TL;DR: To list your business on Google, create a free Business Profile at business.google.com/add, enter your name, category, address or service area, phone and website, then verify it. Google says customers “can only find your business profile on Google after you complete verification,” and the review takes up to 5 business days. Use your real-world name, hide your address if customers don’t come to you, and keep one profile per business. Then give the listing somewhere to send people: with WebZum you can see a website for your business free in about five minutes and paste its address into your profile.
Disclosure: WebZum publishes this blog and makes a website builder for small businesses. Every rule below links to Google’s own help pages.
Verified October 27, 2026.
Is it free to list your business on Google?
Yes. Google says it plainly: “Yes, creating a Business Profile and listing your business on Google is free” (Google Business). Its help center says the same: “You can add or claim your business at no charge” (Google Business Profile Help).
So if someone calls offering to “get you on Google” for a fee, know that the listing itself costs nothing. What you pay for elsewhere is optional: ads, a website, someone’s time.
How do I list my business on Google, step by step?
Create a Business Profile, then verify it. Google’s sign-up steps (Google Business Profile Help):
- Sign in to a Google Account on your computer, or create one. Google suggests using your business email domain if you’re making a new account.
- Go to business.google.com/add and enter your business name. If your business shows up in the suggestions as you type, pick it (more on that below).
- Choose your category. Pick the one that finishes the sentence “This business IS a…” (see the rules below).
- Say whether customers can visit you. If you have a storefront staffed during business hours, choose Yes and enter the address or drop a pin on the map. If you go to customers, choose No.
- Add your service area if you travel to customers. You can add up to 20 areas by city or ZIP code, and Google recommends not stretching farther than about 2 hours’ drive from where you’re based.
- Enter your phone number and website. Google recommends the number for that location, not a remote call center.
- Click Finish and pick a verification option. You can verify now from the red banner, or later.
The whole form takes a few minutes. Verification is the part that takes days.
What if my business is already on Google?
Then claim it instead of making a second one. Google sometimes creates a listing from public information before the owner ever touches it. Search your business name and city on Google Maps, open the listing, and select Claim this business, then Manage now (Google Business Profile Help).
If someone else already verified it (a former partner, an old marketing company), you can request ownership at business.google.com/add. Google emails the current owner, who “has 3 days to respond.” If they don’t answer, you may get the option to claim it yourself, though Google notes “the option to claim a profile isn’t always available” (Google Business Profile Help).
How do I verify my business on Google, and how long does it take?
You can’t choose the method. Google says “verification methods are automatically determined by Google and can’t be changed,” and depend on your business type, region and hours (Google Business Profile Help). The options you might see:
- Phone or text. You need to be able to answer the business line yourself. Google warns that phone menu systems (IVR) “won’t get the code.”
- Email. Follow the link in the message.
- Video. Google recommends it when it’s offered. Be at your business and ready to show outside signs or a street sign, your equipment or branded materials, and proof you run the place, like opening the door with your keys or showing a back room.
- Postcard. Most codes “arrive within 14 days” and expire after 30. While you wait, don’t edit your business name, address or category, or the code stops working, and don’t request a new one, because that cancels the one in the mail.
After you finish, Google says “verification reviews take up to 5 business days,” sometimes longer. It can be instant in a few cases, including when “you verify your website with Google Search Console” (same page). That’s one practical reason to have your website up before you list.
What rules get a Google Business Profile suspended?
Mostly the business name and address. Google’s guidelines say your name “should reflect your business’s real-world name, as used consistently on your storefront, website, stationery,” and “including unnecessary information in your business name isn’t permitted, and could result in the suspension of your Business Profile” (Google Business Profile Help). The usual mistakes:
- Keywords or taglines in the name. “Mossback Plumbing,” not “Mossback Plumbing – Best Emergency Plumber Spokane.” Google’s own examples ban taglines, phone numbers, and service lists in the name. Even “LLC” or “Inc” needs real-world proof, like signage or invoices.
- A P.O. box or virtual office. “P.O. boxes or mailboxes located at remote locations aren’t acceptable,” and a rented mailing address you don’t work from “isn’t eligible.”
- Showing a home address you don’t serve customers at. If customers don’t come to you, “you must hide your business address” and list a service area instead (Google Business Profile Help). Google’s example is a plumber who works from home.
- Duplicate profiles. Create one profile per metro area you serve. Google says “your Google account may be suspended if we find multiple profiles for the same business in the same metropolitan area” (same page).
- Too many categories. Use “the fewest number of categories” that describe the core business, and skip categories that are really keywords (Google Business Profile Help).
Your description has its own limits: up to 750 characters, no links, and no focus on prices or sales (Google Business Profile Help).
What should I add after my profile is verified?
Hours, photos, and a website, then reviews. Google says “businesses with complete and accurate info are more likely to show up in local search results,” and asks for your hours (including special hours), category and details like parking (Google Business Profile Help).
Photos are the easy one. Google’s 2026 Business Profile best-practices playbook says businesses that add photos get 42% more requests for directions on Google Maps and 35% more clicks through to their websites (Google GBP Best Practices Playbook 2026, PDF). Those are Google’s numbers about its own product, so read them as its claim.
The website matters because people go looking for it. In BrightLocal’s 2026 survey of 1,002 US adults, 54% said that after reading positive reviews of a local business they go check its website, up from 32% in 2019, while BrightLocal puts the share of local businesses with a dedicated website at only about 40% (BrightLocal). A listing with no website sends some of those people back to the search results. Our Google Business Profile website guide shows how to add one to the Website field.
