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How do I set up a Google Business Profile for my building firm?

Last checked 24-10-2026. A plain guide, not legal advice: check the official guidance below for your job.

A Google Business Profile is the listing that can appear on Google Search and Maps when someone looks for your firm. If you travel to customers, Google's guidelines say to hide your address and list the areas you cover instead, and you have to verify the business before you can manage the listing.

Can your firm have one?

Google says a business is eligible if it has a physical location customers can visit, or if it travels to customers where they are. A builder working on customers' properties fits the second.

Virtual offices are the catch. Google says a rented mailing address where the business does not operate is not eligible, and it does not accept P.O. boxes or mailboxes at remote locations. A service-area business cannot list a virtual office unless it is staffed during business hours.

Use your real trading name. Google says the name should reflect the real-world name of the business, and it lists marketing taglines, phone numbers and website addresses as things that do not belong in it. So the name is not "Best Builders in North Devon, call today".

Hide your address and set your service areas

Google says a service-area business should hide its address from customers, and that if you do not serve customers at your address you should remove it from the profile. An address that is shown has to be staffed by your team and able to receive customers during the hours you state.

Then say where you work: Edit profile, Location, Service area. You can set up to 20 areas, based on cities, postal codes or other areas, but not as a radius around your base. Google says the whole area should not extend beyond about two hours of driving time from where you are based. Edits can take up to 48 hours to show.

A service-area business gets one profile for the whole area it serves, not one per town. List the places you really work in.

Verify the business

Verification is how you prove you own or manage the business. You need it to edit your business information, and photos show on Google only once you are verified.

The methods Google lists are phone or text, email, live video call and mail (a postcard). Which you are offered depends on your business type, public information, region or business hours, and you cannot change that. Google says verification reviews take up to 5 business days, and most postcard codes arrive within 14 days.

What to fill in

  • Categories: use as few as you can, as specific as you can, and not as keywords. Your first category is the primary one.
  • Services: pick from the suggested list or add your own.
  • Hours: Google asks for regular customer-facing hours. It says some businesses, including ones that operate only by appointment, should not provide hours, so read that part of the guidelines before you decide.
  • Photos: JPG or PNG, between 10 KB and 5 MB, in focus, well lit and not heavily filtered. Use your own pictures of finished work, and ask the customer first.
  • Description: under 750 characters, with no web addresses.
  • Website: the full address, starting https://.

Asking happy customers for reviews

On a computer, go to Read reviews, then Get more reviews, to copy a review link or save a QR code. Customers must be signed in to a Google Account to post. Google calls replying to reviews best practice.

Google bans offering payment, discounts or free goods or services in exchange for a review. It also says you may not discourage negative reviews or selectively solicit positive ones, so ask every customer, not only the ones you expect to be pleased. GOV.UK gives similar advice under consumer law: do not write reviews yourself, do not commission fake ones, and do not give money or gifts for positive reviews.

Keep it up to date and link it to your website

Google reviews your changes before they go live, and changing the business name or moving address after verification may mean you have to verify again. Update hours, services and areas when they change.

Link the profile to a working page on your own website. Google does not accept links that return errors, or pages that block its crawler with CAPTCHAs, logins or geoblocking. Keep the name, phone number and areas the same on both. Our guide on what a builder's website needs covers the site side.

Sources

Tools that help

Website builderA website for your firm, built for you by a real person and set up for Google. From £99, then £20 a month.Quotes PROQuotes from your own templates, by the hour or as lump sums, with VAT added up, and invoices from a quote in one click. Straight from the take-off.Letters and documents PROLetters, notices, memos and minutes on your letterhead, from ready-made starts: letters to neighbours, notices of delay, practical completion. Word or PDF.

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