Before anyone hires a plumber, books a groomer or walks into a new bakery, they search for it. What they usually see first is not your website. It is a box on Google with your name, a map, your hours, some photos and a star rating with a number of reviews beside it.

That box is a Google Business Profile — it used to be called Google My Business — and it is free. For a small business it is the cheapest credibility there is: proof that you exist, that you are where you say you are, and that people who paid you were glad they did. This guide sets one up properly, step by step, covers how to earn reviews without breaking Google’s rules or the FTC’s, and then sets up the free tool that shows how people find your website in Google Search: Search Console.

Why reviews are credibility

A stranger choosing between two businesses they have never used has almost nothing to go on. Reviews are other customers vouching for you, in their own words, in a place you do not control. That last part is why they carry weight: anyone can write nice things on their own website.

Google shows reviews right next to your Business Profile in Search and Maps, so they are part of the first impression whether you manage them or not. And a profile with no reviews at all reads less like “new” and more like “not sure this is real.” Even a handful of honest reviews changes that.

Google’s own advice is worth repeating: a mix of positive and negative feedback often feels more trustworthy than a wall of five stars. You are not aiming for perfect. You are aiming for real.

Before you start: three decisions

  1. Your business name, exactly as customers see it. Google requires your real-world name — as on your signage, website or invoices — with no added keywords, cities or taglines. “Rivera Plumbing” is fine; “Rivera Plumbing – Best Emergency Plumber Austin” can get the profile suspended. Leave off “LLC” unless it appears in your real-world branding.
  2. Storefront or service area. If customers come to a staffed location during business hours, you list that address. If you go to them, or work from home, you are a service-area business and must hide your address. P.O. boxes and virtual offices are not eligible as an address at all.
  3. Which Google Account owns it. Use an account you will keep for the life of the business. Google suggests signing up with your business email if you have one.

Set up your profile, step by step

These are Google’s own steps, on a computer:

  1. Sign in to your Google Account, or create one.
  2. Go to business.google.com/create.
  3. Enter your business name. If Google suggests a matching business as you type, it may already have a profile; if someone else has verified it, you can request ownership.
  4. Search for and choose your business category. Pick the most specific one that completes “this business is a…”, and use as few as possible.
  5. Choose whether you have a location customers can visit.
    • Yes: enter the address or place the pin.
    • No: you will set a service area instead.
  6. Enter your service area — cities, postal codes or regions. You can add up to 20, and Google recommends keeping the whole area within about two hours’ drive of where you are based.
  7. Add a phone number you control and your website, if you have one.
  8. Click Finish, then choose a verification option.

Create one profile for the area you serve. Google warns that multiple profiles for the same business in the same metropolitan area can get your account suspended.

Verification, and how not to get stuck

Your profile does not appear to customers until it is verified, and this is where most people stall. Three things to know:

  • You do not choose the method. Google decides based on your business type, public information, region and hours. It may be a phone call or text, an email, a live video call, a recorded video or a postcard, and some businesses need more than one.
  • If video is offered, Google recommends it. Be ready to show where you are, your equipment or tools, and something that proves you run the business — keys to the space, a work area, non-sensitive business paperwork. For a service-area business working from home, the van, the tools and the kit are usually the proof.
  • If it is a postcard, codes usually arrive within 14 days and expire after 30. While you wait, do not edit your business name, address or category, and do not request a new code — either one voids the card in the mail.
A plumber in his forties standing at the open side door of a plain white work van, holding a phone up to film the shelves of tools and fittings inside.
Video verification asks you to show the business is real: your equipment, your tools, the place you work. A service business can usually do it in a few minutes.

After you submit, Google’s review takes up to five business days, and you get a confirmation email when you are verified. One warning that saves people real money: Google will never ask you for your verification code. Anyone who calls offering to “verify your listing” and asks for it is not Google.

Finish the profile people actually see

A verified but empty profile wastes the effort. Fill in:

  • Hours that match when customers can actually reach you. If you work only by appointment, Google’s guidelines say to leave regular hours off rather than invent them.
  • A description of what you do, who for and where. Google does not allow links, prices or promotions in it, so write it the way you would explain your business to a neighbor.
  • Services with plain names.
  • Real photos: your work, your tools, your space, your van. Not stock images.

Keep your name, phone and service area identical everywhere they appear — profile, website, invoices, social bios. Consistency is part of how Google decides you are the real thing, and it is how customers do too.

How to get reviews the right way

The honest method is also the effective one: ask, at the right moment, and make it easy.

