Create your Google Business Profile without putting your house on the map.
You work from home and the truck, and people nearby search Google Maps for what you do. Here's the fix if your profile was never set up, is stuck at verify, or got suspended.
The short answer
Start at business.google.com/create; adding a business costs nothing. 1
- When Google asks whether customers can visit you, click No and list the cities or postal codes you serve, up to 20. 2
- With no storefront, Google says the address must be hidden. 3
- Google picks how you verify, and its review takes up to 5 business days. 4
- If the profile is suspended, fix what broke the guidelines and appeal once, without making a new profile. 5
Setting it up when customers never come to you
Sign in with the account the business will keep
If you're making a new Google Account for it, Google says to sign up with your business email domain. 2
Enter the name on your invoices
At business.google.com/create, type the business name or pick it from the suggestions. 2
Choose one close category
Google asks for as few categories as possible, each as specific as it can be while still describing your main business. 6
Click No when it asks about a location
Yes is for a storefront staffed during business hours. If nobody comes to you, the answer is No. 2
The detail
A yard or shop with no permanent sign on site isn't eligible as a storefront, Google says; list it as a service-area business. 7
Name the places you work
Cities, postal codes or other areas, typed in by name. 2 Google won't take a circle drawn around your base. 8
Add a phone number you control, and your website
The number must be under the business's direct control, and neither it nor the web address can redirect people to a different landing page. 6
Click Finish, then pick a verification option
Verify later is allowed, but nobody can find the profile on Google until it's verified. 2
Already on Maps without you? A listing nobody has verified can be claimed: find it in Google Maps, then choose Claim this business and Manage now. 1
The detail
If someone else verified it, request ownership instead of starting a second profile. 2 Those steps are on our Google reviews page.
Your home address stays off the profile
Google's own example is a plumber who runs the business from home: clear the address. 9
Verifying: the method Google gives you
You don't choose the method, and you can't change the one you're given. 4
| Method | What you need | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Phone or text 4 | A phone that takes calls or texts | An automated menu (IVR) won't get the code |
| Email 4 | Access to the address on the verification screen | Follow the steps in the email itself |
| Live video call 4 | A device with video, at your business, during your business hours | Be ready to show where you are, your equipment, and proof you run the business |
| Mail 4 | Your mailing address, for a 5-digit code | Most codes come within 14 days and expire after 30. Don't edit the name, address or category, or ask for another code, while you wait |
| Video recording 10 | One unedited take of at least 30 seconds, filmed and uploaded on your phone through the profile | No footage recorded earlier, and no breaks |
- Where you work: street signs and landmarks. Working from home, the signs and landmarks on your own street will do. 10
- That the business is real: your tools, equipment, products or anything with your brand on it. 10
- That it's yours: you doing the work, opening something only the business uses, or a permit, invoice or utility bill in the profile's name. 10
- Keep out bank, tax and ID numbers, private details and other people's faces. 10
If the Get verified button shows up again, Google couldn't fully verify you: try again, or use another method it offers. 4
What Google's guidelines tie to a suspension
Google can suspend a profile that breaks its guidelines, and asks every business to represent itself accurately. 11 Watch these four.
- Extra words in the name: a tagline, your services, your city, hours, a phone number, all capitals. 12
The detail
Google says unnecessary information in the name could get the profile suspended. 12
- A second profile for the same business in the same metropolitan area. Google says that can get your Google account suspended. 3
The detail
One profile covers the whole area a service-area business works in, 7 so there's no profile per town.
- An address you don't work from, like a P.O. box. 9
- A phone number the business doesn't directly control. 6
Example
- Allowed: "Your Landscaping Co."
- Not allowed: "Your Landscaping Co. | Lawn Care & Snow Removal Calgary", which adds services and a city to the name.
Suspended: fix it first, then appeal once
Read the notice. A removed profile is hidden from the public, and you can ask for it back. 5
The detail
If your Google account is restricted, every profile you manage is suspended. Appeal the account on Google's My accounts page first, then the profile. 5
Correct the profile
Check it against the guidelines and fix what's wrong before you appeal. 5
Gather proof
Business registration, a business licence, tax certificates or utility bills, with the name and address matching the profile. 5
Use the appeals tool
Sign in with the account tied to the profile, choose the profile and the decision, attach your files and say why it should come back. 5
Send it once
An appeal can only be submitted once. Google emails the decision. 5
The detail
The tool shows Submitted, Approved, Not Approved, Can't be appealed or Eligible for appeal. 5
Don't start a new profile
Google says not to create a new Business Profile for the same business. 5
Turned down? One more review
Only after a denial, Google may look again, with evidence you didn't send the first time. 5
Where we fit
As part of Care, on every plan, your Google profile is claimed in your name.
The detail
Keeping it current and well reviewed comes with Your brand's “Kept current and well reviewed” step. If setting it up once is all you need, the steps above are the whole job.
Sources
- Add or claim your Business Profile, Google Business Profile Help. Read 2026-10-30. Back
- Sign up for Business Profile, Google Business Profile Help. Read 2026-10-30. Back
- Sign up for Business Profile, Google Business Profile Help. Read 2026-10-30. Back
- Verify your business on Google, Google Business Profile Help. Read 2026-10-30. Back
- Fix suspended or disabled profiles, Google Business Profile Help. Read 2026-10-30. Back
- Guidelines for representing your business on Google, Google Business Profile Help. Read 2026-10-30. Back
- Manage your service areas for service-area & hybrid businesses, Google Business Profile Help. Read 2026-10-30. Back
- Manage your service areas for service-area & hybrid businesses, Google Business Profile Help. Read 2026-10-30. Back
- Guidelines for representing your business on Google, Google Business Profile Help. Read 2026-10-30. Back
- Verify your business with a video recording, Google Business Profile Help. Read 2026-10-30. Back
- Guidelines for representing your business on Google, Google Business Profile Help. Read 2026-10-30. Back
- Guidelines for representing your business on Google, Google Business Profile Help. Read 2026-10-30. Back
Checked on 2026-10-30.
