Google Business Profile Setup Checklist (Official Rules)

Most Google Business Profile checklists tell you to turn on messaging. Google removed messaging in July 2024. They also tell you that you get ten categories, which Google has never published, and to put your city in your business name, which is a documented suspension risk.

This checklist uses only what Google documents, with a link to the official page for every rule.

Getting verified

Google chooses your verification method for you. Its help documentation states that methods are determined automatically and cannot be changed, and that availability depends on business type, region and public information.

• Video recording is the method Google recommends where eligible. It must be captured live rather than pre recorded, unedited, with no breaks, at least 30 seconds, filmed and uploaded from a mobile device. Recording in advance is the most common failure.
• The video must show your location, evidence the business exists, and evidence you manage it. It must not show other people's faces or private information.
• Live video calls are only offered inside your stated opening hours.
• Postcard codes usually arrive within 14 days and expire after 30. Editing your name, address or category invalidates the code, and requesting a new one cancels the old.
• Review takes up to five business days. Instant verification exists only through Search Console website verification or bulk verification.
• Online only businesses are not eligible for a profile at all.

The rules that get profiles suspended

Google's guidelines on representing your business are the single most important page here, and almost nobody reads them.

Your business name

It must be the name you use in the real world, on your storefront, website and stationery. Google prohibits taglines, store codes, trademark symbols, all capitals, hours, phone numbers, URLs, special characters, service or location information, and legal terms such as LLC or LTD without real world proof.

Google states plainly that extra information in the name field could result in suspension. So Smith Plumbing is fine and Smith Plumbing Emergency Plumber Manchester is a risk you are taking with your entire listing.

Your address

• PO boxes and remote mailboxes are not acceptable.
• Virtual offices are not eligible for a profile.
• Coworking space is allowed only with clear signage, customers received during business hours, and your own staff present.
• A storefront showing an address must have permanent fixed signage.
• If you work from home, Google's own example is a plumber running the business from a residential address, and its instruction is to clear the address.

Other documented suspension triggers

• Duplicate profiles. One profile per location, not one per service or per city.
• Links of any type in the business description. Google allows none.
• Prices or promotions in the description.
• Redirecting phone numbers or URLs, premium rate numbers, or any number not under your direct control.

Categories

Pick one primary category and add others that genuinely apply. Google's test is whether the business is a thing, not whether it has one, and it instructs you to choose the most specific option available rather than creating your own.

Google states directly that categories affect local ranking, and equally directly that you should not use categories as keywords or to describe attributes.

On the ten category limit that appears in every checklist: Google publishes no numeric limit anywhere in its documentation. Treat that figure as folklore rather than a rule.

Service areas

If you travel to customers and do not serve them at your address, you are a service area business, and you get one profile covering the whole area you serve.

• Maximum 20 service areas, set by city, postal code or region.
• Radius based service areas can no longer be set. Legacy ones cannot be edited.
• Google's stated boundary is that service areas should not extend more than about two hours of driving time from your base, while allowing that larger areas suit some businesses.
• The address must be removed if you do not serve customers there. Hybrid businesses can show both.
• Age restricted products such as alcohol or cannabis require a storefront.
• Edits can take up to 48 hours to appear.

Photos, posts and features

Photos and video

Photos must be JPG or PNG, between 10 KB and 5 MB, minimum 250 by 250 pixels and ideally 720 by 720, in focus and without heavy filters. Video runs up to 30 seconds, up to 75 MB, at 720p or higher. Uploads appear within 24 to 48 hours and only after verification.

Posts

Three types exist: Updates, Offers and Events. The detail nobody mentions is that posts older than six months are archived automatically unless you set a date range, so a profile that looks maintained can quietly empty itself.

Posts must not contain a phone number. Google treats that as phone stuffing and rejects it. Use the Call now button instead.

Features that no longer exist

Messaging and chat were removed on 31 July 2024, along with call history, chat FAQs and quote requests. Any checklist still telling you to enable messaging was written before that date and not updated since.

What Google does not document

• Post character limits. The 1,500 figure everyone quotes is a interface constraint, not published policy.
• Questions and answers. There is no dedicated help article, so any claimed Q and A limit is unsourced.
• Any maximum number of categories.

Reviews, and the rule most businesses break

Google permits you to ask for reviews. It explicitly prohibits asking selectively.

The policy language bans discouraging or prohibiting negative reviews and selectively soliciting positive reviews from customers. That makes the common survey funnel, where happy customers get the Google link and unhappy ones get a private feedback form, a direct policy violation.

Also prohibited: offering payment, discounts or free goods in exchange for a review, pressuring customers to review while on the premises, requesting that a review include specific content such as naming a staff member, and setting staff review quotas.

Penalties are not limited to review deletion. Google can block new reviews for a period, unpublish existing ones, and display a public warning on your profile stating that fake reviews were removed.

There is a compliant way to ask, and it is not much harder than the non compliant one.

What Google says about ranking

Google's own page states that local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and popularity, and that there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking.

Its documented advice is short: verify the business, keep information complete and accurate, respond to reviews, add photos, and for retailers add in store products. That is the entire official list, and it contains no percentages.

Everything beyond that in circulation is practitioner opinion or guesswork, some of it useful and much of it unsourced.

Key takeaways

• Video verification must be captured live, unedited, at least 30 seconds, from a mobile device. Pre recording is the most common failure.
• Keywords in your business name are a documented suspension risk, not a growth tactic.
• Virtual offices are ineligible and home based service businesses must clear the address.
• Service areas cap at 20 and should stay within about two hours' driving time. Radius areas can no longer be set.
• Posts archive automatically after six months unless you set a date range.
• Messaging was removed in July 2024. Any checklist listing it is out of date.
• Review gating, incentives, on premises pressure and staff name requests are all explicitly prohibited, and penalties include a public warning on your profile.

Common questions

How many categories can a Google Business Profile have?

Google publishes no numeric limit. The commonly quoted figure of ten total categories does not appear anywhere in Google's documentation. What Google does document is that you should pick the most specific primary category and only add others that the business genuinely is.

Can I put my city or service in my business name?

No. Google requires the real world name used on your storefront, website and stationery, and prohibits location information, service information, taglines and keywords in the name field. Google states that extra information there could result in your profile being suspended.

Why did my video verification fail?

Most often because it was pre recorded. Google requires live capture from a mobile device, unedited, with no breaks, running at least 30 seconds. It must show the location, evidence the business exists and evidence you manage it, without showing other people's faces.

Can I have a profile without showing my address?

Yes, if you travel to customers. Set up as a service area business and clear the address, which Google specifically instructs for home based trades. You get one profile covering up to 20 service areas, ideally within about two hours' drive of your base.

Before you optimise anything

Work through the guidelines page first and remove anything that breaches it, particularly in the name field. An optimised profile that gets suspended ranks nowhere, and reinstatement takes weeks you do not have.

Then decide what the remaining work is worth. Priced out properly, the software behind most of it costs far less than a retainer.

EchoPulse runs profiles, local pages and review flows for local and service business owners. The $299 Pilot runs 14 days, you keep everything produced, and there is no contract.