Local SEO

What is Google Business Profile?

Updated on November 6, 2026

Google Business Profile is the free listing of a business on Google Search and Maps: address, hours, phone, photos, reviews. It is what the map results and the local pack are built from.

For any search with a local intent (a trade and a city, or "near me"), Google shows three businesses on a map above the classic results. Those come from Business Profiles, ranked by relevance, distance and prominence. A complete profile with the right category, regular photos and answered reviews is the single biggest lever of local visibility for a service business.

The profile also feeds the entity Google holds for the company, which AI assistants reuse when asked for a provider in a city. Name, address and phone should match the website and the directories where the company is listed.

Frequently asked questions

Does an agency without an office need a Business Profile?

Yes, as a service-area business: the address can be hidden and the served area declared. Without a profile the company is absent from map results and from most local answers.

Do reviews on the profile affect ranking?

Their number, recency and rating are part of the prominence Google uses in local results. Answering reviews, good and bad, is part of keeping the profile alive.

Related terms

Entity

In search, an entity is a thing the engine recognises as one object (a company, a person, a place, a product) with properties and relations, independently of the words used to name it.

Brand mention

A brand mention is the name of a company written in a page or in an AI answer without necessarily a link. Engines use mentions to understand what a brand is and how it is regarded.

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