How to create or claim a Google Business Profile, step by step

1. Create, claim or request access: which one you need
2. Why a second profile makes things worse
3. What Google's rules and our recorded answers show
4. Getting one profile you own: the steps in order
5. Questions owners ask
6. How we got these numbers
7. Sources
8. See it on your own website

Create, claim or request access: which one you need

Most owners who search for how to create a Google Business Profile don't need to create one. Google builds profiles from public web pages such as your website, licensed data, facts from users, and owners who claim their profiles ¹. So your business may already be listed. The first job is to find out which of four situations you are in.

1. No profile exists. You create one. Google says to go to business.google.com/add, select Add your business to Google and follow the steps ².
2. A profile exists, but nobody has verified it. You claim it. On Google Maps you open the listing and select Claim this business, then Manage now ².
3. A profile exists, and someone else verified it. You request ownership from that person through Google ³.
4. You already own it and have forgotten. Google says that if you can't find a Claim this business or Own this business button, you might already be the owner ³.

Each situation has its own route. Taking the wrong one is how most owners end up with two profiles, or with one they can't edit.

How to tell which situation you are in

Open Google Maps and search for your business name and city. Google also suggests searching Google for your business name and city, or for my business, while signed in ⁴. Then look at the listing:

• A Claim this business or Own this business button means the profile is not yours yet.
• Editing tools, such as Edit profile, mean the account you're signed in to already manages it.
• No claim button and no editing tools usually means you're signed in to the wrong account. Google says you must sign in to the Google Account associated with the profile to find it ⁴.
• No listing at all means you will probably create one. Search again for any old name, phone number or address first.

What you need before you start

You need a Google Account, and it can use a Gmail address or another email address ⁵. Google lets you create one specifically to manage a business ⁶. Use an account the business will keep, not an employee's personal one. Make sure someone can answer the business phone or open the business email during verification ⁵.

Why a second profile makes things worse

Google allows one profile per business

Google says you can have only one Business Profile for each business, and that a profile it considers a duplicate won't show on Google Search or Maps ⁷. It lists three common reasons a profile is marked as a duplicate: a verified profile already exists, several profiles share one address, or one business has several profiles for different services ⁷.

Service businesses get a stricter warning. Google's sign-up page tells them to create only one Business Profile for the metropolitan area they serve, and says the Google Account may be suspended if it finds several ⁸. A plumber doesn't get one profile for drain cleaning and another for water heaters. Google says to list the services on the one profile instead ⁷.

One exception matters to larger contractors. If you run separate locations, each with its own staff and service area, Google allows one profile for each ⁹.

Moving, renaming or buying a business

These changes cause many accidental duplicates, because a new profile feels like a fresh start.

• Moving. Google says to update the existing profile with the new address, not create a new one ⁷. Its policy page has a different rule for places such as restaurants and hotels, whose identity is tied to the building ¹⁰. That rule isn't about contractors.
• Renaming. A minor name change, where the proper nouns and services in the name and the category stay the same, can be made by editing the profile ⁹. A larger change counts as a new business. Google then says to mark the old profile as closed and create a new one ⁹.
• Buying. Google says the previous owner should first add you as an owner and transfer ownership to you ⁹. Ask for this before the sale closes. It keeps the reviews.

If you can't get into the existing profile

When someone else verified your profile, the fix is a request, not a new listing. The current owner gets an email and has 3 days to respond ³. If they don't answer, you may get the option to claim the profile, but Google says that option isn't always available ³. For a service-area business with no shop or office, Google asks you to contact its support instead ³.

The same goes for a suspended profile. Google's appeal page says not to create a new Business Profile for the same business ¹¹. Appeal instead, with documents whose name and address match the profile ¹¹.

Not every business can have a profile

To qualify, a business must make in-person contact with customers during its stated hours ¹². Contractors who work at customers' homes qualify. Lead generation companies, online-only businesses and P.O. box addresses don't ¹², and neither does a virtual office ⁹.

Only business owners or authorized representatives may verify and manage a profile ¹². Google's rules also bar agencies from claiming a profile in advance to pressure a business into becoming a customer ¹³.

Your home address doesn't have to be public

Google says a service-area business should hide its address, and gives a plumber working from home as its example ⁹. You list up to 20 towns, ZIP codes or other areas instead, within about 2 hours' drive of your base ¹⁴.

What Google's rules and our recorded answers show

What verification does, and how long it takes

Google says verifying is how you gain ownership of a profile and make sure its information is accurate ⁵. Its sign-up page says customers can only find a profile you create after verification is complete ⁸.

