How to set up your Google Business Profile: a step-by-step guide for Kolkata businesses

Your Google Business Profile is the listing that appears on Google Maps, and on the right side of Google Search, when someone types your business name or “dentist near me”. For many Kolkata shops, clinics and cafés it gets more views than their website or Instagram ever will. It is also free.

We set up or clean up a profile as part of every website we build, and the same problems keep coming up: duplicate listings, the wrong category, no photos, and hours that say “Open” during Durga Puja when the shutter is down. This guide walks through Google Business Profile setup step by step, with links to Google’s own help pages so you can check the details.

Before you start: what you need

• A Google Account that the owner controls (Gmail or any email you already use), not a staff member’s or an agency’s.
• Your exact business name as it appears on your signboard.
• Your full address with pin code, or the areas you serve if customers don’t come to you.
• A phone number you answer. Automated phone menus can’t receive verification codes.
• Your website link, if you have one, and a few good photos of the shopfront, the inside and your work.

One eligibility rule matters: Google says only businesses that make face-to-face contact with customers are eligible (Get started with Google Business Profile (opens in a new tab)). A shop, clinic, salon, coaching centre or an electrician who visits homes qualifies. A purely online business does not.

Step 1: Claim an existing listing or create a new one

First check whether Google already has a listing for you. Many businesses already appear on Maps because a customer added them or Google created one from public information. Search your business name plus your area on Google Maps, for example your shop name followed by “Gariahat”.

If a listing already exists

Open it and choose Claim this business, then Manage now. In the Google Maps app the option sits under the About tab. If Google says someone else has already verified it (often a former employee, a previous owner or an old agency), you can request ownership (opens in a new tab) from the current owner.

If there is no listing

Go to business.google.com/add (opens in a new tab), choose Add your business to Google and follow the on-screen steps. Google’s Add or claim your Business Profile (opens in a new tab) page has the current wording if the screens look different from what you expect.

Step 2: Name, category and location

Use your real-world name

Enter the name on your signboard, website and bills, and nothing more. “Sharma Dental Clinic” is right. “Sharma Dental Clinic Best Dentist Behala Root Canal Implants” is keyword stuffing. Google’s guidelines for representing your business (opens in a new tab) say extra words like these aren’t permitted and can get a profile suspended.

Choose the most specific primary category

Your primary category is the most important choice you make here. Google says it affects which searches you appear in and your local ranking, and recommends picking the most specific category that fits: “Nail salon” rather than a general salon category if nails are what you mainly do, “Dental clinic” rather than a general medical one (Manage your business category (opens in a new tab)). You can’t invent your own category, so pick the closest one from the list.

Then add a few additional categories only for what your business genuinely is, not for every service you offer. Services get their own section later.

Storefront, service area, or both

• Storefront: customers come to you, like a clinic in Garia or a café in Lake Town. Show your address.
• Service-area business: you go to customers and don’t receive them at your address, like a home tutor or an AC repair service run from home. Google says to hide your address and list the areas you serve, generally within about two hours’ drive of your base.
• Hybrid: you have a shop and also deliver or visit, like a sweet shop that delivers. Show your address and add service areas.

Don’t use a PO box, a virtual office or an address where you don’t actually operate: Google doesn’t accept them. And check the map pin. In older Kolkata neighbourhoods it sometimes lands on the wrong lane, so drag it to your actual entrance.

Step 3: Verify your business

Verification proves to Google that you really run the business. Until it’s done, your edits may not show publicly.

Google decides which verification methods to offer you, based on your business type, public information, region and hours, and you can’t switch to a different one (Verify your business on Google (opens in a new tab)). In 2026 the options you may see are:

• Video recording. Common for small businesses, and Google recommends it when it is offered.
• Phone call or SMS to the business number.
• Email to an address shown on the verification screen.
• Live video call with a Google support person, available only during your business hours.
• Postcard by post. Codes usually arrive within 14 days and expire after 30. Don’t edit your name, address or category while you wait.
• Instant verification in some cases, for example when your website is already verified in Google Search Console.

How to pass video verification

Google’s video verification page (opens in a new tab) sets out the rules. You record one continuous, unedited clip of at least 30 seconds, live, from your phone through your profile. A video saved earlier won’t be accepted. In that clip, show:

1. Where you are: the street, a nearby landmark, the building number or neighbouring shops, so Google can match you to the map.
2. That the business exists: your signboard showing the same name as the profile, the shopfront, the counter or your equipment.
3. That you manage it: something only staff can do, such as raising the shutter, opening the cash drawer, walking into the kitchen or using your billing system. Service businesses can show their tools, a branded vehicle, or a business document in the profile’s name.

