How to create a Google Business Profile as a maker

How to create a Google Business Profile

A Google Business Profile is the listing that shows your business on Google Search and Maps, with your name, category, hours, photos and reviews. Creating one takes a Google account and some form filling. Verification, the step that lets customers find the profile, can take longer.

Before you start, check two things. First, search Google Maps for your business name and town. If a profile already exists, you claim it instead of creating a new one. Second, check that your business is eligible. Only businesses eligible for a Business Profile can add or claim a location, and the core rule is that a business must make in-person contact with customers during its stated hours. The eligibility section below explains how that rule applies to makers who work from home.

Google Business Profile setup, step by step

These steps follow Google's own Add or claim your Business Profile help page. The screens change from time to time, but the order of the choices stays the same.

1. Open the add page

   Sign in to the Google account you want to own the profile, then go to business.google.com/add and select Add your business to Google. Use an account you will keep, because the profile is managed from that account.

2. Enter the business name

   Type the name customers know you by. Google's rule is that the name should be your business’s real-world name, the one on your labels, website and market stall sign. Do not add keywords or a town name that is not part of the real name.

3. Choose a primary category

   Pick a primary category that best describes your business from the list that appears as you type. You can’t create your own category, so if the exact craft is missing, choose the closest specific option. The category section below has examples for makers.

4. Answer the location question

   Next, decide whether customers can visit you. Show an address only if you have a workshop or shop where customers come in, because Google expects businesses showing an address to keep permanent fixed signage of their business name at the address. If you sell from home, at markets or by delivery, do not show the address and set a service area instead.

5. Set the areas you serve

   A service-area business lists the towns or postal codes it serves. You can add up to 20 service areas, set by city, postal code, or another type of area. The overall area should not be more than about 2 hours of driving time from where you are based.

6. Add contact details

   Enter the phone number and website customers should use. A website can be your own store, and it should be one you control.

7. Verify the business

   Select a verification option and follow the steps on screen. The verification guide linked at the end of this page covers each method.

8. Finish the profile

   After verification, add hours, a description, photos and products. A complete profile gives shoppers the answers they look for before they visit your stall or order.

Who is eligible, and why online-only shops are not

Google's eligibility guidelines list the businesses that cannot have a profile. The list includes Brands, organizations, artists, and other online-only businesses. A maker who sells only through a website, Etsy or social media, ships every order and never meets customers does not qualify, however many sales the shop makes.

What qualifies is in-person contact. A business must must make in-person contact with customers during its stated hours. For a maker, that contact can happen in three ways: customers come to a workshop or studio, you go to customers, or you deliver to them. Market stalls, local delivery and arranged pickup all count as meeting customers, which is how many home-based makers qualify.

Some addresses never qualify. Google rejects any business whose address is a P.O. box or mailbox in a remote location. A rented mailing address where you do not work, which Google calls a virtual office, is also out: that location isn't eligible for a Business Profile.

Google's eligibility guidelines say that failure to follow these policies may result in a suspension for the Business Profile and/or Google Account, so pick the profile type that matches how you actually meet customers.

Service area business on Google: the setup for home-based makers

Google defines a service-area business as one that visits or delivers to customers directly but doesn’t serve customers at their business address. A hybrid business serves customers at its business address but also directly visits or delivers to them. Most makers who work from a spare room or garage fit the first type: they sell at markets, deliver orders across town or meet buyers by arrangement, and they do not want strangers at the front door.

Service areas follow a few rules. You can have up to 20 service areas, and the overall area should not be more than about 2 hours of driving time from where you are based. You can’t set your service area as a radius distance; you list towns, postal codes or regions instead. Service-area businesses can only have one profile for the whole area that they serve, so one maker gets one profile even if you sell in several towns.

To change service areas later, open your profile, select Edit profile, then Location, and edit the Service area field. Approved changes can take up to 48 hours to show.

• Example: a candle maker in a small town who sells at two weekend markets and delivers within the county could list the market towns and the main postal codes she delivers to.
• Example: a ceramicist with a home studio who offers pickup by appointment could list her own town and the neighbouring ones where her buyers live.

Google Business Profile without an address: how to hide a home address

Hiding the address changes what customers see. Google's guidelines say that if you are a service-area business, you should hide your business address from customers. Their own example is a plumber working from a residential address, who should clear the address from your Business Profile.

The rule also works the other way. If you don't serve customers at your address, Google asks you to remove your address from your Business Profile. Showing an address is meant for businesses with permanent fixed signage of their business name at the address.

To hide the address on an existing profile, open your profile, select Edit profile, then Location, and next to Business location select Edit. Turn off Show business address to customers and save. Once the address is hidden, your Business Profile will only show your service area; if you do not enter one, a local area is chosen for you. If Google asks you to verify a home-based service-area business by video, its help page says you record landmarks and signs in your immediate neighborhood instead of filming the inside of your home.

Choosing a category for a maker business

The primary category is the most important choice after eligibility: Google says the categories you select affect your local ranking on Google. Google's test is to pick categories that complete the sentence This business IS a, not "this business has a". Use as few categories as possible, and choose the most specific one that describes the whole business.

For makers, that usually means the trade itself. A jeweller who makes rings to order fits a jewellery category; a potter fits a pottery category; a candle maker fits a candle store category if she sells from a stall or studio. Add a second category only if it describes a real part of the business, such as classes you hold.

Change categories with care once the profile is live. Google says that if you add or edit a category, you might be asked to verify your business again.

What to add after the profile is verified

Once Google verifies the profile, the remaining fields are optional but worth filling in. They are what a shopper sees before deciding to visit your stall or contact you.

• Hours: list the hours you meet customers. Google says businesses should not list hours if they are those that operate only by appointment, so leave hours empty if buyers only collect by arrangement.
• Products: if your items have no barcodes, Google says you can upload images of your products through the product editor on Business Profile. Items added that way must adhere to the shopping ads policy, so describe them plainly.
• Photos: show your work, your stall and your workspace. Photos taken in good daylight show handmade work clearly.
• Description: say what you make, where you sell it and how people can buy. Plain sentences work better than lists of keywords.
• Website: link to the store where people can order, and check that the name there matches the name on the profile.
• Reviews: ask buyers you meet at markets for a review, and reply to the ones you get.

Google Business Profile for an online business: what to do instead

If you sell only online and never meet customers, Google does not offer you a Business Profile. Creating one anyway with a home address you do not serve customers from, or a mailbox, breaks the eligibility guidelines, and Google says that failure to follow them may result in a suspension for the Business Profile and/or Google Account.

An online-only shop reaches Google searchers in other ways, mainly through its own website appearing in ordinary search results. If you later start meeting customers, for example at a regular market or with local pickup, you become eligible and can create a profile as a service-area business at that point.

Where Nation fits

Questions about creating a Google Business Profile