Your Google business profile has just been born and it is empty. Now come the weeks that decide whether you show up on the map or stay in the limbo of businesses that exist but never appear. This is the order we follow, and the rest can wait.
Verification comes first, and it takes patience
Until Google confirms the business exists, the profile is barely shown. Depending on the case it asks for a video of the premises, a phone call or a postcard to the address, and the timings vary: sometimes days, sometimes much longer. The methods and what each one requires are on Google verification page.
If you get the video, record the street with the sign, the entrance, the inside and something proving you work there: the till, the tools, the stock. No cuts and no music.
While you wait, do not touch anything
This is the costliest mistake on new profiles. Changing the name, the category or the address several times during review triggers more reviews and delays everything. Fill it in once, properly, and leave it alone. If you got something important wrong, better to wait until you are verified to fix it.
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The order of the first four weeks
Week 1: category, name and hours
The three fields that carry the most weight. The main category, the name exactly as it is on the sign, and the real opening hours, bank holidays included. Nothing else, however tempting.
Week 2: the first ten photos
Front with the sign, entrance, the inside from the door, counter or room, two or three of the product or finished work, the team and one of the detail that sets you apart. Taken on a phone, in daylight.
Week 3: the first reviews
Five or six are enough to get going, asked of real customers and spread out over time. How to ask without risking anything is in how to get Google reviews.
Week 4: services and the first post
The list of services or products with two lines each, and the first post telling something real. What to write and how often is in Google Business posts.
The fields almost nobody fills in
These are what separate a live profile from a half-done one, and they take half an hour:
- The description, saying what you do and who for, written the way you talk.
- The attributes: wheelchair access, card payments, wifi, which languages you speak.
- The list of services or products, two lines each. It is one of the few things you get to write yourself and that people read on the map.
- The booking or ordering link, if you have a diary or a menu.
- The service area, if you travel to the client instead of serving at a premises.
The main category decides more than it seems
It tells Google which searches it can show you in, and there is only one main category. Pick the one that describes what you do, not the one that sounds better: a hairdresser listed as a «beauty centre» disappears from hairdresser searches. Secondary ones are added later, calmly, and are managed as Google explains on its categories page.
The name: exactly what is on the sign
No city, no services, no «the best». Putting keywords in the name is one of the biggest causes of suspension, and competitors report it. If your business is called Talleres Puig, the profile is called Talleres Puig.
Why at first you only show up for your own name
It is normal and it drives everybody mad. A new profile with no reviews or activity shows up first for people searching your name, and only later starts creeping into generic searches like «plumber near me». That does not get fixed by poking the profile every day; it gets fixed with reviews, photos and posts, which is exactly the first month work.
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The mistakes that get new profiles suspended
- An address that is not yours. The coworking space you use two afternoons a week, or a relative house. If you do not serve customers there, it does not count.
- A name with keywords in it. We said it already, but it is number one.
- A category that does not match what the website and the premises show.
- Made-up opening hours to look more available. A customer who turns up and finds you closed says so in a review.
If you do get suspended, you can appeal; the procedure is on the suspended profiles page. It takes time, which is why it is worth not ending up there over something silly.
Link the profile to your site, do not leave it adrift
The profile link should go to the right page, not always the home page: if you are a workshop with three services, send it to the main service page. And on the website, the address and hours must say exactly what the profile says. How the whole thing is worked is in the Google Business profile.
How to edit the profile without a scare
Once verified you can edit normally, but it is worth doing it methodically: one change at a time, and wait for it to apply. If you change the name, the category and the address at once, the system reviews it all together and can leave the profile pending for days.
Big changes, like moving premises, are made once you have reviews and activity; a profile with history survives a review far better than a newborn one.
What to check after thirty days
Four numbers the profile gives you: how many times it appeared, how many people asked for directions, how many called, and what they typed to find you. That last one is the most useful: if every search is your own name, nobody is discovering you yet.
What will not happen in a month
You will not be top for «renovations Barcelona», and anyone telling you otherwise is selling smoke. In a well-run first month what you see is that you start appearing for your name and for very specific searches from your street or your neighbourhood. The rest comes with the months, if the profile stays alive.
What it costs to have us run it
The profile is part of our presence plans, published on prices: 400, 750 and 1,500 € a month, VAT on top and with no lock-in, with articles on the site, posts on the profile and every review answered. On Google Business we explain what we do each month.
If you would rather set it up yourself and have somebody check it, we do that too: we tell you what is missing and what is wrong, and you decide from there.
We work from Palamós, on profiles across Girona and Barcelona
We look after profiles for businesses two hours away, because this is remote work except on photo day. If you have just created yours and do not know what comes next, tell us the business name and we will tell you what it is missing.
Tell us what you need and we'll give you a price
We reply the same day. No commitment, no sales pitch.