Your Google Business Profile is the listing that appears in Google Maps, and in the group of three businesses shown above the ordinary results when someone nearby searches for what you do. It carries your opening hours, phone number, reviews and photos, and for many local searches it is the first thing a customer sees, ahead of your website. This service deals with the profile itself: setting it up and getting it verified, putting right the details that hold it back, recovering access when someone else controls it, and appealing when Google suspends it.
What this fixes, and what changes when it works
A profile that needs this work is usually in one of four states. There is no profile at all, or one that never got through verification. Someone else controls it: a former web designer, an agency that has stopped replying, a member of staff who has left. It exists but is half finished, filed under a category that does not match the work, with hours that are wrong every bank holiday. Or it has vanished from Maps, and the only explanation is a short email from Google saying it was suspended.
Each of these has a specific fix, and none of them needs a long campaign. When the work is done, the business controls its own profile, the profile describes the business accurately enough for Google to match it to the right searches, and you can see how many calls, direction requests and website visits it produces each month. Whether it then climbs above the competitors on the map also depends on things outside the profile, such as how far the searcher is from you, your reviews and your website. I am clear from the start about where this job ends and wider local work begins.
Who this suits, and when another service fits better
It suits any UK business that deals with customers face to face, either at its own premises or at the customer’s home or site. A plumber in Bromley, a physiotherapy clinic in Clapham and a mobile dog groomer covering Surrey all qualify. A business that travels to its customers can run as a service-area business, with its street address hidden from the public.
Sometimes a different service is the better spend. If your profile is already complete and verified but you still do not appear on the map, the cause usually lies beyond the profile, and local SEO works on the website, directory listings, reviews and local links together. If you run several branches, multi-location and franchise SEO manages the profiles as a group so every location follows the same rules. If you sell only online and never meet customers, Google does not allow a profile at all. And if your only address is a virtual office or a mail-forwarding service, Google’s guidelines exclude it unless it is staffed during your opening hours, so I will tell you that before you pay for anything.
What the work covers
I only do the parts your profile needs. A verified, accurate profile may need only a handful of corrections, while a suspended one needs more because most of the effort goes into gathering evidence.
Setting up and verifying a new profile
I create the profile under a Google account owned by the business, never by me, and add myself as a manager. The business name goes in exactly as it appears on your signage, invoices and website. Then comes verification, Google’s check that the business is real and operates where it says. Google chooses the method, not you. It may be a code by phone, text or email, or more often now a short, continuous video showing the street, your signage or branded vehicle, your tools or stock, and something only the person in charge could do, such as unlocking the premises. I plan that video with you before you record it, because a rejected attempt usually means recording again and waiting again.
Getting back a profile someone else controls
If a former supplier or employee owns the profile, the quickest route is asking them to transfer primary ownership to the business, which takes them a minute. When that fails, Google has an ownership request process: you ask for access, the current owner is given a set period to respond, and if they do not, you may be able to verify and take over. I handle the requests and keep a record of each step, and I make sure the business ends up as primary owner so the same problem cannot happen twice.
Categories, services and the details customers check
The primary category is the strongest instruction you give Google about which searches the business is relevant to, and it is the field most often set wrong. A Thai restaurant filed only as “Restaurant” competes with every restaurant nearby while missing the people searching for Thai food. You choose one primary category and can add others for genuine secondary lines of work, but not for services you would like to sell one day. I then complete the services list in the words your customers use, the description, opening hours including special hours for bank holidays and Christmas, attributes such as step-free access, and the booking link. The website link goes to the page that best matches the profile, which is not always the home page.
Photos and updates
Customers use photos to judge whether a business is real and whether it looks like somewhere they want to go. I ask for genuine pictures of the premises, the people and finished work, and remove stock images, which tell a customer nothing. Updates posted to the profile earn their place for offers, events and changed hours, so I set them up only where you have something to say.
Duplicate and outdated listings
Google sometimes creates a listing from information it finds elsewhere, and an old address can survive a move as a second profile. A duplicate listing splits calls and reviews between two records and can lead to a suspension once Google spots it. I find duplicates, ask Google to merge or remove them, and review the edits Google has applied from public suggestions, which can quietly change your hours, phone number or even your category without anyone at the business noticing.
