Google Business Profile

A Google Business Profile is the listing that decides whether you appear when somebody nearby searches for what you sell. It costs nothing. For a lot of local businesses it sends more calls than the website does.

Start with eligibility, because this is where the assumption breaks. Google's rule is that to qualify for a Business Profile, a business must make in-person contact with customers during its stated hours. Its own list of what does not qualify is specific: brands, organizations, artists and other online only businesses, lead generation agents or companies, rental or for sale properties such as vacation homes or vacant apartments, an ongoing service or class at a location you do not own or have authority to represent, and any business whose address is a post office box or a mailbox in a remote location. If you sell entirely online, there is no profile for you to optimize.

Then the business name, which is the most common way a profile gets destroyed by somebody trying to help it. Google says the name should reflect the real world name, as used consistently on your storefront, website, stationery, and as known to customers. Taglines, location words, service descriptions, phone numbers and website addresses are not permitted in it. Google states the consequence directly: including unnecessary information in your business name is not permitted and could result in the suspension of your Business Profile. So Smith Plumbing is the name. Smith Plumbing Emergency Drain Repair Dallas is a risk to the whole listing.

One more thing sits on that profile and is governed by law rather than by Google. The reviews. The Federal Trade Commission rule at 16 CFR 465 prohibits reviews that misrepresent that the reviewer exists, or that the reviewer used or otherwise had experience with the business, and it reaches businesses that buy or spread testimonials they knew or should have known were false. Buying reviews is not merely against a platform policy.