• Google picks the methods you can use, and you can't change them ⁵. They may include a call or text, email, a live video call, a recorded video or a postcard ⁵.
• If your business line answers with an automated phone menu, the code from a verification call won't get through ⁵.
• Google's review takes up to 5 business days, sometimes longer, but can be instant if your website is already verified in Google Search Console ⁵.
• Postcard codes mostly arrive within 14 days and expire after 30. Editing your name, address or category while you wait stops the code working ⁵.
• Google will never ask for your verification code ⁵. Anyone who calls asking for it is not Google.

Video verification works for service-area businesses too. Google asks you to show where you operate, your tools or branded vehicle, and proof that you manage the business. If you work from home, you can film landmarks and signs in your neighborhood ¹⁵.

Google says it removed over 13 million fake Business Profiles in 2025 ¹⁶, so even a real business should expect to prove it exists. After verification, rankings for new businesses can take up to a month to appear ⁴.

Your profile is what Google AI Mode shows

Between September 2 and October 14, 2026, we asked ChatGPT, Claude and Google AI Mode to recommend a local contractor 47,209 times. The questions covered HVAC, plumbing, electrical and roofing jobs in towns around Tampa Bay, Florida, each in a fresh conversation with web search on. 41,561 answers were about a specific job. These are observations of what the assistants showed, not experiments, so they can't show what causes a business to be named.

In 81% of Google AI Mode's 9,819 job answers, it showed businesses as cards taken from Google's listings: name, star rating, review count, category, open or closed, and buttons to call or get directions. In 74% of its job answers, the sources included Google's own listing for a business. For AI Mode, your Business Profile is often the page the customer sees.

38% of the 25,957 cards showed no street address, only a town or nothing. Hiding your address, as Google asks contractors who work at customers' homes to do, didn't keep these businesses off the cards. Google itself lists an up-to-date Business Profile among its tips for appearing in its AI features ¹⁷.

ChatGPT and Claude work differently. ChatGPT says it can use location information to find local results ¹⁸, and Claude grounds its answers in what its search tool finds on the live web ¹⁹. In 98% of their 31,742 job answers, they linked to at least one contractor's own website.

What a new profile looks like next to the others

Of the 25,957 cards AI Mode showed, 970 (3.7%) were for a business with fewer than ten reviews. Only 157 cards, for about 52 businesses, had no star rating at all (20 of 20 confirmed in a hand check). A new profile can appear, but most businesses shown already had a record of reviews. Creating the profile starts that record. It doesn't replace it.

When assistants couldn't tell which record was yours

Duplicate and outdated records leave assistants unsure which details belong to a business. Claude tells customers what it couldn't confirm, and ChatGPT and Google AI Mode seldom do, so these figures are mostly Claude's.

• In 121 of Claude's 14,467 job answers, it couldn't be sure which records were one business: two listings might be one company, a similarly named company was mixed in, or one business's listings disagreed. ChatGPT said so in 2 answers, Google AI Mode in 0. A hand check found 18 of 20 sorted correctly.
• In 34 answers, all from Claude, it pointed out that a listing was unclaimed, meaning no owner had taken it over (20 of 20 correct in a hand check). 6 of those were Google listings, and the rest were directories.
• In 182 answers across all three assistants, a business was named alongside a former name (19 of 20 correct in a hand check).

These counts are small, and they can't show who created or claimed which listing. They show that when records disagree, the assistant hedges or tells the customer to confirm the company.

The Google listing is also where Claude sent customers when it couldn't find a phone number. In 384 of its job answers, it told the customer to get a number or contact details from a Google listing or Google Maps (18 of 20 correct in a hand check):

I couldn't find a confirmed phone number for most of them, so check each number against the company's own site or Google listing before you call.

If that listing is unclaimed, shows an old number, or is one of two profiles for your business, the customer may not reach you.

What our earlier study found about matching records

Before this research, we studied assistant conversations from late July to August 2026 across eight trades, recording the reasons assistants gave for naming a business or leaving it out. These bear most directly on having one accurate record:

• The same name, phone, address and license across independent listings came up in 79 conversations and cost a business its place in 37.
• A business name that matched across listings and the license register came up in 37 conversations and cost a business its place in 28.
• Looked at one detail at a time, a matching phone number came up in 81 conversations (and cost a place in 29) and a matching street address in 66 (22).
• Whether ownership or the license holder had changed recently came up in 17 conversations and cost a business its place in 8.

One conversation can involve several reasons, so these counts overlap and should never be added together. They show what assistants said they weighed. They don't prove that creating or claiming a profile would change who gets named.

