How to Set Up a Google Business Profile (2026)

To set up a Google Business Profile, go to business.google.com/add, sign in, add your exact business name, category, and address or service area, verify the profile, then fill in hours, photos, and services. The full steps are below.

Google Business Profile is the most under-optimized marketing surface on the internet for local businesses. More than 200 million businesses have GBP listings globally, 76% of those are verified, and the Map Pack appears in about 93% of all local searches.¹ It is also the surface Google's AI systems lean on hardest: in 2026, GBP is the primary data layer feeding Gemini, Search, and Maps.² If you run a local business, GBP is now the single highest-leverage marketing investment available to you. This guide is the practical view: what GBP is, how the Map Pack ranks, how reviews and photos move the needle, what's changed in the last 18 months, and where most businesses are leaving traffic on the table.

Important framing: Unlike Instagram or TikTok, GBP is not a social network. There are no demographics to optimize for, no algorithmic feed to game, no followers to grow. It is a structured data layer that Google uses to surface your business when someone is ready to walk through your door or call you right now. The mental model that wins is "local SEO," not "social media."

Starting from scratch? Jump straight to how to set up a Google Business Profile. Already set up? Skip to how the Map Pack ranks or managing it with posterly. The table of contents lets you jump anywhere.

How to set up a Google Business Profile

Setting up a Google Business Profile is free: Google says you can add or claim your business at no charge. The process has four parts: confirm you are eligible, create (or claim) the profile, verify it, then complete it. Here is the whole flow in order, using Google's own help pages as the source for every step.³

The short version:

1. Check that your business is eligible and that no profile already exists
2. Go to business.google.com/add and sign in with a Google Account
3. Enter your exact business name and pick a primary category
4. Add a street address, or a service area if you travel to customers
5. Add your phone number and website
6. Choose a verification method and complete it
7. Fill in hours, description, photos, services, and attributes
8. Add owners and managers

Before you start

Check eligibility. Google offers Business Profiles to storefront businesses and to service-area businesses that meet customers in person, such as retail stores and providers who visit customers. It states plainly that Business Profiles aren't for online-only businesses, and properties for rent or sale are excluded.⁴

Get a Google Account. You can use an existing account with any email address, or create one. Linking a company email address to the account makes the profile easier to manage later.

Check whether your business is already on Google. Search for it in Google Maps first. If an unverified profile exists, claim it instead of creating a new one. If a verified profile exists and you are authorized to manage the business, request ownership from the current owner. Google allows one profile per location, so do not create a duplicate.⁵

Gather the details Google will check.

• The business name exactly as it appears on your real-world signage
• A real street address (not a P.O. box, remote mailbox, or virtual office)
• A phone number you control that connects to your specific location
• A website that represents that specific location
• Your regular customer-facing hours

Step 1: Start at business.google.com/add

Go to business.google.com/add, sign in to your Google Account, and click Add your business to Google. Then follow the on-screen instructions to add your business details and choose a verification option.³

You can also start from Business Profile Manager at business.google.com: an account with no profiles yet shows an empty Businesses list with an Add business button.

Step 2: Enter your business name

Use the name that matches the real world: what appears on your storefront, website, and stationery, and what customers call you. Google's guidelines say to leave these out of the name:⁵

• Marketing taglines
• Store codes
• The (R) or (TM) symbols
• Fully capitalized words (Google's example: "Subway" is fine, "SUBWAY" is not)
• Hours, phone numbers, or website URLs
• Product or service descriptions
• Location details such as "near SOHO" or "inside Best Buy"

Terms like LLC, Ltd, and Inc, and symbols like @ or /, are only allowed when real-world proof such as signage, business cards, or invoices consistently shows them. Google warns that unnecessary content in the name can lead to suspension, so put extra detail in the category, hours, and address fields instead.

Step 3: Choose your categories

The first category you choose is your primary category, and you can add up to 9 more.⁶ Google's category guidelines:⁵

• Use the fewest categories needed to describe your core business
• Be as specific as possible: pick categories that finish the sentence "This business IS a...", not "HAS a..."
• Do not use categories as keywords, or to describe services you offer or nearby businesses

Your primary category is also the biggest relevance signal you control, as covered in the ranking section below.

Step 4: Add your location or service area

Depending on your business category, your location can be a street address, a service area, or a place marker.⁴

If customers visit you (a storefront), enter your physical address. Google's address rules:⁵

• P.O. boxes and remote mailboxes are not acceptable
• Virtual offices are not eligible
• Co-working spaces are eligible only with clear signage, customers received during business hours, and your own staff present
• For a suite or mailbox number, put the physical address in Address Line 1 and the suite in Address Line 2
• If the system cannot find your street number, you can pin the location on the map

If you travel to customers (a service-area business), you get one profile for your central office with a designated service area. You can list up to 20 service areas, based on cities, postal codes, or other areas. If you do not serve customers at your business address, remove it from the profile so it is hidden. Google says service-area businesses should hide their address from customers, and that the service area should generally be no more than about 2 hours of driving time from your base.⁵⁷

If you do both (a hybrid business, such as a garage that also offers roadside service), you can show a storefront address and a service area, as long as the location is staffed and can receive customers during your stated hours.

