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

There are two different ways Google shows your business, and most owners only set up one of them.

Google Maps and the map box in search. The box with your hours, reviews, photos and a "Directions" button. That comes from a Google Business Profile, which you create and control.

The regular search results. The list of websites under the map. That's where your website shows up, and you help Google find and read it through a free tool called Search Console.

You want both. Here's how to set them up yourself. It's free, and it takes an afternoon plus a few days of waiting for Google.

One note before the steps: Google renames buttons and menus now and then. If a label below doesn't match your screen, look for the closest one. The order of the steps stays the same.

Part 1: Google Business Profile (the map)

Step 1: Check whether you already have one

Search your business name and town on Google. If a map box shows up with your name, a profile already exists. Maybe a past owner made it, maybe Google built it from public info. Look for a link like "Own this business?" or "Claim this business" and follow it instead of making a new one. Two profiles for one business confuse Google and customers.

Step 2: Create or claim the profile

Go to Google Business Profile (business.google.com) and sign in with a Google account. Use an account you'll keep, ideally one tied to your business email, not a staff member's personal Gmail.

Enter:

• Your business name, exactly as it appears on your sign and your website. Don't add keywords ("Joe's Plumbing Best Emergency Plumber NYC"). Google's rules don't allow it and can suspend the profile.
• Your category. Pick the most specific one that fits. "Plumber," not "Contractor." You can add a few secondary categories later.
• Location or service area. If customers come to you (a salon, a restaurant), add your address. If you go to them (a plumber, a cleaner), set a service area and hide your street address. If you do both, you can show both.
• Phone and website.

Step 3: Verify

Google needs proof the business is real and that you run it. Depending on your business and location, it may offer a phone or text code, an email, a short video call or recorded video showing your storefront or work vehicle and tools, or a postcard to your address. You don't always get to choose.

Verification can take minutes or a couple of weeks. Until it's done, the profile won't show up properly.

Step 4: Fill in everything

A profile with only a name and phone is easy to skip. Add:

• Hours, and holiday hours when they change
• Services or menu, with prices if you share them
• Photos. The outside (so people find the door), the inside, your work, your team. Real photos, recent.
• A short description in plain words. What you do and who for.
• Booking or ordering links, if you use an app for that

Step 5: Keep it current

Reviews are where most of the profile's weight comes from over time. Ask happy customers for one, and reply to the ones you get, good and bad, briefly and politely. Update hours before holidays. Add new photos now and then.

Part 2: Search Console (your website in search)

Search Console doesn't make you rank. It tells Google your site exists, shows you what people searched to find you, and warns you when something is broken.

Step 1: Add your site

Go to Google Search Console (search.google.com/search-console) and add your website. Google will offer a "domain" option and a "URL prefix" option. Domain covers every version of your address and is the better choice if you can get into your domain settings.

Step 2: Verify you own it

For the domain option, Google gives you a short line of text to add to your domain's DNS settings, at whatever company you bought the domain from. It looks scary, and it's a copy and paste. If someone else built your site, ask them to do it, or to add you.

Step 3: Submit your sitemap

A sitemap is a list of your site's pages. Most sites have one at yourbusiness.com/sitemap.xml. Paste that address into the Sitemaps section. This helps Google find every page, not just the homepage.

Step 4: Check back in a few weeks

The "Performance" report shows which searches brought people to your site. The "Pages" section shows anything Google couldn't read. You don't need to watch it daily. Once a month is plenty.

Part 3: The same name everywhere

This part is easy to skip and matters a lot. Your business name, address and phone number should be written the same way everywhere they appear: your website, your Google profile, Yelp, Facebook, any directory listing.

"Suite 4B" on one, "#4B" on another, an old phone number on a third. Each little mismatch makes it harder for Google to be sure all those listings are the same business.

While you're at it, Bing has its own version, Bing Places. It's free too, and worth the extra ten minutes.

What I set up when I build a site

When I build a site, the launch includes connecting your domain, setting up Google's tools so you show up in search, and checking the site on phones. See the steps on how it works.

If you already have a site and just want this done, that's hourly help. Updating an existing Google Business Profile usually takes about 30 minutes. Hourly help is $100 an hour, with an estimate first. Prices are on pricing.