  • Ask right after a job goes well — when the client says thank you, not three weeks later.
  • Use Google’s review link or QR code, which your profile can generate, so the customer lands straight on the review box. Put it in your follow-up email or text, or print the QR code on a card.
  • Ask everyone, not just the happy ones. Choosing whom to ask based on how you think they will rate you skews your rating and misleads the people reading it, which defeats the point of having reviews at all.
  • Remember the reviewer needs a Google Account. They can create one with any email address, which is worth mentioning to older customers.

What you must never do

Two sets of rules apply, and both have teeth.

Google’s rule: offering incentives — free or discounted goods or services — in exchange for posting, changing or removing a review is strictly prohibited. That includes “10% off your next visit for a review”, even if you do not ask for five stars. Violations can get reviews removed and the profile restricted.

The FTC’s rule. Since October 2024, a federal rule on consumer reviews and testimonials lets the FTC seek civil penalties against businesses that:

  • write, buy or sell fake reviews, including AI-generated ones;
  • offer incentives conditioned on a review being positive or negative;
  • post reviews from employees, family or other insiders without clearly disclosing the relationship.

The practical version: never review yourself, never have friends do it, never pay or reward anyone for a review, and never buy a review “package”. Ten real reviews are worth more than fifty fake ones, because the fake ones are the ones that can cost you the profile.

Replying to reviews, good and bad

Replies are public, and the people reading them are your next customers. Google’s guidance boils down to a few habits:

  • Keep it short, specific and polite. Mention something from their review rather than pasting the same thank-you everywhere.
  • Do not promote in replies. No discount codes.
  • For a negative review, acknowledge, apologize where it is deserved, and take it offline with a phone number or email. Never share the reviewer’s private details or argue.
  • Report reviews that break Google’s policies rather than replying in anger, and report anyone who threatens bad reviews unless you pay — Google has a specific process for extortion scams.
A woman in her fifties with short silver hair sitting on the back step of her small shop at dusk in an apron, phone in hand, looking out thoughtfully.
A short, specific reply does more than a perfect star average. Future customers read how you answer the unhappy ones.

Search Console: how people find your website

Your Business Profile is how you show up on Maps and in the local box. If you also have a website, Google Search Console is the free tool that tells you how that site is doing in Google Search: which searches showed it, how often people clicked, and whether Google can actually read your pages. Nothing else gives you that data, because it comes from Google itself.

Setting it up takes about ten minutes:

  1. Go to search.google.com/search-console and sign in with the same Google Account that owns your Business Profile.
  2. Choose Add property, then pick a type:
    • Domain property (yourbusiness.com) covers every version of your site — www or not, http or https. It is the better choice, but it can only be verified by adding a DNS record at the company where you bought your domain.
    • URL-prefix property (https://yourbusiness.com/) covers only that exact address and offers more verification options, such as an HTML tag or a Google Analytics connection.
  3. Follow the verification steps. If your site is built on a Google product such as Google Sites or Blogger and you are signed in with the same account, verification happens automatically.
  4. Submit your sitemap in the Sitemaps report if your website builder creates one (most do, usually at /sitemap.xml).

Data starts appearing within a few days. Adding a property changes nothing about how your site appears in Google; it only lets you see it.

No website? Google has started rolling out platform properties in Search Console for Instagram, TikTok, X and YouTube accounts, so creators can see how their profiles perform in Google Search. It is arriving gradually, so it may not be in your account yet.

The four Search Console reports worth checking

Search Console has more than a dozen reports. A one-person business needs four of them:

  • Insights. The simple overview: clicks, impressions, your top and trending pages and searches. Start here every time.
  • Performance (Search results). The detail behind Insights. Impressions are how often your site appeared in results, clicks how often someone chose it, CTR the percentage who clicked, and position roughly where you ranked. The Queries tab shows up to 1,000 of the actual searches that found you, which is the best free market research a small business can get.
  • Page indexing. Which of your pages Google has indexed, and the reason for any it has not. A new service page that never appears in search usually shows up here first.
  • URL Inspection. Paste any page address into the bar at the top to see what Google knows about it, test the live page, and ask Google to index it after a fix.

And glance at the Overview page for two things that matter more than anything else: manual actions and security issues. Both should say none. If either does not, deal with it before anything else on this page.

