A Google Business Profile can be created for any business that either has a physical location that customers can visit, or travels to customers where they are.
It is important to follow Google guidelines and policies to ensure the Business Profile is not suspended by:
- Avoiding prohibited content
- Reflecting your business accurately
- Complying with the policies in this article
Represent your business as it is consistently represented and recognized in the real world across signage, stationery, and other branding.
- Make sure your address and/or service area is accurate and precise.
- Choose the fewest number of categories it takes to describe your overall core business.
- There should only be one profile per business, as this can cause problems with how your information displays on Google Maps and Search.
Brands, organizations, artists, and other online-only businesses aren't eligible for Google Business Profiles.
To qualify for a Business Profile on Google, a business must make in-person contact with customers during its stated hours.
Exceptions
- ATMs, video-rental kiosks, and express mail drop boxes are permitted. If you add these locations, you must include contact information for customers to get help.
- Seasonal businesses, like an ice-skating rink only open in winter months, are eligible. These businesses must display permanent signage at their location year-round.
- Delivery-only food services are permitted with some conditions.
Not Eligible
- Rental or for-sale properties such as vacation homes, model homes, or vacant apartments. Sales or leasing offices, however, are eligible for verification.
- An ongoing service, class, or meeting at a location that you don't own or have the authority to represent.
- Lead generation agents or companies.
Content Guidelines
Google does not allow content that contains private or confidential information.
Name
Your name should reflect your business’s real-world name, as used consistently on your storefront, website, stationery, and as known to customers. There are additional guidelines for multi-location stores.
Additional details
Add additional details like address, service area, business hours, and category in the other sections of your business information.
Including unnecessary information in your business name isn't permitted, and could result in the suspension of the Business Profile.
| Name must not include | Not Acceptable | Acceptable |
|---|---|---|
| Marketing Taglines |
|
|
| Store codes | The UPS Store - 2872 |
|
| Trademark/registered signs | Burger King® |
|
| Fully capitalized words | SUBWAY | Subway, KFC, IHOP, JCPenney |
| Business hours information |
|
|
| Phone numbers or website URL’s |
|
|
| Special characters (e.g. %&$@/") or irrelevant legal terms |
|
|
| Service or product information |
|
|
| Location information |
|
|
| Containment information |
|
|
Description
Content that's irrelevant to your business or has no clear association with it isn't allowed.
- Mislead users. Do not provide inaccurate or false information about your business or the services and products offered.
- Display low-quality, irrelevant, or distracting content. For example, misspellings, gimmicky character use, gibberish, etc.
- Focus on special promotions, prices, and offer sales. Examples of content not allowed include, "Everything on sale, -50%" and "Best bagels in town for $5!"
- Display links. No links of any type are allowed.
- Display offensive or inappropriate content
- Display unpermitted content
Address
Use a precise, accurate address and/or service area to describe your business location. P.O. boxes or mailboxes located at remote locations aren't acceptable.
- Create your Business Profile for your actual, real-world location. Only include information like cross-streets and nearby landmarks in regions where the official street address doesn’t accurately pinpoint the business's location.
- Enter your physical address as "Address Line 1" and enter your mailbox or suite number in a separate Address Line/AddressExtra
Phone
Provide a phone number that connects to your individual business location, or provide a website that represents your individual business location.
- Use a local phone number instead of a central call center helpline number whenever possible.
Business Hours
Provide your regular customer-facing hours of operation. If applicable, you may use your current seasonal hours as your regular hours. You may also specify special hours for particular days, like holidays or special events.
If your business has multiple sets of hours, refer to these guidelines for particular industries:
- Banks: Use lobby hours if possible. Otherwise, use drive-through hours. An ATM attached to a bank can use its own separate Business Profile with its own, different hours.
- Car dealerships: Use car sales hours. If hours for new car sales and pre-owned car sales differ, use the new sales hours.
- Gas stations: Use the hours for your gas pumps.
- Restaurants: Use the hours when diners can sit down and dine in your restaurant. Otherwise, use takeout hours. If neither of those is possible, use drive-through hours, or, as a last resort, delivery hours.
- Storage facilities: Use office hours. Otherwise, use front gate hours.
To highlight times for specific services, you can also set More hours. In general, you should set More hours as a subset of your primary hours.
For seasonal hours: During off-season, you can mark your business as temporarily closed.
Categories
Categories help your customers find accurate, specific results for services they’re interested in. To keep your business information accurate and live, make sure that you:
- Use as few categories as possible to describe your overall core business from the provided list.
- Choose categories that are as specific as possible, but representative of your main business.
- Do not use categories solely as keywords or to describe attributes of your business.
- Do not use categories that pertain to other businesses that are nearby or related, such as a business physically contained within your business or an entity that contains your business.
Select categories that complete the statement: "This business IS a" rather than "this business HAS a." The goal is to describe your business holistically rather than a list of all the services it offers, products it sells, or amenities it features.
Focus primarily on adding the most specific categories for your business; Google will do the rest behind the scenes. For instance, when you select a specific category like "Golf Resort", Google implicitly includes more general categories like "Resort Hotel", "Hotel", and "Golf Course". Feel free to skip adding any category that seems redundant with a more specific category you selected. If you can't find a category for your business, choose one that's more general. Google can also detect category information from your website and from mentions about your business throughout the web.
Specific guidelines for chains & brands
Maintain consistent names and categories across all of your business locations to help customers quickly identify your business on Google Maps and search results.
Name & categories
All locations must have the same name unless the business’s real world representation consistently varies from location to location.
All locations must also have the same category if they provide the same service.
Name consistency
All business locations within the same country must have the same name for all locations. For example, all Home Depot locations should use the name "The Home Depot" rather than "Home Depot" or "The Home Depot at Springfield".
Exceptions
There are 2 exceptions to this policy:
- If you have multiple types of businesses, sub-brands, multiple departments, or various types of operations such as retail and wholesale, they may also have a distinct name so long as it is consistently applied to all locations of that business.
- Acceptable name variations: "Walmart Supercenter" and "Walmart Express"; "Nordstrom" and "Nordstrom Rack"; "Gap" and "babyGap"
- If some of your locations consistently use a different name on their storefront, website, or stationery, these locations can use this different name.
- Acceptable name variations: "Intercontinental Mark Hopkins San Francisco" and "Intercontinental New York Barclay"; "PFK" (for locations in Quebec) and "KFC" (for locations in the US and rest of Canada)
Category consistency
All locations of a business must share the one category that best represents the business. If you have multiple types of locations (e.g. sub-brands, multiple departments, or various types of operations such as retail, distribution center, and office), this rule only applies within each of these sub-groups.
- All "Gap Kids" have the category "Children’s Clothing Store"
- All "Goodyear Auto Service Center" have the category "Tire Shop"; they also all have the category "Auto Repair Shop"
- All "PetSmart" have the category "Pet Supply Store"; some locations may have other categories ("Pet Store", "Dog Day Care Center")
Two or more brands at the same location
If your business location combines two or more brands, do not combine the brand names into a single Business Profile. Instead, pick one brand’s name for the Business Profile. If the brands operate independently, you may use a separate profile for each brand at this location.
Rebranding
Your Business Profile may be eligible for rebranding (defined as an eligible name change without creating a new Business Profile) if you make a minor name change, in which the proper nouns and services described in the business name remain unchanged and the business category remains unchanged.
You may also be eligible for rebranding if you have multiple locations and the business name changes.
If your business meets the rebranding criteria above, you can update your business name when you edit your business information.
If your business changes its name but doesn't meet the criteria above, then it's considered a new business. You must mark the existing Business Profile as closed and then create a new Business Profile with your new business name.