Step 5: Add contact details

Add a phone number or a website (or both). Google's rules:⁵

• Google asks for a phone number that connects to your individual location or a website that represents it (one of the two is enough, but adding both helps customers). The phone number must be under your direct control, and a local number is better than a central helpline
• Numbers and URLs that redirect to other pages or numbers, including social media landing pages, are not allowed
• Premium-rate numbers are not acceptable

You can also add up to 2 extra phone numbers besides your primary one (mobile or landline, not fax).⁶

How to verify your Google Business Profile

Verification is how Google confirms you represent the business, and you cannot manage the profile on Search and Maps until it is done. Google chooses which methods to offer based on your business type, public information, region or business hours, so you may see only some of the options below.⁸

Verification is the one step that varies by business, so there is no single screen to show here. Select Get verified on your profile and Google lists the methods it offers you. If video is one of them, you record it on a phone through your Business Profile, as described in the table above.

How long does verification take?

• Postcard: Google says most codes arrive within 14 days, and codes expire after 30 days
• After you finish a method: Google reviews your information, which it says takes up to 5 business days, and sometimes longer
• Faster routes: in some cases Google verifies a profile instantly, for example if you have already verified your business website in Google Search Console, or if you use bulk verification

While a postcard is in the mail, do not edit your business name, address or category, and do not request a new code. Either one invalidates the code in transit and lengthens the process.⁸

What to film for video verification

Video verification works for storefront, service-area, and hybrid businesses. Per Google's requirements, show:⁹

• Storefront businesses: street signs, building numbers, or nearby businesses so the location matches Google Maps; your storefront or signage with a business name that matches your profile; and something only staff can access, like a register, kitchen, or point-of-sale system
• Service-area businesses: street signs or landmarks at your address (home-based businesses can film landmarks in the neighborhood); the tools, equipment, or branded items you use; and proof you run the business, such as performing a service, opening a branded vehicle, or showing a permit, invoice, or utility bill that matches your profile name

Keep sensitive data (bank, tax, or ID numbers), private information, and other people's faces out of the shot. If a video is rejected, Google shares the reasons and you can record a new one. Examples Google gives: business name not visible on the storefront, no nearby area shown, or missing proof of authorization.

If verification does not work

• The Get verified button comes back: Google could not fully verify the business. Try again, or choose another method if more than one is offered
• A Review issues notice (video): your video was not accepted. Select Review issues and follow the instructions
• A request for more info: this usually follows recent profile changes. Select Get verified and go through verification again

What to add after you are verified

Once verified, you can edit your business information from Google Search (find your profile, select Edit profile, change what you need, and select Save) or from the Google Maps app (tap Business, then Edit profile). Google reviews changes before they go live.⁶ A complete profile also feeds the ranking factors covered later in this guide.

Hours

Set your main hours (or mark the business closed), then use special hours for holidays and temporary changes. Provide regular, customer-facing hours. Google notes that some businesses should not provide hours, including hotels and motels, schools, movie theaters, event venues, and appointment-only businesses.^{5 6}

Business description

You have 750 characters. Cover what you offer, what makes you distinctive, how long you have operated, and anything else customers would find helpful. Do not include URLs or HTML, and focus on the business itself rather than promotions, prices, or sales. Where available in your region and language, Google can also draft a description with AI.⁶

Photos and videos

Google's specs:¹⁰

Start with three: a logo (helps customers recognize you), a cover photo (appears at the top of your profile), and an exterior photo (helps customers recognize your location when they arrive). Photos should be in focus, well lit, and without significant alterations or excessive filters.

Services, attributes, and menus

Use the services editor to keep your services and prices accurate, and the menu editor if you run a food and drink business. Add attributes that tell customers more about you (for example outdoor seating); factual attributes are editable, while subjective ones depend on Google users' opinions.⁶ Retail businesses in eligible countries (US, CA, UK, and IE) can show in-store products, either uploaded with the Product Editor or synced from a point-of-sale system through the Local Inventory app.⁵⁶

How to add owners and managers to a Google Business Profile

A profile can have multiple owners but only one primary owner. Owners have full control, including adding and removing users. Managers have mostly the same access but cannot add or remove users or remove the profile. Google Groups cannot be added as owners or managers.¹¹

1. Go to your Business Profile (search Google for your business name, or for "my business")
2. Select More, then Business Profile settings, then People and access
3. At the top left, select Add
4. Enter the person's email address
5. Under Access, choose Owner or Manager
6. Select Invite

Invitees can accept right away, and you get an email when they do. Only owners can change roles or remove people. To hand over primary ownership you need at least one other owner or manager on the profile.

Setting up multiple locations

Each physical location gets its own profile. For businesses with many locations, Google has two shortcuts:

• Bulk verification: needs 10 or more profiles from the same business. In Business Profile Manager on a computer, select Verifications, then Chain, then Start, fill out the form, and submit. Uploading a spreadsheet alone does not send a verification request. Service-area businesses and agencies with more than one business in one account are not eligible¹²
• Bulk photo upload: businesses with 10 or more locations can upload photos by spreadsheet¹⁰

If you manage fewer than 10 locations, verify each profile individually.

