Google Business Profile in Glasgow: a practical guide

This guide covers setting up and running a Google Business Profile for a small Glasgow business: claiming and verifying it, whether to show your address, choosing a category, hours, reviews and what gets profiles suspended. It is checked against Google's help pages and UK government guidance, listed at the end. Many people still call it "Google My Business"; the advice is the same.

What decides whether you show up on Google Maps

Google says local results are based mainly on three things: relevance (how well your profile matches the search), distance (how far you are from the person searching) and prominence (how well known the business is, which takes in reviews and how many websites link to you). It also says plainly that "there's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking". You cannot move closer to a customer in Shawlands or Partick, so work on relevance and prominence: a complete, accurate profile, genuine reviews and a website that backs it up.

Is a Google Business Profile right for your Glasgow business?

The Scottish Government's Find Business Support guide, produced with VisitScotland, describes the profile as being for customer-facing businesses that either have staff and signage at a location or serve customers within a defined area. If customers never meet you, in person or at their door, a profile is not the right tool.

Claim and verify the profile

Search for your business on Google Maps first; a listing may already exist. Claim it rather than making a second, because Google allows one profile per location. You cannot edit the profile, reply to reviews or publish posts until it is verified.

Google chooses the verification method for you, based on your business type, public information, region and opening hours, and you cannot change it. The current options are:

• Phone or text: a code sent to your business number (automated phone menus cannot receive it).
• Email: verification sent to an email address.
• Video recording: Google recommends this where it is offered.
• Live video call: available only during your opening hours.
• Postcard: a code posted to your address, which usually arrives within 14 days and expires after 30.

Two traps: if you are waiting on a postcard, do not change your business name, address or category, because the code stops working. And do not request a new postcard, as that cancels the one already in the post. Once you have finished, Google's review can take up to five working days, sometimes longer.

Storefront or service area: be honest about which you are

If customers come to you, as they do at a café, a salon or a garage, list your address. Google expects permanent signage with your business name at that address, and the premises must be staffed and open to customers during the hours you list.

If you go to customers, as a mobile mechanic, plumber or dog groomer does, you are a service-area business. Google's guidelines say you should hide your address and set a service area instead. The area should not stretch beyond roughly two hours' drive from your base, so a Glasgow trade covering the city, East Renfrewshire and Lanarkshire is fine, but listing Aberdeen and Inverness is not. A hybrid, such as a garage that also does call-outs, can show its address and set a service area.

Virtual offices are not eligible. A city-centre accommodation address you use for post or as your registered office, but do not work from, cannot hold a profile. Co-working spaces are allowed only if you have clear signage there, receive customers and are staffed by your own people during opening hours. PO boxes and remote mailboxes are not accepted.

Name, address and phone: match the real world, and your website

Your business name on Google should be the name on your shopfront, website and stationery, and nothing more. Google does not allow taglines, service descriptions, location words or phone numbers in the name, and warns that unnecessary information "could result in the suspension" of the profile. "Smith's Plumbing" is fine; "Smith's Plumbing – Emergency Plumber Glasgow 24/7" is not.

Use a phone number that reaches that location and is under your direct control; Google prefers local numbers to central helplines and does not accept premium-rate numbers. Link to a website that represents your business, not a page that redirects elsewhere. Then make the name, address and phone on your website match the profile exactly.

Choose the primary category with care

Categories tell Google what you are, and they matter for relevance. Google asks you to use as few as possible, as specific as possible, and to pick ones that complete the sentence "This business is a…", not "This business has a…". A café that sells cakes is a café, not a bakery, unless it bakes for sale. Do not add categories as keywords. Put most thought into the primary category: check what similar businesses nearby use, and pick the most specific one that is true.

Hours, including Scottish bank holidays

List your normal customer-facing hours, then use special hours for one-off days. Google advises confirming holiday hours even when nothing changes. Scotland's holidays differ from England's: St Andrew's Day falls on Monday 30 November 2026, and the 2nd January holiday moves to Monday 4 January 2027. Scotland has no Easter Monday bank holiday in 2027, and its summer bank holiday falls on Monday 2 August 2027, not at the end of the month.

Special hours cover closures of up to six days in a row. For seven days or more, or an open-ended closure, mark the business as temporarily closed. For things like delivery or takeaway times, use the separate "more hours" setting rather than special hours.

Photos, posts, products and services

Photos. Add a logo, a cover photo and, importantly, an exterior shot so people recognise your door when they arrive. Google wants photos in focus, well lit and showing reality, without heavy filters. Videos can be up to 30 seconds.

Posts. Updates, offers and events appear on your profile in Search and Maps. Posts older than six months are archived unless you set a date range, so a short post every few weeks keeps the profile looking current.

Services and products. List what you actually do, using Google's suggestions and custom services where needed. Custom names containing phone numbers or other policy breaches are rejected automatically.

Reviews: ask honestly, reply to everyone, never buy them

Google lets you share a review link or QR code, and replying to reviews shows you value feedback.

Google's rules

Google's contribution policy treats reviews "paid for, directly or in kind" as fake engagement. You may not offer discounts, free items or payment in exchange for a review or for removing a negative one. You also may not "selectively solicit positive reviews", which rules out asking only the customers you think were happy (often called review gating), and you should not pressure people to review you on the premises. Reviews from staff, family or anyone with a conflict of interest are not allowed either.

UK law since April 2025

The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 includes an explicit ban on posting and commissioning fake reviews, in force since 6 April 2025. The Competition and Markets Authority's guidance lists fake reviews, concealed incentivised reviews and false or misleading review information as banned practices. Its guidance for businesses says not to pose as a customer, not to commission anyone else to write fake reviews (you may be liable for what they do) and not to offer money or gifts for positive reviews. It warns that breaches can mean fines of up to 10% of global turnover, and that writing or commissioning fake reviews could lead to criminal action.

Why profiles get suspended

Google can suspend profiles that break its guidelines, hiding them from the public. Going by the guidelines above, breaches to avoid include:

• keywords or locations added to the business name;
• a virtual office, mailbox or unstaffed address used as a storefront;
• a service-area business showing a home address it should hide;
• duplicate profiles for the same location;
• a phone number or website that is not genuinely yours.

If it happens, fix the problem first, then use Google's appeals tool with supporting documents, such as a utility bill or business registration, whose name and address exactly match the profile. You can appeal only once, so send it complete. Do not create a new profile for the same business.

How your website and your profile support each other

The profile is where people decide whether to call or visit; the website is where they check the detail. Google counts links to your business from other sites as part of prominence, and complete, accurate information makes you more likely to appear in local results. A website can also describe your business to Google through LocalBusiness structured data (name, address, hours), although Google's Search Central documentation is clear that this does not promise any particular feature will appear.

In practice, link the profile to a page that repeats the same name, address, phone and hours, names the areas of Glasgow you serve, and shows the same services. Café owners can follow our Glasgow café website checklist. You can see how local businesses present themselves in our Glasgow Top 10 lists, look at sites we have built, or check the kinds of business we work with. Keep the two in step whenever anything changes.