Step 1: claim your Google Business Profile
Your Business Profile is the box with your hours, reviews and a map that appears when people search for you or for your kind of business nearby. It is free. Search for Google Business Profile, sign in with a Google account, and add your business name exactly as it appears on your sign.
- Choose the category that best describes what you do
- Add your address, or the area you serve if customers do not come to you
- Add your phone number, website and opening hours
- Add real photos of your work, your premises and your team
Step 2: verify it
Google has to confirm the business is real before your profile shows properly. It chooses which ways to offer you, depending on your type of business and location. These can include a short video showing your premises, your equipment and something that proves you run the business, or a code by phone, email or post.
Use the same name, address and phone number you use everywhere else. Details that do not match are one of the most common reasons verification gets stuck.
Step 3: get reviews, steadily
Reviews are one of the biggest things you control in local search, and they are what people read before they call. Ask every happy customer, every time, and make it easy by sending them the link to your profile. Reply to every review, good or bad, politely and briefly.
Never pay for reviews or write your own. It breaks Google's rules and can get the profile suspended.
Step 4: a website that names what you do and where
Google matches searches like plumber in Cardiff or barber near me to businesses that clearly say what they do and where. Your website should say both in plain words: each service named, each area you cover named, and your contact details easy to find and identical to your profile.
If you do not have a website yet, or yours says little, CreonAI can build one from a sentence about your business, free to try. Check the one you have with our free SEO audit.
Step 5: tell Google your website exists
Google Search Console is free. Add your website, prove you own it, and submit your sitemap, which is the list of your pages. Search Console then shows you which searches you appear for and whether any page has a problem.
Give it time. New pages can take days or weeks to appear, and a few months to settle. Anyone promising you the top spot overnight is selling something.