The rest of the free Google toolkit

Three more free tools earn a place for most small businesses. None is required, and none should take more than a few minutes a month:

  • Your Business Profile’s own performance view shows how customers interacted with your profile — searches, views, calls and direction requests — without any extra setup.
  • Google Analytics shows what visitors do once they reach your website. The standard version is free; connect it to Search Console under Settings → Associations so the two share data. If you use it, your website needs a privacy notice that says so.
  • Google Alerts emails you when your business name appears somewhere new online, and Google Trends shows when interest in what you sell rises and falls through the year — useful for planning a quiet month before it arrives.

A 15-minute monthly Google routine

  1. Business Profile: reply to every new review and check your hours are still right.
  2. Search Console Insights: note your top three searches and whether clicks rose or fell.
  3. Page indexing: make sure any page you added this month is indexed.
  4. Overview: confirm no manual actions or security issues.

A profile, honest reviews and a website Google can read will not replace good work. They make good work visible to the people who have not met you yet, which for most small businesses is the whole point of marketing.

Professional details matter after the click too. When a new customer hires you, the invoice they receive is the next impression: your real business name, clear line items and a way to pay. That part is what getting paid faster covers, and it is the part BrassWell handles.

Questions, answered

What is Google Search Console and is it free?

Search Console is Google’s free tool for website owners. It shows which searches displayed your site, how many people clicked, where you ranked, whether Google has indexed your pages, and any security issues or manual actions. Adding your site does not change how it appears in Google; it only lets you see the data.

Should I use a Domain property or a URL-prefix property in Search Console?

A Domain property covers every version of your site, with or without www and on http or https, so it is usually the better choice, but it can only be verified with a DNS record at your domain provider. A URL-prefix property covers one exact address and can be verified in more ways, such as an HTML tag.

Is a Google Business Profile free?

Yes. Creating, verifying and managing a Google Business Profile costs nothing. Google Ads are a separate, optional product.

Can I create a Google Business Profile without a business address?

Yes, as a service-area business. If customers do not visit a staffed location during business hours, Google requires you to hide your address and list the areas you serve instead, up to 20 of them. Google still uses your address to verify you. P.O. boxes and virtual offices are not eligible.

How long does Google Business Profile verification take?

After you complete the verification steps, Google’s review takes up to five business days. If you verify by postcard, the code usually arrives within 14 days and expires after 30, and you should not edit your name, address or category while you wait.

Can I offer a discount in exchange for a Google review?

No. Google strictly prohibits offering incentives, such as free or discounted goods or services, in exchange for posting, changing or removing reviews. Separately, the FTC’s 2024 rule bars incentives conditioned on a positive or negative review.

Should I reply to negative Google reviews?

Usually yes. Keep the reply short and polite, acknowledge the specific problem, apologize where it is deserved and offer a phone number or email to resolve it privately. Never share the reviewer’s personal details, and report reviews that break Google’s policies instead of arguing.

Is Google My Business the same as Google Business Profile?

Yes. Google My Business was renamed Google Business Profile. The setup and management now happen at business.google.com and directly in Google Search and Maps.

Sources

  1. Add a website or platform property to Search Console — Search Console Help. Domain and URL-prefix properties, DNS verification, automatic verification for Google-hosted sites, data appearing within days, and platform properties for Instagram, TikTok, X and YouTube.
  2. Reports at a glance — Search Console Help. What the Insights, Performance, URL Inspection, Page indexing, Sitemaps, manual actions and security issues reports do.
  3. Performance report (Search results) — Search Console Help. Definitions of clicks, impressions, CTR and position, and the Queries tab.
  4. Sign up for Business Profile — Google Business Profile Help. The setup steps, the 20 service areas and two-hour guidance, one profile per metropolitan area, and the rule to hide your address without a storefront.
  5. Verify your business on Google — Google Business Profile Help. Verification methods set by Google, what to show on a video call, postcard timing and expiry, the five-business-day review, and that Google never asks for your code.
  6. Guidelines for representing your business on Google — Google Business Profile Help. Real-world names without keywords, P.O. boxes and virtual offices, description rules, by-appointment hours and individual practitioners.
  7. Tips to get more reviews — Google Business Profile Help. Incentives for reviews are strictly prohibited; review links and QR codes; how to reply to positive and negative reviews.
  8. Report negative review extortion scams on your Business Profile — Google Business Profile Help. What to do when someone threatens bad reviews unless you pay.
  9. Trade Regulation Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials, 16 CFR Part 465 — Federal Trade Commission. The 2024 rule on fake reviews, bought reviews, sentiment-conditioned incentives and undisclosed insider reviews, enforceable with civil penalties.