Warningmanual.business-profile

The Google Business Profile is claimed and right

Why it matters

For anything with a place or a catchment — a shop, a bakery, a plumber, a practice — the Business Profile is often seen more than the website is. It is what fills the map, the panel on the right of the results, and the "open now" that decides whether someone drives over.

It can also exist without you. Google creates profiles from other sources, and an unclaimed one can carry old opening hours, the previous tenant's photographs, or a phone number that rings nowhere. Claiming it is how you get control of what is already being shown.

Not for you if the business has no physical presence or service area; tick it off as not applicable.

Source: Google Business Profile help.

How to fix it

Search for the business name and town. If a profile exists, choose Own this business? and verify it; if not, create one at business.google.com. Then check, in this order, the things that cost you customers when wrong:

1. opening hours, including bank holidays; 2. the phone number and the link to the site; 3. the address, or the service area if you travel to people; 4. photographs that are actually yours and from this decade.

Tick this when the profile is verified and those four are right.