Worth Knowing · RUNNING THE BUSINESS

How to Claim and Fill In Your Google Business Profile

By Colin Rooney · Published 25 September 2026 · Updated 25 September 2026

To claim your Google Business Profile, find your business on Google Maps, select "Claim this business", then "Manage now", and complete whichever verification method Google offers you. It costs nothing. Once you are verified, fill in the name, category, hours, address or service area, phone and website first, because those are the fields Google reads to decide which searches you can appear in at all.

We wrote this guide because of a count we did ourselves. On 20 August 2026 we checked the 50 most reviewed restaurants in Blagoevgrad on Google Maps, places carrying between 107 and 3,743 reviews each, and 17 of them had never claimed their Google profile. These are busy, well known restaurants, and on every one of those 17 profiles there is nobody on the business side who can reply to a review, correct the opening hours or add a menu link.

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How do you check whether your profile is already claimed?

Search for your business name and town on Google Maps or Google Search. If the profile shows "Claim this business" on Maps or "Own this business?" on Search, nobody has verified it yet and you can claim it in a few minutes. If neither prompt appears, the profile is already verified by somebody, and Google's own help page notes that this somebody may well be you.

So sign in to the Google account you think holds it and search for "my business", which is the shortcut Google gives for finding a profile you manage. If it is not there, try any other account you have used for the business over the years. When it turns up in none of them, someone else verified it: a former manager, the previous owner, a relative who set it up years ago, or an agency you no longer work with. That happens more often than people expect, and it has a proper fix.

What if someone else already owns your profile?

You request ownership through Google, and the current owner gets three days to answer. Go to business.google.com/add, enter your business name and address, and choose your business from the list. When Google shows the message "Someone else may manage this Business Profile", select Request Access, fill in the form and submit it. Google emails you a confirmation and emails the current owner at the same time.

If the owner approves, you manage the profile from that moment. If they deny it, you can appeal. If they simply never answer, Google says you may get the option to claim the profile yourself after the three days, through the link in your confirmation email, although it also says that option is not always available. A business that serves customers only at their own address, with no premises of its own, goes through Google's support contact form instead, choosing "Transfer ownership of listing" as the issue.

Whatever route you take, set it up so the business owns the profile and anyone helping you is added afterwards as a manager. Google allows owners to add managers once the profile is verified, and that arrangement means nobody's departure, ours included, ever takes your profile with them.

How does verification work in 2026?

Google chooses the verification method for you, based on your business type, public information, region and opening hours, and you cannot change what it offers. You may be offered a code by phone or text message, a code by email, a live video call with Google's support team, a postcard, or a recorded video, and in some cases you will be asked to complete more than one. Google recommends the recorded video whenever you are eligible for it.

Each method has one trap worth knowing before you start. The phone code will not reach an automated answering menu, so the number must ring at a phone a person picks up. The live video call only runs within your stated business hours. The postcard usually arrives within 14 days and its code expires after 30, and if you edit your business name, address or category while you wait, the code stops working, so leave the profile alone until it lands. After you complete any method, Google takes up to five business days to review it. The one shortcut Google names is instant verification for businesses that have already verified their website in Google Search Console.

How do you pass video verification first time?

Record one continuous, unedited take of at least 30 seconds, live, from the Business Profile on your phone, showing where you are, your name on a permanent sign, and proof that you run the place. Google does not accept a video recorded earlier and uploaded later, so plan the walk before you press record.

For a restaurant, café or shop, a route that covers everything Google lists looks like this. Start on the street with a street sign, the building number or the neighbouring businesses in shot, then turn to your own sign, window or wall with the business name printed on it, and that name must match the name on your profile exactly. Then walk inside and do something only staff can do: open the till, use the card terminal, go into the kitchen or the storeroom. Keep other people's faces out of the frame and keep bank, tax and ID numbers off the screen.

A business that visits customers rather than receiving them, a plumber or a mobile caterer for example, films the neighbourhood around its base, the tools or branded van it works with, and a business document such as an invoice or utility bill carrying the business name. Such a business should not show an address on its profile at all. If Google rejects a video, a "Review issues" notice tells you what was missing, and the new video needs everything from the first one plus the missing piece.

What should you fill in first?

Fill in the fields that decide eligibility first: name, primary category, hours, address or service area, phone and website. Google says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and prominence, that businesses with complete and accurate information are more likely to show up, and that there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. So completeness is the lever you actually control.

The name goes in exactly as it appears on your sign, with nothing added. Google's guidelines rule out taglines, locations, service descriptions, phone numbers and opening hours inside the name, and a name stuffed with any of those can get the profile suspended. One rule matters a great deal in Bulgaria: Google does not permit the same name repeated in two scripts, Cyrillic and Latin side by side, even when your sign shows both. Choose the version your customers actually use.

For the category, Google asks you to complete the sentence "this business is a", using as few categories as possible and the most specific one that fits. A restaurant inside a hotel gets its own profile rather than being added as a category of the hotel. For hours, a restaurant lists the hours when guests can sit down and eat, and falls back to takeaway hours only if there is no dine in. A seasonal venue sets its real hours during the season and marks itself temporarily closed out of season, which is far better than leaving summer hours showing in November. We wrote more about running a seasonal venue in marketing a Bansko restaurant through the season.

The phone number has to be one the business controls, and the website has to be yours, not a link that forwards people somewhere else. A menu link must point to your full menu, never to a delivery platform. The description is for what you do and your history, and Google does not allow prices, promotions or links in it. Real photographs of the room, the food and the front door finish the job.

What does an unclaimed profile cost a restaurant?

An unclaimed profile still appears on Maps, but you have no say in what it shows. In the same Blagoevgrad count of 50 restaurants, 21 of the profiles linked to no website at all and another 17 pointed to a Facebook or Instagram page, so for most of them the Google profile is doing the job a website would otherwise do. That matters more this year, because Google's AI answers now lean on Business Profile cards for local questions, which we set out in your Google Business Profile is now your homepage for AI.

We cannot tell you how many customers any particular unclaimed profile loses. Google does not publish that, and we did not measure it. What we can say is that an unverified owner cannot reply to a single review, and replies are the part of a review programme you control completely, which we covered in can you still ask customers for a Google review. Keeping the profile right sits inside our food and beverage partnership for the restaurants we work with.

If you get stuck at verification or at an ownership request, email colin@wonderworksdesign.net or call +359 877 971 400 and we will tell you what we would do next.

FAQ

Is it free to claim a Google Business Profile? Yes. Google states that you can add or claim your business at no charge, and verification costs nothing either.

How long does Google Business Profile verification take? Up to five business days after you complete the verification steps, according to Google. If you are sent a postcard, add the post: most codes arrive within 14 days and they expire after 30.

Can I choose how to verify my business? No. Google decides which methods to offer based on your business type, public information, region and hours, and you cannot change them. If you are offered a recorded video, Google recommends using it.

What if someone else manages my Business Profile? Request ownership at business.google.com/add. The current owner has three days to respond, and if they do not, you may get the option to claim it through the link in your confirmation email.

Can my business name be shown in both Cyrillic and Latin? No. Google does not permit the same business name repeated in two scripts, even if your sign shows both, so pick the one your customers know you by.

Will changing my details make me verify again? It can. Google says changes to your business information may require re-verification, and editing the name, address or category while a postcard code is on its way makes that code stop working.

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