will show profile visits on their own line. That’s how you find out whether all this effort is actually bringing people in.
Mistakes that get profiles suspended or ignored
Stuffing keywords into the name is the classic. “Smith Plumbing Bendigo | 24/7 Emergency Plumber” feels clever until Google suspends the profile, which its guidelines say it can do for extra words in a business name. Use the name on your sign.
Running two profiles is another. One business gets one profile. If a previous owner or an old agency set one up years ago, claim that one instead of starting fresh, or you’ll end up with your reviews split across two listings.
Then there’s set and forget. Hours and services change, but that photo of the van you sold in 2021 is still sitting there. A profile nobody has touched in a year tells customers nobody’s minding the shop.
Do it yourself, or hand it over
You can set most of this up yourself in an afternoon. If you’d like a guide beside you while you do, The Local Growth Playbook ($197 including GST) takes you through it step by step. It comes with templates for your profile wording and review requests (QR code included), plus a simple dashboard that shows what the profile brings in. Founding buyers also get a five-minute video review of their profile. It’s ready in December, and the waitlist is open now.
Would you rather hand it over? Local Launch is the done-for-you version. I set up or fix your profile, write your review message and QR code, set up tracking and test it, then build your first Google Ads campaign (ad spend goes to Google separately). It’s $797 including GST for the first five clients, then $997. See everything Local Launch includes.
Already have a profile that isn’t bringing in calls? Get in touch and tell me what’s going on.
Common questions
Does a Google Business Profile cost anything?
No, it’s free. If someone calls saying your listing will disappear unless you pay, hang up. Google says it will never call and ask for your payment details.
How long does verification take?
Usually a few days. Google shows you which verification methods you can use, and video is the common one now. You record at least 30 seconds on your phone, unedited, showing where you operate, proof the business exists and proof you run it. Google says reviewing the video can take up to five business days.
Do I need a website?
No, but it helps. Google reads your website when it works out what your business does, and plenty of customers check it before they call.