How to Verify Your Google Business Profile
This is the gate everything else waits behind. It is also where most people get stuck. So this guide spends its time on why attempts fail, what changes between them and why the method you are offered was never your choice.
Nothing Works Until This Is Done
An unverified listing is a limited listing. It may appear in some form and you cannot properly manage it, reply to reviews or trust that what you enter will show. Everything else in this section assumes a verified profile, which makes this the stage worth getting right first time.
What verification is for. Two claims at once.
That the business is real and operating where it says. Also that the person managing the listing is connected to it. Both have to hold rather than one.
Who has to do it. Everybody.
A new listing you created and an existing listing you have just taken over both need it. Claiming a profile settles who controls it. Verification is the separate stage that follows.
Why it has got harder. Fake listings.
The checks tightened because listings at addresses that do not exist became a genuine problem in several trades. A legitimate business now carries some of the cost of that, which is irritating and understandable.
What that means for you. Preparation beats persistence.
Most of the difficulty on this page comes from businesses starting the process without having thought about what they are going to show. Ten minutes of preparation removes most of it.
The Methods Vary And They Change
We are not going to publish a definitive list, because it would be wrong within a year. What is stable is the shape of it. Google's documentation states that the options available depend on your business type, the information already published about you, your region and your hours. It adds that sometimes more than one is required.
The kinds of method that exist. Four broad families.
A recorded video or a live video call, a code by phone or text, a code by email and a posted code. Some businesses whose website is already verified elsewhere with Google get through faster.
Which one you get. Not your decision.
The options are presented to you rather than chosen by you. Where several appear you can try another. Where only one appears, that is the route. Arguing with it wastes the afternoon.
What Google recommends. Video, where you are eligible.
Its own documentation says to use video verification if it is offered to you. That is worth knowing, because most people would instinctively pick anything else.
The detail that catches trades out. Somebody has to answer.
If a code comes by phone or text, a person needs to receive it on the business number. An automated answering system will not, which is a common and avoidable failure for businesses that route calls through one.
Video Verification Catches People Out
Video has become the method most businesses meet. It asks for something quite specific. Not a tour and not a promotional film. Evidence, in one recording, that the place is real and that you are the business operating there.
What it is looking for. Three things.
The location in a context that can be placed, something carrying your business name and evidence that you operate there rather than simply standing outside it.
What the last one means. Access.
Being able to open what a customer could not open, reach equipment, show working areas or handle materials and paperwork belonging to the business. On a live call somebody may ask for exactly that.
Why businesses fail it while being entirely genuine. No preparation.
They start the recording without deciding what to show, discover the signage is round the back, realise the van is on a job and stop halfway through. None of that is deception. It is being unready.
Who finds it hardest. Anybody without visible premises.
A business with no shopfront and no signage has less to point a camera at, which is a real disadvantage rather than a fault. Block five is about that.
What to do before you start. Walk it through once.
Decide the route, check the details on the listing match what will be visible and make sure whatever carries your name is actually there that day.
When It Fails
A failed attempt is not final and it is not a judgement on your business. Where a video is not accepted, the notification tells you there were issues with the review rather than explaining what they were, which is the frustrating part.
The commonest cause. A mismatch.
What the listing says does not match what was shown. A different address format, a business name that appears differently on the sign or a unit number that does not correspond. Fix the listing or the evidence rather than resubmitting the same pair.
The second commonest. No name visible anywhere.
Nothing in the recording carried the business name, so there is nothing tying the place to the listing. A vehicle, a sign, headed paperwork or branded workwear all resolve it.
The third. Standing outside rather than operating inside.
A recording that shows an address without showing you working there has demonstrated half of what was asked.
What not to do. Repeat identical attempts.
Submitting the same thing again produces the same outcome and can leave the listing sitting in a queue for longer. Change something first, then resubmit.
When to switch methods or ask. After a considered second attempt.
If another option is showing, try it. If nothing is working and the business is genuinely straightforward, there is a support route. It wants the same evidence you have already gathered.
Service Area Businesses Have It Harder
A plumber working from home has no shopfront, no signage and no premises a customer would recognise. The checks were designed with places customers visit in mind, so this is genuinely harder for the trades than for a shop.
Why it is harder. Less to point at.
A business with a unit and a sign satisfies most of the requirement by standing in the doorway. A business working out of a van has to assemble the same evidence from different pieces.
What you do have. More than you think.
A signed vehicle, tools and equipment, stock, materials, headed paperwork, workwear and a working area at home. All of it demonstrates a real operating business.
What to prepare. Everything in one place.
Have the vehicle where you can film it, have paperwork carrying the business name to hand and know what you are going to show before you start rather than deciding on camera.
The connected setting. Hide the address.
A business that does not serve customers at its address should enter it and hide it, which is the correct setting rather than a workaround. The optimisation guide covers service areas and what works instead of premises.
Do Not Fake Anything
Somewhere in a difficult verification, the idea of borrowing premises or putting up a sign for an afternoon starts to look reasonable. It is not. We will not advise on it whatever the circumstances.
What people try. You can guess.
Signage produced for the recording, a friend's unit, a rented desk presented as premises or a relative's address in a town that would be useful to appear in. All of it is well documented and none of it is new to anybody reviewing it.
Why it is a poor bet. It is detectable.
These arrangements come apart later rather than immediately, frequently when a competitor reports the listing or when something triggers a fresh check. The result is worse than never having verified.
What it actually risks. The listing itself.
Fabricating evidence is precisely what suspension exists for. A suspension arrives without warning. The suspension guide sets out what that costs and how commonly it follows a report.
Why we state it this plainly. Clients ask.
It comes up, usually from businesses under pressure rather than from anybody trying to cheat. The answer is the same either way, which is that we do the version that survives a check.
Re-Verification Happens
Verifying once does not settle it permanently. Certain later changes can trigger a fresh check. While that is under way the listing can be limited, which is a nasty surprise for a business that thought it was making a small edit.
What tends to trigger it. The big three.
Changing the business name, the address or the category. These are the same three the setup page tells you to get right first. This is why.
What it means practically. Time the edit.
If you genuinely need to change one of them, do it deliberately rather than in the middle of your busiest fortnight. Do not batch it with several other significant edits.
What makes it easier. Consistency elsewhere.
A business whose details match across its website and other records has an easier time of any check. Inconsistent information is the thing that turns a formality into a fortnight.
Where to go next. The listing itself.
Once verified, the work is completing the profile properly. The setup decisions are worth checking against what you actually entered. The full series sits on the Google Business Profile guide.
We will not
fake a sign
to get you
through.
What we will do is work out why the attempts are failing, which is usually a mismatch between the listing and the evidence rather than anything about your business. Then we prepare the submission properly so the second attempt is the last one.
What we check before an attempt:
If your business is real and operating, verification is a preparation problem rather than a permanent one.
Every guide.
One profile.
Getting set up, claiming and verifying, optimising the listing properly, suspensions and reinstatement, reviews, reading the performance data and appearing in the local pack and in Maps.
