Google Business Profile multiple locations: a branch guide

Yes. The rule for a Google Business Profile with multiple locations is one profile per place where customers are served in person, during stated hours, with staff there. A milk tea shop with a branch in Cubao and another in Marikina has two profiles, each with its own pin, reviews and hours.

What does not get its own profile: a commissary kitchen customers never visit, an office that only does admin, or a mall kiosk that is really a counter of a bigger store in the same mall. A service business with no shopfront, like a mobile groomer or an aircon cleaner, usually has one service-area profile covering the areas it serves, not one per city.

The second branch starts from zero. Its reviews, photos and ranking are its own, so treat it as a new profile and work through the Google Business Profile optimization guide for it, not only for the first shop.

Open Business Profile Manager at business.google.com with the account that manages your first branch, and add a new business. Do not reuse or edit the first profile. Changing its address to the new branch moves your reviews away from the shop that earned them.

In Business Profile Manager you can put your profiles into a business group (older help pages call it a location group). The group is a folder with its own managers: you can give an area manager access to every branch at once, or give a branch supervisor access to only one profile. Keep yourself, or an account the business owns, as the primary owner of the group, not a staff member's personal Gmail.

With more than a handful of branches, Business Profile Manager also lets you add locations in bulk from a spreadsheet, each with a store code so you can tell them apart.

Yes, one at a time. Each profile has to prove that branch exists, usually with a video recorded at that branch showing the street, the signage, the inside and proof that you run it. The steps are the same as for your first shop, and our guide to video verification for Philippine businesses covers them.

Have the new branch's own mayor's or business permit ready. Each branch in the Philippines needs its own permit from the city or municipality where it sits, and it is the clearest proof of management you can show on camera.

Businesses with 10 or more locations under the same brand can apply for bulk verification from inside Business Profile Manager. Google reviews the request by hand, which takes about a week or more, and asks for the brand's details and a contact at the company. Service-area businesses and agencies managing unrelated clients are generally not eligible. Below 10, verify branch by branch.

Customers and Google should be able to tell that the branches are one business and also tell them apart.

• Same: the business name, spelled exactly the same way on every profile, as it reads on your signage and in your DTI or SEC registration name as customers know it.
• Same, usually: the primary category. Choose it with the Google Business Profile categories list. Secondary categories can differ if one branch offers something the other does not, like dine-in or a function room.
• Different: the address, written the way it appears on that branch's permit, with the mall name, floor and unit.
• Different where you can: the phone number. A branch mobile that someone at that branch answers beats one head-office line for everyone.
• Different: hours. A mall branch follows mall hours; a street branch may open earlier. Set holiday and Holy Week hours on each profile separately.
• Different: photos. Each profile shows that branch's own storefront, interior and staff. Reusing the first shop's photos confuses customers who arrive expecting that shop.
• Different: the website link. Point each profile to a page for that branch, with its address, hours, map and phone, not to your homepage.

Be careful here. Google's guidelines say the name should be your real-world business name, as used on your storefront and known to customers. Adding a location or keywords that are not part of that name is against the rules, and it is a common reason profiles get suspended.

So "[BRAND] – Best Milk Tea in QC" is not allowed. "[BRAND] SM North EDSA" is only acceptable if that is genuinely how the branch presents itself: on its signage, receipts and website, used consistently. Many shops' signs simply say the brand, and in that case the profile should too. The mall and area belong in the address field, where Google already reads them.

If you are unsure, leave the location out. Nobody is suspended for leaving a location out of their name.

Much less than people fear. Google weighs how close the searcher is, so a customer in Marikina is mostly shown the Marikina branch. Branches compete when they are close together, like two branches a few hundred metres apart on the same avenue, and even then Google usually shows the nearer one.

Help each branch target its own area. Give each one its own page on your website, mentioning its barangay, landmarks, mall and nearby streets. Post updates on each profile about that branch, and ask for reviews at each branch, so reviews mention where the customer actually was. If you are expanding across the metro, how local search works in Metro Manila shows how different each city's results can be.

Reviews belong to the profile they were left on and never move between branches. A strong 4.8 on your first shop does nothing for the new one, which starts at zero. Give each branch its own Google review link and a QR on its counter. Printing the first shop's QR at the new branch sends its reviews to the wrong place.

Reply from each profile, and name the branch when it helps: "Salamat for visiting us in Marikina". A complaint about one branch's wait time is a message for that branch's supervisor, so send reviews to whoever runs the place.

Mapkita prices by location. Each extra branch is ₱399 a month on top of your plan, for up to five locations, and each one gets its own review alerts and draft replies. Details are on the pricing page.