How to add your business to Google Maps: is it free, and who shows up first?

To add your business to Google Maps, you need a Google Business Profile: the listing that appears on the map with your address, hours and reviews. You create it (or claim it, if one already exists) and verify it, and it’s free: Google’s help says you can add or claim your business “at no charge”. Google decides who shows up first based on three factors (relevance, distance and prominence), and you can’t pay to move up in the regular results.

There’s one condition: you have to serve customers in person, at your location or by going to them. A hardware store in Phoenix or a coffee shop in Portland can have a profile; a shop that only sells online can’t.

We checked every step against Google’s official help in October 2026 and tested where Google’s own addresses lead today, to separate what still works from what Google has shut down.

Is it free to add your business to Google Maps?

Yes. Google says so in the FAQ on its Business Profile page: “Yes, creating a Business Profile and listing your business on Google is free.” What costs money is something else: Google Ads, which appear separately from the regular results.

We checked on October 19, 2026, from a computer in Ecuador with curl, a tool that shows where each web address leads: google.com/business redirected to that same page, in the version for our country (in Latin American Spanish), and business.google.com/add, the address Google’s help gives for creating a profile, first asks you to sign in with a Google Account.

Which businesses can show up on Google Maps?

The ones that deal with customers face to face, at their location or by going to them. Google’s eligibility guidelines put it this way: “a business must make in-person contact with customers during its stated hours.” That’s why a plumber without a shop can have a profile and an online-only store can’t.

Three cases that often raise questions:

• Virtual offices: an address you rent just to receive mail isn’t eligible for a Business Profile, according to Google’s guidelines.
• P.O. boxes or mailboxes in a remote location don’t count as an address either.
• Businesses that go to their customers do qualify, as a service-area business: they set up to 20 service areas and remove the address if they don’t serve customers there.

How to create your Google Business Profile, step by step

Before you create anything, search for your business name and city on Google Maps: if it already has a profile, you don’t create another one, you claim it (see the FAQ). If it isn’t there, these are the steps in Google’s help:

1. Have a Google Account ready. According to Google’s help on verification, it can use a Gmail address or any other email address.
2. Go to business.google.com/add and click Add your business to Google.
3. Follow the on-screen instructions to enter your details. The basics, according to the guidelines: real business name, category, address or service area, hours, phone number and website, if you have one.
4. Choose one of the verification options Google offers you and follow the steps.
5. Wait for the review, which Google says can take up to 5 business days.

Verification is the confusing part, because not everyone sees the same options: Google picks them based on your business type, public info, region or hours, and you can’t change them. They can be a phone call or text, an email, a live video call, a recorded video of your business, or a postcard with a 5-digit code that usually arrives within 14 days and expires after 30.

What decides who shows up first on Google Maps?

Google ranks local results mainly on three factors: relevance, distance and prominence. Its page of tips to improve your local ranking is blunt about it: “There’s no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google.” What you do control is the information on your profile and your reviews.

What changes for your business when you look after your profile?

Your profile is what many people check before they call or come by, and on its tips page Google says businesses with complete and accurate information are more likely to show up in local search results. Five things make the difference:

• A complete profile: a precise category (a hardware store is a “hardware store,” not a “store”), as few categories as possible, your services and details like parking or Wi-Fi.
• Real photos of the storefront, the inside, your products and your team.
• Up-to-date hours, holidays included: use special hours; Google recommends confirming your hours for official holidays even if they don’t change.
• Replies to reviews, good and bad, calmly and without the customer’s personal details: your reply is public and the customer gets a notification.
• Your website, linked, with what doesn’t fit in the profile, like your catalog or bookings. If you verify it in Google Search Console, Google can verify your profile instantly. No website yet? Start by learning what a domain and hosting are.

And you’ll know whether it’s working: once your profile is verified, the Performance section shows the searches people used to find you, how many people viewed your profile and how many asked for directions, called you or clicked through to your website, counting both free visits and visits from Google Ads.

How do you get Google reviews without breaking the rules?

Ask all your customers, with nothing in return, using the link or QR code Google creates. On a computer, go to your profile and select Read reviews › Get more reviews: that’s where you copy the link or download the QR code. Google suggests putting it on receipts, in thank-you emails or printed in your store.

Two details few guides mention: Google’s help doesn’t document any format for building that link by hand, so use the one you copy from your profile; and Google’s QR code can only be created in a computer browser, not on your phone.

If you’re on your phone, or you want the QR code in your colors and as an SVG for the print shop, paste the link into the “Link or text” mode of our free QR code generator: it reads the code before you download it and warns you if it can’t be scanned. Put it at the counter or on the receipt, without pressuring anyone to write a review on the spot.

Asking customers to share their real experience is allowed, and reviews that break Google’s prohibited content policy are removed from Maps. The policy doesn’t allow:

• Offering payment, discounts or free products or services in exchange for a review, or for changing or removing a negative one.
• Asking only happy customers for reviews, or discouraging negative ones.
• Requiring or pressuring customers to write a review while they’re at your business, or asking them to mention something specific, like an employee’s name.
• Reviews from employees or relatives, which Google treats as a conflict of interest, or reviews posted on a competitor’s profile to hurt it.

What no longer exists, even if old guides still mention it?

Three things many guides still recommend that Google has shut down: the profile’s chat, on July 31, 2024; the websites built with Business Profile, on March 5, 2024; and the Google My Business app, which is no longer on Google Play.

We checked on October 19, 2026: business.site and negocio.site, where those websites lived, now redirect to Google’s Business Profile page; the help page that announced the shutdown now leads to “Edit your Business Profile” (which is why we link to the Internet Archive copy); and the app’s Google Play page returns a 404 error.

What gets exaggerated about Google Maps

• “You can pay to show up first.” Not in the regular results. With Google Ads a business can appear as a square pin on the map or among the results, but separately, and in the list of places on Google Search those ads are “clearly marked as ‘Sponsored’,” according to Google Ads Help.
• “More keywords in your business name help.” Your name should be the one on your sign, and the guidelines warn that adding unnecessary information “could result in the suspension of your Business Profile.” “Main Street Hardware” is fine; “Main Street Hardware – Cheap Tools Phoenix 24/7” isn’t.
• “You need a website to show up on Maps.” False: the guidelines ask for a phone number or a website for your location, not both. A website helps, but it isn’t required.

Where do you start today?

Search for your business on Google Maps: if it isn’t there, create it; if it’s there but unverified, claim it. Then complete the profile, add real photos and ask every customer for a review, with no rewards. Your place in the list comes down to relevance, distance and prominence, not money.

A profile works better when it has somewhere to send people: at Vertize Plus Business we build websites for businesses and run their Google ads.

Frequently asked questions