Summary: Business Profiles on Google My Business can only be created for businesses that either have a physical location that customers can visit, or that travel to visit customers where they are. Creating a successful Business Profile that won’t be suspended requires avoiding prohibited content, accurately reflecting your business, and complying with the rest of the policies below.

We've come up with a list of guidelines for local businesses to maintain high quality information on Google. Following these guidelines helps avoid common problems, including changes to your information, or, in some cases, removal of your business information from Google.

For best results using Google My Business:

• Represent your business as it’s consistently represented and recognized in the real world across signage, stationery, and other branding.
• Make sure your address and/or service area is accurate and precise.
• Choose the fewest number of categories it takes to describe your overall core business.
• There should only be one profile per business, as this can cause problems with how your information displays on Google Maps and Search.

Brands, organizations, artists, and other online-only businesses aren't eligible for Google My Business Profiles.

Your name should reflect your business’ real-world name, as used consistently on your storefront, website, stationery, and as known to customers. Accurately representing your business name helps customers find your business online.

Add additional details like address and/or service area, business hours, and category in the other sections of your business information. 

For example, if you were creating a Business Profile for a 24-hour coffee shop in downtown San Francisco called Shelly’s Coffee, you would enter that business information as:

• Business name: Shelly’s Coffee
• Address: 3247 Poppy Street, San Francisco, CA 94102
• Hours: Open 24 hours
• Category: Coffee shop

Including unnecessary information in your business name is not permitted, and could result in your Business Profile being suspended. Refer to the specific examples below to determine what you can and can't include in your business name.

Provide a phone number that connects to your individual business location as directly as possible, or provide one website that represents your individual business location.

• Use a local phone number instead of a central call center helpline number whenever possible.
• Do not provide phone numbers or URLs that redirect or "refer" users to landing pages or phone numbers other than those of the actual business, including pages created on social media sites.
• The phone number must be under the direct control of the business.
• Additional phone numbers can be used on Google My Business websites and other local surfaces.
• Premium-rate telephone numbers are not allowed. These phone numbers charge high rates to the caller.

Categories help your customers find accurate, specific results for services they’re interested in. In order to keep your business information accurate and live, make sure that you:

• Use as few categories as possible to describe your overall core business from the provided list.
• Choose categories that are as specific as possible, but representative of your main business.
  • Do not use categories solely as keywords or to describe attributes of your business.
  • Do not use categories that pertain to other businesses that are nearby or related, such as a business physically contained within your business or an entity that contains your business.

There are 2 kinds of menus:

• A menu for an eating and drinking establishment (like restaurants or cocktail bars) that lists the complete set of food and drink items that are available at the business.
• A menu for a service business like a barber, spa, or car repair shop that lists the complete set of services that are available at the business.

Maintaining consistent names and categories across all of your business locations helps users quickly identify your business on Google Maps and search results.

All locations must have the same name unless the business’s real world representation consistently varies from location to location. All locations must also have the same category if they provide the same service.

Get started with Google My Business for chains.

Departments within businesses, universities, hospitals, and government institutions may have their own Business Profiles on Google.

Auto dealers and healthcare providers have specific and separate guidelines. Get started with Google My Business for auto dealers and healthcare providers.

An individual practitioner is a public-facing professional, typically with their own customer base. Doctors, dentists, lawyers, financial planners, and insurance or real estate agents are all individual practitioners. Business Profiles for practitioners may include title or degree certification (e.g. Dr., MD, JD, Esq., CFA).

An individual practitioner should create their own dedicated Business Profile if:

• They operate in a public-facing role. Support staff should not create their own Business Profiles.
• They can be contacted directly at the verified location during stated hours.

A practitioner shouldn't have multiple Business Profiles to cover all of their specializations. Sales associates or lead generation agents for corporations aren't individual practitioners and aren't eligible for a Business Profile.