How to verify your Google Business Profile, step by step

To verify your Google Business Profile, open the profile while signed in to your Google account, choose Get verified, and complete the one method Google offers you: a code by phone, text or e-mail, a short video of your business, a live video call, or a postcard. Most reviews finish within 5 business days. The method is the part people get stuck on, because you do not choose it. Google does. Below are the steps, what each method asks of you, and what to do when the answer is no.

Before you start: a five-minute check

Verification goes faster when the profile already matches the real world. Check these first:

• You are signed in to the right Google account. Use one that belongs to the business, because whoever verifies the profile owns it.
• The name is the one on your sign. No taglines, cities or keywords added to it.
• The address is where customers come, or, if you go to them, the address is hidden and you have set a service area instead.
• The phone number rings at this business, not at a call center.

If any of this is new to you, start with What is a Google Business Profile, and is it free?, which covers who can have a profile and the name rules.

The steps

1. Sign in to your Google account on your phone or computer.
2. Open your profile: search Google for "my business", or for your business name and city.
3. Select Get verified.
4. Follow the method Google shows you. Google's help center says the methods are "automatically determined by Google and can't be changed".
5. Wait for the review. Google says verification reviews take up to 5 business days, and you get an e-mail once it is done.

If your business is not on Google yet, you add it first and the same Get verified step follows.

Which method you get, and what it asks

People often search for a way to verify without video. If video is the only method on your screen, there is no switch that turns it into a phone call or a postcard. Your best move is to record a clip that passes the first time.

How to record a video that passes

Video is the method many owners get, and the one they fail most often. Google's rules for the recording:

• at least 30 seconds long
• one unedited, complete recording with no breaks
• recorded and uploaded from a phone, through your Business Profile, while you record it, not a clip saved earlier

What to show depends on your kind of business.

If customers come to you: start outside. Show street signs, the building number or the businesses next door, so the location on Google Maps is clear. Then show your sign with the business name on a permanent fixture, walk in, and show that you run the place: open the register, the kitchen, the stockroom or the point-of-sale system.

If you go to your customers: show a street sign or landmark, then the tools or equipment of your trade, branded clothing or business cards, and something only the owner has, such as access to your branded vehicle or an invoice or permit with the business name.

Keep out of the frame anything Google asks you not to show: bank, tax or ID numbers, other people's private details and other people's faces.

A plan that works for most storefronts:

1. Seconds 0 to 10: the street sign and the front of the building.
2. Seconds 10 to 20: your sign, close enough to read, then the door as you unlock it.
3. Seconds 20 to 40: inside, the counter, the work area, and you opening the register or the back room.

Film in daylight, walk slowly, and say nothing you would not want a stranger to hear. One continuous take means one take: if you stumble, stop and start again from the street.

The postcard: two rules

Google says most postcard codes arrive within 14 days and that the codes expire after 30 days. While you wait, do not edit your business name, address or category: Google says the code it mailed will stop working if you do. Do not ask for a new code either, because a new request cancels the card already in the mail. And never give the code to anyone who calls or messages you asking for it: Google says it will never ask for your verification code.

If verification fails or stalls

The Get verified button is back. That means the attempt did not pass. Read the message, fix what it names, and try again.

Your video was not accepted. Open the profile and look for Review issues, then follow the instructions there. Google lets you send a new recording, so record one that covers everything on the list above, from the street in.

Google asks for more information. Send what it asks for and verify again. Use documents with the exact business name and address on the profile.

Someone else already verified your business. Maybe a former manager, a previous owner or an old agency. You can request access from the profile: Google e-mails the current owner, and if they do not answer, you may get the option to claim and verify it yourself.

Nothing has happened after a week. Reviews take up to 5 business days. Past that, check that the e-mail did not land in spam, then open the profile again to see its status.

Once you are verified

Now you can manage the profile on Search and Maps, reply to reviews as the business, and see your performance numbers: how many people viewed the profile, called you or asked for directions. Google shows those numbers only for verified profiles. If you are opening a new place, verification belongs at the start of the countdown, a few weeks before the doors open, next to the posts in our grand opening plan.

Where we come in

Verification has to be done by you: it is about proving that you run the place, on your phone, at your door. After that we can take the routine off your hands. You add us as a manager of the verified profile, you stay the owner, and we answer every new Google and Facebook review and keep your hours, services and photos current. That is our Reviews & Google Profile service, $39 a month on top of a posting plan. See the add-on services.