Getting one profile you own: the steps in order

Work through these steps in order. The first three prepare you, and step 4 is the route itself. The rest leave you with one verified profile, owned by the business, that matches your other records.

1. Write down your business facts

Use your real-world name, as on your signs, vehicles, website and invoices, with no added keywords, towns or phone numbers ⁹. Pick the fewest categories that describe your core business, and a local number under the business's direct control ⁹. Decide whether customers come to you, or you only go to them.

2. Set up a Google Account the business keeps

Create a Google Account for managing a business, or use an existing one ⁶. Google suggests linking a company email address if you have one ⁵. Write down who holds the password and how to recover it.

3. Search for every version of your business

Search Google Maps for your current name and town, then any old name, phone number and address. Ask a former partner or marketing company whether they ever set up a listing. Note each one you find and who might control it.

4. Take the route that matches what you found

• No profile: go to business.google.com/add ². Enter your name and category, and say whether customers can visit you. Contractors who only go to customers answer no and enter service areas. Add your phone and website, then choose a verification option ⁸.
• Unverified profile: in Google Maps, select Claim this business, then Manage now. In the Maps app, tap About, then Claim this business ².
• Verified by someone else: at business.google.com/add, find your business and select Request Access ³. With no shop or office, contact Google support and describe the issue as Transfer ownership of listing ³.
• Already yours: sign in with that account and skip to step 6.

If sign-up tells you someone else has already verified the business, request ownership instead ⁸. Don't change the name slightly to get past the message.

5. Verify, and leave the profile alone while you wait

Use whichever method Google offers. It recommends video when available ⁵. A video must be one unedited, live recording of at least 30 seconds, made on your phone ¹⁵. Keep the code to yourself, even from people who help manage the profile ⁵.

6. Clean up any duplicates

• A duplicate you made by mistake can be removed without affecting your verified listing. Removing deletes its content and managers, so pick the right one ⁷.
• For a duplicate you don't control, open it in Google Maps and select Suggest an edit, then Place closed or not here, then Duplicate of another place ²⁰.
• Google reviews every merge request. Merged profiles keep both sets of reviews, but replies to reviews may be lost ⁷.

7. Add helpers without giving the profile away

Each helper should use their own Google Account, so nobody shares a password ²¹. A profile can have several owners but only one primary owner ²¹. Keep that role with the business and add an agency as a manager. Google requires agencies to leave clients with ownership or co-ownership ¹³. New owners and managers wait 7 days before they can transfer primary ownership or remove people ²¹.

8. Make your other records match

Put the same name, phone number and service area on your own website, which ChatGPT and Claude mostly linked to in our answers. Other maps have their own listings: Bing Maps, for example, uses Bing Places for Business ²². A few weeks after verification, ask the assistants for your kind of job in your town. If an answer shows an old name, an old number or a second listing, trace where it came from and fix it there.

Questions owners ask

How do I create a Google Business Profile?

First search Google Maps for your business name and town, because Google may already have a profile. If none exists, sign in with a Google Account the business will keep, go to business.google.com/add, select Add your business to Google, and enter your name, category, service area or address, phone and website. Then choose one of the verification methods Google offers.

How do I claim my Google Business Profile?

If the profile exists but isn't verified, open it in Google Maps on a computer and select Claim this business, then Manage now. In the Google Maps app, open the profile, tap About, then Claim this business. Then verify it. If there is no claim button, you may already own it, or someone else may have verified it.

What if someone else already claimed my business on Google?

Go to business.google.com/add, enter your business name and address, choose your business and select Request Access. The current owner gets an email and has three days to respond. If they don't, you may be able to claim the profile, though not always. Service-area businesses without a shop are asked to contact Google support instead.

Can I have more than one Google Business Profile for my business?

Usually not. Google allows one profile per business, and a duplicate won't show on Search or Maps. Don't create separate profiles for different services, or a new one when you move. A contractor with separate locations, each with its own staff and service area, may have one profile for each.

How long does Google Business Profile verification take?

After you complete the verification steps, Google says its review takes up to five business days, and sometimes longer. Some profiles are verified instantly, for example when the website is already verified in Google Search Console. Postcard codes usually arrive within 14 days. While you wait for one, don't edit your name, address or category.

Do I need a business address to create a Google Business Profile?

You need a real base, but it doesn't have to be shown. Contractors who go to customers can set up a service-area profile, hide the address, even a home address, and list up to 20 towns or ZIP codes they serve. A P.O. box or virtual office is not allowed, and online-only businesses aren't eligible.

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