Google Business Profile

Google Business Profile guidelines in plain words

Your business must meet customers in person, use its everyday name, list a staffed real-world address or hide it as a service-area business, and keep one profile per location. Breaking the rules can get a profile edited, removed or suspended.

6 steps

  1. Step 1: Check eligibility: you must meet customers in person during your stated hours, at your location or theirs.
    5 min
  2. Step 2: Compare your profile name with your sign, website and letterhead, and strip anything extra such as cities, slogans or keywords.
    5 min
  3. Step 3: Confirm your address is a staffed location customers can visit, or hide it and set a service area if you go to them.
    10 min
  4. Step 4: Make sure the phone and website belong to this business and location and don't redirect to other pages.
    5 min
  5. Step 5: Trim categories to the fewest, most specific ones that say what the business is.
    5 min
  6. Step 6: Search Maps for other profiles of your business and resolve any duplicates.
    10 min
  7. Arrived: A profile that follows the rules is far less likely to be edited by Google, hidden as a duplicate, or suspended.

Checked 13 Nov 2026 · source: support.google.com

Who gets a profile

The test is face-to-face contact. Google’s eligibility page says a business must make in-person contact with customers during its stated hours. That covers a shop people walk into, and it covers a plumber who drives to people’s homes. It doesn’t cover an online store, a brand with no premises, a lead-generation agent, or a rental property. Seasonal businesses are fine if their sign stays up all year, and a few unstaffed things like ATMs are allowed with contact details.

Anyone who manages a profile for a business they don’t own, such as an agency or a friend, has to do it with the owner’s consent and hand over ownership when asked.

Your name

Use the name customers see on your sign, your website and your paperwork. Nothing more. Google’s guidelines rule out:

  • taglines and slogans
  • keywords about your services or products
  • city or neighborhood names that aren’t part of the brand
  • store codes, phone numbers, web addresses or hours
  • all-caps styling, and ® or ™ symbols

Adding extras to the name is the rule owners break most, and Google says it can lead to suspension.

Your address

List the place you work from, and only if customers can come there and it’s staffed during your hours. P.O. boxes and remote mailboxes don’t count. Suite or floor numbers are fine. If you travel to customers and they don’t visit you, hide the address and set a service area instead; Google suggests keeping that area within about two hours’ drive of your base. Shared workspaces and rented mailing addresses have their own rules, covered on the virtual offices page.

Phone and website

Give a number and site that belong to this business and location. Google prefers a local number over a central call center, wants the number under your direct control, and doesn’t allow premium-rate lines. Neither the number nor the URL should redirect people elsewhere, social media pages included.

Hours and categories

Hours should be the times you serve customers. Businesses whose schedules vary, like appointment-only services or venues with showtimes, generally shouldn’t list hours. Use seasonal hours during the season and mark yourself temporarily closed off-season.

For categories, pick as few as possible, as specific as possible, describing what the business is rather than everything it sells.

People and departments

Doctors, lawyers, agents and similar professionals can have their own profiles in some cases, and distinct public-facing departments can too. Each has detailed conditions; see the practitioner page for the specifics.

One profile per location

Don’t create more than one profile for a location, in one account or several. Moving? Edit the address. Several services? List them on one profile.

If it doesn't work

  • You already have a suspension notice: fix the cause first, then request reinstatement. Changing more fields mid-review can slow it down.
  • You're unsure whether your location qualifies: read Google's eligibility page before creating or verifying anything.
  • A competitor breaks the rules and outranks you: suggest an edit on their listing, or use Google's redressal form for fraudulent names, numbers or websites.

Questions owners ask

Which businesses can't have a profile at all?

Google's eligibility page names rentals and properties for sale, classes or meetings at places you don't run, lead-generation agents, and online-only businesses. Sales or leasing offices and seasonal businesses with year-round signage can qualify.

Can I add LLC or a trademark symbol to my name?

Trademark and registered marks aren't allowed. Legal endings like LLC or Ltd., and special characters, are allowed only if you can show they're part of the name you use in the real world, for example on your sign.

Should I list hours if I work by appointment only?

Google says businesses with varied schedules, such as appointment-only services, classes or venues with showtimes, generally shouldn't list hours. If you do keep regular customer hours, list those.

What happens if I break a guideline?

Google says it may change your listing details, remove business information, or suspend the profile. Its eligibility page adds that the Google Account itself can be suspended, which blocks further contributions.

Sources

Checked 13 Nov 2026. When the platform changes its process we update this page and log it in What changed.

Related fixes

Written by Ellis Marr (a pen name) · Checked 13 Nov 2026 · How we check