When someone in your town searches "dentist near me" or "cake shop open now", Google shows a map with a few businesses on it. That listing is your Google Business Profile. It is free, and for a shop or clinic it is often the first place a new customer meets you.
Say you run a bakery in Jaipur. A customer on the other side of the city wants a birthday cake by Saturday. She will tap the first listing that shows the right hours, has recent photos, a few honest reviews and a phone number that works. Everything below is about being that listing.
Claim it and get verified
Search for your business on Google Maps first. There may already be a listing someone else created, often from an old directory. If so, claim it rather than making a duplicate. Duplicates split your reviews.
Google decides which verification methods you are offered, and you cannot pick. Depending on your business, you may get a phone call or text with a code, an email, a live video call during business hours, a recorded video of your premises, or a postcard with a code. Some businesses are asked for more than one. Google says review can take up to five business days.
Pick categories carefully
Your category tells Google what you are. It matters more than almost any other field. Google's own guidance is to use as few categories as possible, as specific as possible, and to describe what the business is rather than what it has. A sweet shop that also sells namkeen is a sweet shop. A clinic with a pharmacy counter is a clinic.
Do not stuff categories to appear in more searches. Google says categories are not keywords, and adding categories for things you do on the side tends to dilute the main one.
Fill in services, products and description
Add each service or product you want to be found for as a separate item, in the words your customers use. "Root canal treatment" rather than "endodontics". "Eggless cakes" rather than "bakery items". Add a starting price where you can, to filter out enquiries that were never going to buy.
Write the description in plain language. Who you serve, what you are known for, which areas you deliver to, and whether you take UPI or cards.
Hours, including festival hours
Wrong hours cost you more than missing hours. A customer who drives to a closed shutter does not come back. Set your regular hours, then use special hours for days that differ. Google lets you set special hours for holidays and short closures, and recommends confirming your hours for official holidays even if nothing changes. For a closure of a week or more, mark the business as temporarily closed instead.
In India this matters most around Diwali, Holi, Eid, Durga Puja, Pongal and local festivals, when many businesses either close or stay open late. Put a reminder in your phone two weeks before each one to update special hours.
Photos that do the selling
Add your own photos, taken in daylight, on a clean phone lens. Start with the outside of the shop as seen from the road, so people can find it. Then the inside, your best work and your team. Replace stock images, and add a few new photos every month.
Make your name, address and phone match everywhere
Your business details live in many places: your website, Justdial, IndiaMART, Facebook, Instagram, delivery apps and any directory you are listed on. When the name, address and phone number differ from place to place, customers get confused about which number to call, and search engines have a harder time deciding which version is right. Local search practitioners call this NAP consistency, for name, address, phone.
Pick one exact version and use it everywhere. Decide whether it is "Shop No. 4" or "Shop 4", "Malviya Nagar" or "Malviya Ngr", one main mobile number or a landline. Then go through every listing you have and correct it.
| Field | Choose once, then copy exactly |
|---|---|
| Business name | The name on your signboard, without added keywords or city names |
| Address | One spelling, one landmark, one PIN code |
| Phone | The number someone actually answers during business hours |
| Website | The same link everywhere, ideally the page that lets people call or book |
Getting reviews, and replying to all of them
Reviews are what tip a customer from one listing to the next. The simplest way to get them is to ask, every time, at the moment the customer is happy. From your profile on a computer you can get a short review link and a QR code. Put the QR code at the billing counter, and send the link on WhatsApp after a delivery or appointment.
Know the rules. Google does not allow offering a discount, a freebie or payment in exchange for a review, and it does not allow asking only happy customers while steering unhappy ones away. Ask everyone. Never write reviews for yourself or have staff do it.
Reply to every review, good and bad. For a good one, thank them by name and mention what they bought. For a bad one, reply calmly, apologise for the experience, and ask them to call or WhatsApp you so you can sort it out. Future customers read these replies, so a calm, specific answer to a complaint counts for a lot.
Posts and updates
You can publish updates, offers and events from your profile. Use them for things that are true this week: new stock, a festival menu, a free check-up camp, changed timings. An offer post needs dates, so it is a natural fit for festival sales. Google restricts posts about some regulated products, so check its rules if you sell anything like medicines or financial products.
Questions customers ask
Profiles used to have a public questions and answers section. Google has been retiring it and moving to AI-generated answers drawn from your profile and other information on the web. That means the answers customers get depend on what you have written. Put the questions you hear most into your description, services and website: parking, home delivery areas, whether you take walk-ins, payment methods, languages spoken. Features here change often, so check what your profile currently shows.
Track whether it brings calls
Your profile has a performance section. It shows how many people viewed the profile, the searches they used, and how many tapped to call, asked for directions or clicked through to your website. Calls only show up if you have a phone number on the profile.
Look at it once a month and write three numbers in a notebook or sheet: calls, direction requests, website clicks. Ask new customers at the counter how they found you, and note it for a week. Between the two you will know whether the profile is working.
Common mistakes
- Adding "best", a city name or a keyword to the business name. Google can suspend profiles for this.
- Listing a number nobody answers, or a personal number that goes to voicemail after 7 pm.
- Leaving old hours up through a festival closure.
- Replying to bad reviews in anger, or not replying at all.
- Treating the profile as a one-time job. Ten minutes a week keeps it current.
Where this fits with Avishka
Setting up the profile, fixing your listings everywhere and getting a review routine going is part of our Get found and convert enquiries offer. We do it alongside a site or catalogue and a same-day follow-up system, run it with your team for a few weeks, then hand it over. If you would rather do it yourself, this guide covers what we would do. When the calls start coming, read how to follow up on enquiries the same day.