How to add your business to Google Maps (free, step by step)

If you are wondering how to add your business to Google Maps, the short answer is that you create a free Google Business Profile, verify it, and the profile becomes your pin on Maps. Have everything below ready before you open the form.

Creating the profile does not require a business permit or DTI registration. Google checks that the business really operates, not that it is registered. But when you verify, Google may ask you to show proof that you run the place, and a mayor's permit, DTI certificate or BIR registration with the business name on it is the easiest proof you can have.

• A Google account. Use one you will keep, not a staff member's. Whoever owns it owns the profile.
• Your exact business name, as it appears on your signage and permit. No added keywords: "Aling Nena's Carinderia", not "Aling Nena's Carinderia Best Lutong Bahay Pasig".
• Your address, written the same way as on your permit, or the list of areas you serve if customers never come to you.
• A phone number customers can actually reach, usually your business mobile.
• The category that best describes the business, such as Filipino restaurant, Hair salon or Air conditioning repair service.
• Your opening hours, including which days you close.

Before you create anything, open Google Maps and search your business name, then your street, then your barangay. Customers and delivery apps add places all the time, so your shop may already be there, perhaps with an old name or a wrong pin.

If you find it, do not make a new one. Tap the listing and look for "Claim this business" or "Own this business?". Claiming keeps whatever reviews and photos are already attached. Creating a second listing for the same place gives you a duplicate, which splits your reviews and is one of the patterns that gets profiles suspended. If there are already two or more listings for your shop, sort that out first with how to fix a duplicate Google Business Profile listing.

If someone else already manages it, such as a former manager or an agency you once used, you can request ownership from the same screen. The FAQ below covers what happens next.

There are two ways in, and both end in the same Google Business Profile.

• From Google Maps on your phone: tap your profile picture, then "Add your business". If you do not see it, tap Contribute and use "Add a place" or "Add a missing place", and choose that you own it.
• From a browser: go to business.google.com (also reachable at google.com/business), sign in, and choose to add your business. Easier on a laptop, where you can copy your details from a document.

Google asks for your business category early, and it is the most important choice on the whole form. The primary category decides which searches you are even considered for. Pick the most specific one that is true: a milk tea shop is a Bubble tea store, not a Restaurant.

You can add up to nine more categories later for other things you genuinely do. For the exact categories that fit a carinderia, a salon, a clinic or a home-service business, see the Google Business Profile categories list.

Google then asks whether customers can visit you. The answer decides how your business appears on Maps.

If you have a shop, stall or office that customers walk into, say yes and enter the full address: unit, floor, building name, street, barangay and city, the same way it is written on your permit. Google will show a pin, and you can drag it to the exact entrance. Inside a mall, put the mall and the unit number, not just the mall.

If customers never come to you, say no and add a service area instead. Your address stays hidden from the public, and you list the cities or barangays you serve. This is how you add a business to Google Maps without an address showing. Google still asks for the address privately, because it needs to know where you operate from, and it may ask you to prove it during verification.

• A home baker in Marikina who delivers or has customers pick up at an agreed spot: service-area business, address hidden, service area set to Marikina and the nearby cities she actually delivers to.
• A home-service aircon technician in Cebu who goes to customers' houses: service-area business, address hidden, service area set to Cebu City, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu if those are where he goes.

Add the phone number you answer during business hours. If orders come in by Viber or text, use that number. Then set your regular weekly hours. Blank hours make customers guess.

Google asks for a website next. If you do not have one, that is fine. Many Philippine businesses run on a Facebook Page, and you can add it as your link. Make sure the details on it match your Google profile.

Verification is how Google confirms that you really run the business at that address. Until it is done, your profile is incomplete and may not show on Maps at all. You do not choose the method; Google offers what it decides fits your business.

In the Philippines, the method most owners get now is a video: one unbroken recording that shows the street, your signage, the inside of the shop and something that proves you manage it, like opening the till or showing your permit. Some businesses are offered a live video call, a phone or email code, or a postcard, which can be slow to arrive here. The full checklist is in how to pass Google Business Profile video verification, and if your dashboard shows "pending" or another status you do not recognise, see Google Business Profile verification status explained.

After you verify, your business usually starts appearing on Google Maps within a few days, first for searches of your own name. Timing varies, so a week of waiting is not a sign that something is wrong.

Appearing for general searches like "bakery near me" takes longer. A new profile has few reviews and has to earn its place against older shops. If your profile is verified and still not showing for your own name after a week or two, work through why a business is not showing up on Google Maps.

If the pin is in the wrong place, or you move, you can change it from your Business Profile: open Edit profile, then Location, and correct the address or drag the pin to the right spot. Customers can suggest edits too, so check now and then that nobody has moved it.

To update your business address on Google Maps after a move, change it on the profile rather than creating a new one, so you keep your reviews. Expect the change to be reviewed, and Google may ask you to verify again at the new address. Update your Facebook Page and delivery apps the same day.

New profiles are watched more closely than old ones, and a few mistakes are enough for Google to suspend one before it has really started.

If it happens anyway, do not create a new profile to replace it. Fix the cause, gather your permit and storefront photos, and file an appeal; the steps are in how to fix a suspended Google Business Profile.

• Keywords in the business name. Adding "Best", a city, or a list of services to the name is against Google's guidelines and a common suspension trigger. Use the name on your signage.
• A fake or borrowed address. A virtual office, a friend's shop or a P.O. box you do not operate from will fail verification or get caught later. If you work from home, use your home address and hide it.
• Duplicate profiles. A second profile because the first is stuck in verification, or one per service, looks like spam. One business, one location, one profile.

A verified profile with no photos and no reviews is on the map, but it gives customers little reason to pick you. Spend the first week on what they look at first.

• Add real photos: the storefront so people can find you, the inside, and your best products or work. Before you upload, the free photo check tells you whether each one is sharp, bright and the right shape.
• Ask your regulars for your first reviews. Print your review link as a QR code with the free review QR code generator and put it on the counter, the receipt or the packaging.
• Fill in the rest of the profile: description, services or menu, and attributes like GCash, Maya, dine-in or delivery. The Google Business Profile optimization guide goes through every field in order.
• Run the free check of your business to see what your new profile is still missing.