Reviews and replies
I set up a short review link and a simple routine for asking every customer, and write reply templates you can adapt, because a calm, specific reply to a poor review often matters more to the next reader than the review itself. I will not buy, filter or reward reviews. Fake reviews are illegal in the UK under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, and Google has agreed with the Competition and Markets Authority to warn customers on the profiles of UK businesses caught inflating their ratings.
Tracking what the profile produces
The profile’s own performance report counts calls, direction requests, bookings and website clicks. I add campaign tags to the website link, the same kind the free UTM link builder creates, so visits from the profile appear as their own source in Google Analytics 4 instead of blending into ordinary search traffic.
Suspended profiles and reinstatement
A suspension means Google believes the profile breaks its guidelines. Sometimes the listing disappears from Maps entirely; sometimes it stays visible but you can no longer manage it. The email rarely says what triggered it, so the first job is working out the likely cause before anyone appeals.
The causes I check first are keywords or a place name added to the business name, a virtual office or mailbox used as the address, a home address shown publicly, a service area drawn far wider than Google’s guidance of roughly two hours’ drive from your base, a recent change to the name, address or category, and a duplicate profile. I correct whatever breaks the rules, then prepare the appeal through Google’s own appeals tool with evidence that ties the business to its address and name: a business rates or utility bill in the trading name, photos of permanent signage, a lease, and where it applies, an entry on a public register such as Gas Safe, the FCA register or the GDC register. Companies House records support the name, but a registered office at your accountant’s address proves nothing about where you trade.
I treat the first appeal as the one that counts and do not submit it until the evidence is complete. Google decides every appeal, so I cannot promise reinstatement. If the business genuinely does not qualify for a profile, I will say so plainly rather than help you disguise it.
How I run the work
- A short call and access. You tell me what is wrong as you see it and add me as a manager, or we start the creation or ownership process together if nobody at the business has access.
- Profile audit. I check every field against Google’s guidelines and against how the businesses around you on the map present themselves, look for duplicates and unapproved edits, and note anything that puts the profile at risk.
- Fixes in order of risk. Anything that breaks the guidelines comes first, then categories and services, then the details customers rely on, then photos and tracking.
- Verification or appeal where needed. Planned with you, documented, and submitted once the evidence is ready.
- Handover. A record of what changed and why, and a short routine for the reviews, photos and hours you keep up yourself.
Problems I see most often on UK profiles
- Owned by a personal Gmail account. Usually a former employee’s or the web designer’s, leaving nobody at the business able to edit the listing.
- The service and town added to the business name. A dental practice listed with “Dental Implants Harley Street” after its name, when its sign says nothing of the kind. It tends to work until a competitor reports it.
- A dead website link. Google closed the free websites it used to build from Business Profiles in 2024, and some profiles still point at the old address.
- Bank holiday hours never set. Customers turn up to a locked door on Easter Monday, then mention it in a review.
- A home address on show. A business that does not receive customers at home should hide it, both under the guidelines and for the owner’s own safety.
- Google’s edits accepted by default. A member of the public suggested new hours or a different phone number, Google applied it, and nobody checked.
What you receive
- A written audit of the profile against Google’s guidelines, with each problem ranked by risk and likely effect.
- The fixes themselves, made by me inside the profile.
- Primary ownership held by the business, with a note of who else has access and at what level.
- Where needed, the verification plan or the full appeal file, including every piece of evidence submitted.
- A tagged website link and a simple monthly view of calls, directions and clicks from the profile.
- A short maintenance routine you can follow without me.
I am based in London and Reading. If your business is in either, my pages on what changes for London businesses and Reading businesses cover how crowded local results are there and how customers search.
Next step
If your profile is suspended, stuck in verification or controlled by someone else, request a free SEO audit and describe the problem in your message. I will tell you what I think caused it and whether it looks recoverable before you commit to anything. If you would rather check the profile yourself first, my local SEO checklist includes every profile task in the order I work through them.