How to get your business on Google Maps, step by step

Published 2026-09-26 · by Kingpin Sites

What Google Business Profile is

Google Business Profile is the free listing that puts your business on Google Maps and in the box that appears when someone searches your business name. It shows your phone, hours, photos, reviews and a "Call" button. For most local businesses it brings more calls than the website itself, so it is worth doing properly.

Step 1: create or claim the listing

Go to google.com/business and sign in with a Google account you control. Search for your business name. If it already exists, claim it; if not, create it. Use your real business name, the same as on your invoices. Do not stuff keywords into the name; Google removes listings that do that.

Step 2: choose the right category and area

Pick the most specific main category ("Roofing contractor", not "Contractor"). If you go to customers instead of them coming to you, set it up as a service-area business and list the towns you actually serve. Google may hide your street address in that case, which is normal.

Step 3: verification

Google decides how you verify, and you cannot pick. Common methods are a short video (you film your workplace, your equipment and something that proves you run the business, like a branded vehicle or a license), a phone call, or a postcard. Video is the most common now. Review can take a few days. Until you are verified, the listing will not show fully.

Step 4: fill in everything

• Phone number that you actually answer.
• Hours, including holidays.
• Your website address.
• At least ten real photos: your work, your truck, your team. Phone photos are fine.
• Services, with a short description of each.

Step 5: reviews, the honest way

Ask every happy customer for a review, right after the job, with a direct link. Reply to every review, good or bad. Never buy reviews or write your own; Google detects it and can remove the listing. More on reviews here.

Where Kingpin Sites comes in

Setting up the profile correctly is part of our $499 package. We create or fix the listing, pick the categories and services, and walk you through the verification video. If you want it managed every month (posts, photos, review replies, review requests), that is the $50 a month add-on.