How to set up a Google Business Profile when you work from home

When someone searches for a plumber, a dog groomer or a web designer near them, the first thing Google shows is usually a map with three businesses beside it. Those listings come from Google Business Profile, which is free. For a local business, appearing there can matter more than where your website ranks.

Most guides assume you have a shop or an office. If you run your business from home and travel to your customers, or work with them remotely, the setup is slightly different, and getting it wrong can get the profile suspended. This guide covers the home-based case.

Shop front or service area: decide this first

Google recognises two kinds of local business.

A business customers visit, such as a shop, salon or clinic. It shows its address and a pin on the map.
A service-area business, which goes to its customers or serves them without their visiting. It hides its address and shows the areas it covers instead.

If customers do not come to your home, you are a service-area business. Showing a home address as if it were a shop front is against Google's guidelines, and it also puts your home address on the public map. Choose the service-area option and keep the address hidden.

You still have to give Google your real address during setup. It is used to verify that the business exists and is not shown to the public once you hide it.

Setting up the profile, step by step

1. Create the profile. Go to google.com/business and sign in with the Google account you want to manage the business from. Use an account the business controls, not a personal one you might lose access to.

2. Enter your business name exactly as you trade. Use the real name and nothing more. Adding a town or a service to the name, such as “Smith Plumbing Oxford Emergency Plumber”, is against the guidelines and is one of the most common reasons profiles are suspended.

3. Choose your main category carefully. This is the single most important field for which searches you appear in. Pick the category that best describes the whole business, then add a few secondary ones for the other things you do. Be specific: “Website designer” is better than “Marketing agency” if websites are most of your work.

4. Say that you do not have a location customers can visit, when asked. This is the choice that makes you a service-area business.

5. Add your service areas. List the towns, districts or counties you cover. Choose places you would really travel to or take work from. Listing the whole country does not help you appear locally anywhere.

6. Add your phone number and website. Use the same phone number and the same spelling of your business name that appear on your website. Consistency between the two is one of the things Google checks.

7. Verify the business. Google chooses the method, and it varies. It is often a short video you record on your phone showing evidence that the business is real, such as your tools, vehicle, paperwork or workspace. It can also be a phone call, a text, an email or a code by post. The profile is not public until this is done.

Filling it in properly

A verified but empty profile does little. These are the parts worth your time, in order.

Services. List each service with a short description, and a price if you publish prices. This is what helps you appear for specific searches.
Description. A few plain sentences on what you do, who for and where. Write it for a customer, not for Google.
Opening hours. Set the hours you answer the phone or reply to messages.
Photos. Real photos of your work, your vehicle, your team or you. Profiles with genuine photos get more attention than those with a logo alone.
Your website link. Point it at your home page, or at a contact page if that is where you want enquiries to go.

Reviews

Reviews are the part most businesses neglect, and they affect both whether you appear and whether anyone chooses you.

Ask every satisfied customer, soon after the work is done. Your profile gives you a short link to send them.
Never offer anything in return for a review, and do not ask friends or family to write them. Both are against the rules, and reviews can be removed.
Reply to every review, good or bad, briefly and politely. A calm reply to a poor review often does more for you than the review does harm.

Keeping it alive

Google favours profiles that look looked-after.

Post an update once a month. A recent job, an offer or a piece of news, with a photo.
Check your details whenever something changes, such as hours, phone number or the areas you cover.
Watch for edits you did not make. Google sometimes applies changes suggested by the public. You will get an email; check it and reject anything wrong.

Three mistakes to avoid

Showing your home address to look more established. It risks suspension and tells the internet where you live.
Stuffing the business name with towns and services. Use your real trading name.
Setting it up and forgetting it. A profile with no reviews, no photos and no posts for a year looks like a business that has closed.

A Business Profile will not replace a website, but the two work together. The profile gets you found on the map; the website is where people decide whether to get in touch. If you want to know whether your site is doing its half of the job, our free website health check takes under two minutes.

Naira Digital Growth builds and looks after websites for small businesses in Oxfordshire, and sets up and manages Google Business Profiles as part of that work.