How to add your shop to Google Maps, step by step.

Your listing on Google Maps is your Google Business Profile. Google renamed it from "Google My Business" a few years ago, so older videos on YouTube still use the old name. It is the same thing: the card with your name, photos, hours, rating and a call button that shows up when someone searches for you.

Before you start, keep three things handy: your phone, the exact name painted on your signboard, and an hour when the shop is open and you can step outside. That last one matters more than people expect. We will come to why.

Step 1: Check whether your shop is already on Maps

Many shops are on Google Maps without the owner ever adding them. A customer may have added it, or Google may have created it from public information. If you make a second listing on top of that one, you end up with two half-finished pages competing with each other, and Google's rules say one profile per location.

So open the Google Maps app and search for your shop's name and area, the way a customer would. Then:

• If your shop shows up and nobody manages it, tap it, open the About tab, and tap Claim this business, then Manage now. Go straight to Step 3.
• If it shows up and someone else already manages it, it was probably set up by a former employee, a relative, or a salesperson who once sold you a listing package. Google lets you request ownership from the current owner. Try asking them first; it is quicker.
• If it does not show up at all, go to Step 2.

Step 2: Create the listing

Open business.google.com/add in your phone's browser or on a computer, sign in with the Google account you want to own the shop (use one you will still have in five years, not a staff member's), and tap Add your business to Google. Google then asks for a few details. Each one has a right answer.

Your business name

Write exactly what is on your signboard. "Sharma General Store", not "Sharma General Store, Best Grocery Shop in Malviya Nagar, Home Delivery". Google's guidelines say your name should be the real-world name customers know, with no taglines, service descriptions, phone numbers or locations added. Stuffing the name feels clever, and it is one of the common reasons listings get suspended.

Your category

Pick the one that describes most of your business: "Pharmacy", "Hardware store", "Beauty salon", "Auto repair shop". This is the biggest single choice you make here, because it decides which searches you can appear for. You can add more categories later, after verification.

Your address, or the areas you serve

If customers come to you, give the real shop address and check the pin on the map sits on your shop, not the building across the road. If you go to customers (a home tutor, an electrician, a caterer working from home), Google wants you to hide your address and list the areas you serve instead. Some businesses do both, like a workshop that also does doorstep pickup: show the address and add a service area.

Two addresses that will not work: a PO box, and a virtual office you rent just for the address. Google's guidelines rule both out.

Phone and website

Give the number customers actually reach you on, ideally the one your WhatsApp Business runs on, so it is the same everywhere. If you have a website, add it. If you don't, leave it blank for now. A listing works without one, though a profile with a website looks more complete to a customer comparing two shops.

Step 3: Verify that the shop is yours

This is where most owners get stuck, so take it slowly. Google needs proof that you actually run this shop before it shows your details publicly. It decides which method to offer you, based on your type of business and area, and you cannot pick a different one. The options it may show are:

• Phone call or SMS with a code to the business number. One catch: if your number goes to an automated menu ("press 1 for..."), the code will not get through.
• Email to an address shown on screen.
• Video recording, made on your phone at the shop. Google recommends it where it is offered, and many shops get it.
• Live video call with a Google support person, during your business hours.
• Postcard with a 5-digit code. Google says most arrive within 14 days and the code expires after 30. While you wait, do not change your name, address or category, and do not request a second card. Either one breaks the first code.

Getting the video right

The video is not difficult, but Google is strict about how it is made, and a rejected video costs you days. Its own rules are:

• Record it live, in the Business Profile on your phone. You cannot upload something recorded earlier.
• One continuous take of at least 30 seconds, with no cuts or edits.
• Start outside, showing where you are: the street sign, the building number, the shop next door, a landmark people know.
• Show your signboard with the business name clearly visible. It must be a permanent sign, and the name must match the name you typed in Step 2.
• Then show that you run the place: walk behind the counter, open the cash drawer or storeroom, unlock the shutter. Anything a customer could not do.

Leave out bank details, PAN or Aadhaar numbers, and other people's faces. Do it when the street is quiet. A walk from the corner to your counter, filmed steadily, is usually all it takes.

No permanent signboard? Google's advice is to list yourself as a service-area business instead, and for those it accepts other proof: your tools and equipment, your workspace, a business card, or a bill or invoice in the business name.

To record: open your Business Profile, tap Get verified, choose Business video, read the requirements, allow camera and location, and record. You can watch it back and tap Try again before you tap Upload video.

Google says the review can take up to 5 business days. If it fails, the profile shows a Review issues button explaining what was missing. Record a fresh video with everything from the first one plus the missing part.

Step 4: Fill in the profile before you tell anyone about it

A verified listing with no photos and no hours is like a shop with the shutter half down. Once you are in, spend twenty minutes on these:

1. Hours. Your real hours, plus special hours for Diwali, Holi, Eid or any day you close. Wrong hours are a common complaint in reviews, and they cost you the walk-in who came and found the shutter down.
2. Photos. The front of the shop as a customer sees it from the road, the inside, your counter, your best-selling things. Real photos from your phone are better than stock pictures.
3. Services or products. List them one by one, in the words customers use. "Wheel alignment", not "automotive solutions".
4. A short description. What you sell, since when, which area you serve, whether you deliver or take WhatsApp orders.

Then share the link. Put it on your WhatsApp Business profile and in your shop's WhatsApp groups, and ask your customers to leave a review. Asking every customer is fine. Paying for reviews, offering a discount in return, or asking only the happy ones is not; Google's review policy forbids all three.

How long until people see it?

Once verified, Google says edits can take up to 3 days to appear, and a new business can take up to a month before it settles into search results. So if you search "kirana near me" the next morning and you are not there, that is normal. If it is still missing after a few weeks, our guide on why a business doesn't show on Google Maps walks through the usual reasons, in order.

Three mistakes worth avoiding

Paying someone to "rank you on top". Google states plainly that there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. What decides it is how well your profile matches the search, how close you are to the person searching, and how well known you are, which includes your reviews. Anyone selling a guaranteed top spot is selling something Google does not sell.

Letting someone else own it. If an agency or a nephew sets it up, make sure the profile is under your Google account and they are added as a manager, not the other way round. The same goes for your website's domain. Our guide on what a small business website really costs explains why that matters more than the price.

Setting it up and forgetting it. Google itself says visibility depends on your information being correct, complete and up to date. A profile where the hours were last touched three years ago, with unanswered reviews, tells customers the business may not be what it says.

If you would rather not do this yourself

The steps above are not hard, but they are fiddly, and the upkeep never ends: hours change, photos get old, reviews need replies. That is the job Karyo was built for. You send your Google Maps link on WhatsApp. Karyo builds a website from your listing, keeps your Google page and your website saying the same thing, and sends you every new review with a reply ready for your yes. Nothing goes live until you say so.

One honest note: verification itself has to come from you, because it is your shop and your phone at the counter. Karyo can tell you exactly what to film. It cannot film it for you, and nobody should. See how it works, or the one plan on the pricing page.

Questions owners ask