A Google Business Profile is the free listing that shows your business on Google Search and Google Maps: your name, hours, photos, reviews and how to reach you. When someone searches “coffee near me” or looks up your shop by name, this is usually the first thing they see. For a small shop, a market stall or a food truck, it’s one of the most useful free things you can set up.
This guide covers setting up and verifying a profile, what to do if you don’t have a storefront, how to handle a business that moves around, and how to keep the profile useful after it’s live. Google changes its screens often, so we describe what to do rather than exactly where to click. Google’s own help pages, linked below, have the current steps.
Check that your business is eligible
Google’s eligibility guidelines say a business must make in-person contact with customers during its stated hours. Online-only shops don’t qualify, and you can’t use a P.O. box as your address. There are two ways to qualify:
- A location customers visit. A shop, a café, a studio with public hours, or a spot where your truck or cart reliably parks during the hours you list.
- A service-area business. A business that travels to customers where they are, like a mobile coffee cart booked for events or a baker who delivers.
Some businesses fall in between. A craft seller who only trades at other people’s markets and fairs doesn’t own those locations, and Google’s rules don’t let you represent a place you don’t own or control. Read the guidelines for representing your business before you create a profile. If you don’t fit, your time is better spent on the market’s own listing, social media and your mailing list.
How to set up a Google Business Profile
The exact screens change, but the steps have stayed the same for years:
- Sign in with a Google account you’ll keep. Use a business email you control, not a personal account that belongs to one staff member. You can add other managers later.
- Search for your business first. Google may already have a listing for you, created from public information or by a customer. If it exists, claim it rather than making a second one.
- Enter your business name exactly as customers see it. Use the name on your sign, truck or cart. Don’t add taglines, cities or keywords like “Best Tacos Austin”; Google’s guidelines forbid it and it can get the profile suspended.
- Choose a primary category. Pick the most specific one that fits: “Gift shop” rather than “Store”, “Food truck” or “Coffee stand” if those match. You can add secondary categories later.
- Say whether customers can visit you. If yes, enter the address. If not, you’ll set a service area instead (see below).
- Add a phone number and website, if you have them. A social media page or online store link is fine.
- Verify the business (next section).
Verifying your profile
Until it’s verified, your edits may not show publicly. Google picks which verification methods you’re offered based on your business type, location and other information. Current options include a phone call or text, email, video, and a postcard by mail. Google says its review can take up to five business days.
Video verification is common for small businesses. Plan it before you record, and do it during business hours:
- Show where you are: the street, nearby signs or landmarks, and your shop front or parked truck.
- Show the business itself: your signage, truck wrap, cart branding, equipment or stock.
- Show proof you run it: opening the shop, unlocking the truck, or tools of the trade, and business paperwork if asked.
Film in one continuous take. A branded truck with its logo, a menu board and a working kitchen is much easier to verify than a plain tent.
No storefront? Set up a service area
If customers don’t come to your address, for example you work from home and deliver or cater, Google’s service area guidance is clear: remove the address from your profile and list only your service area. Your home address stays hidden from customers, though you may still need to give it to Google privately for verification.
- Add service areas as cities, ZIP codes or regions. Google allows up to 20.
- You can’t set a radius around your base.
- Keep the whole area to about two hours’ drive from where you’re based.
- Businesses selling age-restricted products like alcohol need a storefront and can’t be service-area only.
Food trucks and businesses that move around
Google Maps is built around places that stay put, so a business that changes location every day takes some care. Stay honest and your profile is much less likely to be suspended.
- If you have a regular spot where you park on set days and hours, and customers can find you there, you can list that address with those hours.
- If you rotate between spots, set up as a service-area business covering the cities you serve, and don’t list an address customers can’t actually visit.
- Never create a profile per parking spot or for a market or brewery you don’t control. Duplicate profiles break Google’s rules.
- Use posts to say where you’ll be. A short weekly post with this week’s locations and times works well, alongside your social media.
- Seasonal? Set regular hours while you’re open, and mark the business as temporarily closed in the off-season rather than deleting it.
What to fill in once you’re verified
Hours
Wrong hours are the fastest way to lose a customer’s trust. Set your regular hours, then add special hours for holidays, events and busy shopping days like Small Business Saturday. If you close unexpectedly, update it the same day.
Description
Write a plain description of what you sell and what makes you different. “Small-batch soy candles and handmade ceramics, all made in our Portland studio. Gift wrapping free.” No links, no promotions, no ALL CAPS.
Products, menu and services
Add your main products or menu items with prices where the profile allows. People check prices before they drive over. Keep it short and update it when prices change.
Attributes
Google offers optional details depending on your category, such as payment types, accessibility, outdoor seating or whether you’re women-owned or veteran-owned. Fill in the ones that are true.
Photos that help people choose you
Profiles with good photos get more attention. You don’t need a photographer, just a phone and daylight.
- Logo and cover photo. The cover should show your shop, truck or stall at its best.
- Outside. What people should look for when they arrive: your sign, door or truck.
- Inside or at the counter. The display, the menu board, the tables.
- Products. Your best sellers, close up and well lit.
- People. You and your team at work, if you’re comfortable with it.
Add a few new photos each month. Seasonal products and new stock give you a reason.
Posts: news, offers and events
Posts let you share updates that appear on your profile. Use them for new products, this week’s locations, holiday hours, events and offers like a gift card promotion. Keep each one short with a clear photo. Posts are a small effort, but they show customers the business is active.
Getting and answering reviews
Reviews are what many customers read first. Getting them is mostly a matter of asking:
- Ask happy customers in person. “If you enjoyed it, a Google review really helps us.”
- Print a small card or sign with a QR code to your review link, which you can copy from your profile.
- Put the link in your emails, on your website and in your social media bio.
- Don’t pay for reviews or offer discounts in exchange. Google’s content policies prohibit incentivized and fake reviews, and it removes them.
Reply to reviews, good and bad. Thank people by name for positive ones. For a negative review, stay calm, don’t argue, acknowledge the problem and offer to fix it offline. Future customers read your reply as much as the complaint.
Keep your Google Business Profile current
- Check the profile once a month and after any change in hours, prices, phone or location.
- Watch for suggested edits from the public; Google may apply them if you don’t respond.
- Answer questions customers ask on the profile.
- Look at the profile’s performance numbers to see how many people call, ask for directions or visit your website.
Where SleepingFire fits
SleepingFire doesn’t connect to Google, so your profile stays something you manage yourself. What it does help with is the information you put on it: peak hours reports show when you’re actually busy, best sellers tell you which products deserve the photos, and the customer list shows your regulars, the people most likely to leave a review if you ask. It runs in the browser on a phone or tablet, which suits a truck or stall. See how it works for food trucks, or check the sales reports.