What is a google Business Profile?

These are the steps from Google's help centre, on a computer.

1. Sign in to a Google Account, or create one. Google suggests using an email on your business domain.
2. Go to the profile creation page and enter your business name, or choose it from the suggestions.
3. If someone has already verified the business, request ownership of the existing profile instead.
4. Choose your business category.
5. Say whether customers can visit a location. If you have a staffed storefront, add the address or place a pin on the map.
6. Add your service area if you visit customers. You can add up to 20 areas.
7. Add a phone number and website, then finish set-up.
8. Verify your business. Customers can only find your profile on Google after verification.

You can publish posts that appear on your profile. Google's help centre lists three types: updates (news about your business, with a photo or video and an optional button), offers (sales or deals, with a title and dates) and events (with a title and start and end dates).

Posts older than six months are archived unless they have a date range, so post regularly to keep the profile looking active. Zolyp can write and publish Google Business updates and events to a connected profile.

Reviews are one of the first things people read on your profile. Ask happy customers for a review, for example with a link on your receipt or in a follow-up message, and reply to every review in a friendly, professional tone.

For a negative review, thank the person, apologise for their experience, keep personal details out of it and offer to sort it out offline. Future customers read your reply as much as the review.

• The right primary category, which affects which searches you appear in
• Correct hours, including holiday and special hours
• Real photos of your premises, team and work, added regularly
• Replies to every review, good or bad, politely and promptly
• A business description that says what you do and where, in plain words
• Regular posts about offers, events and news

• Adding unnecessary information, such as extra keywords or locations, to the business name, which Google's guidelines don't permit
• Using a P.O. box or remote mailbox as the address, which Google's guidelines don't accept
• Letting hours go out of date, so customers turn up to a closed door
• Creating a second profile instead of claiming the existing one