Don’t film other people’s faces or any ID, bank or tax numbers. Review can take up to 5 business days. If you see “Review issues”, the video wasn’t accepted. When you try again, move slowly and keep the signboard clearly in frame.

Step 4: Hours, including Durga Puja and other holidays

Add your normal opening hours for each day. Then use Special hours for days that are different, so nobody turns up to a closed shutter. In Kolkata that usually means Durga Puja, Kali Puja, Poila Baisakh, Eid, Christmas and any other days you close or change timings.

Google’s special hours guide (opens in a new tab) explains the steps: open Edit profile, then Hours, then Special hours, pick the date, and either keep it marked closed or enter the changed timings. A few things to know:

• Special hours cover changes of up to 6 days in a row. If you close for a week or more, mark the business as temporarily closed instead.
• Hours that run past midnight, like a late Puja-night food counter, must be split across two dates.
• Google often suggests upcoming holidays. Confirm them even if your hours stay the same.
• Set them a week or two ahead. People plan pandal-hopping and pre-Puja shopping early.

Step 5: Photos, services and posts

Real photos make a profile look trustworthy, and customers do look before deciding. Add the outside with the signboard visible from the road, the inside, your work (dishes, haircuts, finished interiors, jewellery), your team with their permission, and your logo. Use your own photos, not stock images, and add new ones every month or two.

Write a plain description of what you do, where, and for whom, mentioning your neighbourhood naturally, for example “a family dental clinic a short walk from Garia station”. Then fill in Services or Products with your main offerings and, where you’re comfortable, prices. A salon listing “Hair spa from ₹800” answers a question before it is asked.

Posts

Posts are short updates on your profile: an offer, a Puja menu, a new batch starting, a closure notice. Google’s posts guide (opens in a new tab) lists three types (updates, offers and events), and posts older than six months are archived unless you set a date range. Once or twice a month is plenty. Keep phone numbers out of the post text, because Google may reject a post if it can’t confirm the number is yours.

Step 6: Get reviews and reply to them, the honest way

Google says more reviews and positive ratings can help your local ranking, and reviews are what customers read before calling. How you collect them matters, because Google removes reviews that break its rules.

How to ask

• Create a review link or QR code from your profile (the option is usually labelled Ask for reviews) and share it on WhatsApp after a visit, print it on the bill, or put a small card at the counter.
• Ask every customer, not just the ones you think are happy.
• Keep it simple: one short message, one link. Customers need to be signed in to a Google Account to post.

What not to do

Google’s Maps content policy (opens in a new tab) is clear on these:

• No incentives. No discounts, free items or payment in exchange for a review, or for changing or removing a bad one.
• No review gating. You can’t selectively ask only happy customers for reviews or discourage negative ones, for example with a “rate us first” screen that sends 5-star ratings to Google and everything else to a private form.
• No paid or fake reviews, and no reviews from your own staff. A sudden burst of 5-star reviews is exactly the pattern Google looks for.
• No pressure at the counter. Google says businesses shouldn’t require or pressure customers to leave reviews while on the premises, or ask staff to collect a set number of reviews.

How to reply

Reply to every review, briefly and personally. Thank people by name and mention what they liked. For a bad review, stay calm, apologise where it’s fair, say what you’ll do, and offer to continue on the phone. Don’t argue, don’t share the customer’s details and don’t push offers in replies. Google’s tips to get more reviews (opens in a new tab) cover this well. Future customers read your replies too.

Common Google Business Profile mistakes

• Keyword-stuffed names like “Best Salon in Salt Lake Bridal Makeup Hair Spa”. This risks suspension.
• PO boxes, virtual offices or a relative’s home address used as a storefront. Not allowed.
• Duplicate listings for one location, often one made by an old agency and one by the owner. Claim the old one and report the duplicate.
• A profile owned by a staff member’s or agency’s Google Account. When they leave, you lose access. Stay the owner and add others as managers.
• A call-centre number instead of a local number that reaches your actual location.
• Changing the name, address or category again and again, which can trigger re-verification.
• No website link, or a link to a page that doesn’t answer basic questions about prices and services.

Why a website link completes your profile

Your profile answers “where” and “when”. A website answers “why you” and “how much”. When someone taps Website on your listing, they want your full services or menu, prices, doctor or teacher details, and a quick way to book. If that tap leads nowhere useful, many will go back and call the next listing.

A website also supports the profile itself. Google’s local ranking help page (opens in a new tab) says prominence draws on information from across the web, such as links and articles, and a site that states your name, address and services in plain text gives Google more to match against searches. If you’re still deciding, we’ve written about whether you need a website alongside your Google listing.

This is why every WebNestle plan includes setting up or cleaning up your Google Business Profile along with the site (see what each plan includes). To see how a profile and site fit together, look at our sample clinic website, then read how to show up in “near me” searches for the next step.