Will listing my business get me to the top of Google Maps?
Listing gets you in; it doesn’t put you on top. Google says local results “are mainly based on relevance, distance, and popularity,” that prominence includes “how many websites link to your business and how many reviews you have,” and that “there’s no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google” (Google Business Profile Help).
So the work after verification is steady: a complete profile, real photos, replying to reviews, and asking happy customers for new ones. Our local SEO checklist goes through it in order.
Listing step by step, in one table
| Step | What Google asks | Time | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Create the profile | Name, category, address or service area, phone, website | A few minutes | |
| Claim an existing listing | Claim this business, then Manage now | A few minutes | |
| Request ownership from someone else | Fill out the request form | Owner has 3 days to respond | |
| Verify | Phone, text, email, video or postcard (Google picks) | Postcard usually within 14 days; review up to 5 business days | |
| Get found | Verified profile with complete info | Only after verification | |
| Add a website (WebZum) | Paste the site’s full https:// address in the Website field | Site built in about 5 minutes; free 30-day preview, then from $19/month | WebZum |
Does your website match your Google listing? We checked two of ours
Google wants your name, address and phone to look the same on your profile and your website, since your name should match how it’s “used consistently on your storefront, website, stationery.” So on October 27, 2026 we read the homepages of two WebZum demo sites against the fields Google’s sign-up form asks for. Both are fictional businesses we built to show the product, one of each kind Google treats differently:
| Google field | Mossback Plumbing, Spokane (goes to customers) | Blue Mesa Auto Repair, Albuquerque (storefront) |
|---|---|---|
| Name | “Mossback Plumbing,” the same in the header, footer and page title, no keywords added | “Blue Mesa Auto Repair,” the same everywhere |
| Address | No street address anywhere on the page; it says “Serving Spokane and surrounding area” | “Nob Hill, Albuquerque, NM,” with a map of the neighborhood |
| Phone | (509) 555-0142, the same number every time it appears | (505) 555-0163, the same number every time |
| Hours | None listed (the owner never gave any) | “Mon-Fri 8am-6pm, Sat 9am-2pm” in the top bar, the body of the page and the footer |
| Category | Marked up as a Plumber in the page’s structured data (the code Google reads) | Marked up as an AutoRepair business |
What it means for you. A plumber who works from home gets a site that doesn’t publish the home address, which lines up with Google’s rule to hide it. A shop gets its hours in several places, so the website and the profile tell customers the same thing. And because the details come from what you give WebZum once, there’s one name and one phone number to keep straight, not five slightly different ones.
The honest limit: the site can only be as accurate as what you tell it. If your hours change, change them in both places. On WebZum that’s one message in the editor (“We’re now closed Mondays”), then an Update business info button, and the site updates in about 30 seconds. Your Google profile you still edit on Google.
How does WebZum help once you’re listed?
It gives the listing a real website to point to, built from your own details.
- Start at webzum.com/free-website. If you’re already on Google Maps, paste your Maps link. WebZum uses your listing to build the site, puts your pin on the map, and pulls your star rating, review count and up to five of your 4-star-and-up Google reviews, quoted word for word with the reviewer’s name. Not on Maps yet? Describe the business in a sentence instead.
- Answer a few questions in plain language, usually about four.
- Get a multi-page site in about five minutes, with your services, a tap-to-call button, a contact form, and a chat assistant that answers visitors.
- Change anything by typing what you want, and undo by asking.
- Publish, then paste the address into your profile’s Website field under Edit profile.
Building and editing are free during a 30-day preview. Publishing is $19/month on Basic (a yourbusiness.webzum.com address) or $34/month on Professional (your own domain, which WebZum registers and covers up to $20 a year, and no WebZum branding). Every plan has a 30-day money-back guarantee. If you’re starting from zero, how to make a website for your business walks through the whole process, and if you run a shop like Blue Mesa there’s a page for auto repair websites.
FAQ
How do I list my business on Google?
Go to business.google.com/add, enter your business name, category, address or service area, phone and website, then verify. Google only shows the profile to customers after verification, which takes up to 5 business days to review (Google, Google).
Is listing my business on Google free?
Yes. Google: “creating a Business Profile and listing your business on Google is free” (Google Business).
Can I list my business on Google without an address?
Yes, if you go to your customers. Choose No when asked if customers can visit, add up to 20 service areas, and keep your address hidden. Google says a business without a storefront “must hide” its address (Google).
Can I list my business on Google without a website?
Yes. The website field is optional. But 54% of people in BrightLocal’s 2026 survey said they check a business’s website after reading good reviews (BrightLocal), and having a site you’ve verified in Search Console can make Google’s verification instant (Google).
Why can’t I find my business on Google after I signed up?
Usually because it isn’t verified yet. Customers “can only find your business profile on Google after you complete verification” (Google). If the “Get verified” button shows up again, Google couldn’t finish verifying and you’ll need to try again.
How long does it take to get my business on Google?
The form takes minutes. A postcard code usually arrives within 14 days, and Google’s review takes up to 5 business days after you verify (Google). Ranking well on Maps takes longer and depends on relevance, distance and reviews.
Once you’re listed, give people a site to land on. See your website free, built from your business details in about five minutes.