Why Google rejects or suspends Business Profiles

Google may suspend or disable profiles that do not follow its guidelines. A suspended or disabled profile is not visible to the public, and owners and managers cannot act on it until it is reinstated. A policy violation that restricts your Google Account also suspends the profiles you manage and blocks you from creating or claiming new ones.¹³

From Google's guidelines, the usual causes of trouble at setup are:⁵

• A business name padded with taglines, keywords, hours, or service descriptions
• A P.O. box, remote mailbox, or virtual office as the address
• More than one profile for the same location or business
• Having no physical location and no in-person customer visits (online-only)
• Phone numbers or websites that redirect to other pages, including social media landing pages

If you are suspended: confirm the profile meets Google's guidelines, then submit a reinstatement request through Google's appeals tool. Gather evidence such as a business registration, business license, tax certificates, or utility bills, and make sure the name and address on each document match the profile. Do not create a new profile for the same business while an appeal is under review.¹³

What is Google Business Profile?

Google Business Profile is the free business listing surface that powers Google's local search results, the Google Maps app, and (increasingly) Google's AI Overviews and Gemini answers. It is what shows your business name, address, phone, hours, photos, reviews, services, products, posts, and (where available) Q&A across Google's ecosystem.

The product has been renamed five times in 21 years:

• 2005: Google Local Business Center
• Later: Google Local, Google+ Local, Google Places, Google My Business
• November 2021: Google Business Profile (current name)

In 2022, Google retired the standalone Google My Business mobile app and migrated management directly into Google Search and Google Maps. The standalone Business Profile Manager dashboard is now reserved for businesses with 10+ locations.¹⁴

Functionally, GBP in 2026 is several surfaces:

• The business profile itself: what appears when someone searches your business name or finds you in the Map Pack
• The Map Pack: the three local results above organic search results for local-intent queries
• Google Maps app: the dominant local-discovery surface in 2026
• AI Overviews and Gemini: Google's AI systems use GBP as their primary local-business data source
• Posts, products, services, Q&A (where available): content surfaces inside the profile

Key Google Business Profile statistics in 2026

Two of these are worth pulling out. Impressions per location declined 53.8% YoY in 2024 because AI Overviews are intercepting clicks at the SERP level. But actual customer actions (calls, directions, website clicks, bookings) only dropped about 5%, meaning that high-intent users are still converting, while the broader "what's around me" browsing traffic is being captured by AI. And GBP-driven actions grew 41% YoY between 2025 and 2026, suggesting that GBP profiles are now more important per impression than they were a year ago.

How the Map Pack ranking actually works

This is the single most important section in this guide. Google's three official ranking factors:

1. Relevance

How well your Business Profile matches what the searcher is looking for. The dominant signal here is your primary category. Whitespark's 2026 survey of local SEO experts identified choosing the wrong primary category as the second most common reason businesses rank poorly in the Map Pack.¹⁵ Beyond category, relevance signals include service area, services listed, products listed, and content in your business description.

2. Distance

How far your business is from the searcher. This is by far the largest weighted factor: per Whitespark, proximity accounts for about 55% of total Map Pack ranking weight. There is essentially nothing you can do to game this. The implication: if your service area is wide, opening more physical locations is the single largest local SEO lever available (Sterling Sky's Joy Hawkins explicitly recommends this as the response to declining single-location traffic).

3. Prominence

How well-known your business is. Reviews are the most documented part of prominence:

"More reviews and positive ratings can help your business's local ranking." - Google's official documentation

Other prominence signals: backlinks to your business website, citations across the web (NAP, Name, Address, Phone, consistency), social media presence, news coverage.

What you can actually control

Stripping out distance (which you mostly can't control), the controllable factors in order of importance per Whitespark 2026:

1. Primary GBP category (most important controllable factor)
2. Reviews (count, recency, response rate, star rating)
3. GBP completeness (every field filled in)
4. Business hours: businesses open at the moment of search rank higher (the 5th-strongest Local Pack factor)
5. Photo and post freshness
6. On-page SEO of your linked website
7. Citation consistency across the web
8. Backlinks to your website

Eight of the top 10 Local Pack ranking signals originate from your Google Business Profile, per Whitespark.¹⁶ This is why GBP optimization beats almost every other local marketing investment in 2026.

Reviews: the hidden multiplier

Reviews matter on two axes: they directly improve ranking, and they directly improve conversion. The 2026 data on consumer behavior:

What consumers do with reviews

• 97% of consumers read reviews for local businesses
• 41% "always" read reviews before deciding (up from 29% in 2025)
• 49% trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations
• 31% only use businesses with 4.5+ stars (nearly double last year's 17%)
• 68% require at least 4 stars
• 74% only care about reviews from the last 3 months; 44% want reviews from the last month
• 47% won't use businesses with fewer than 20 reviews

Source: BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2026.

The single biggest shift in 2026: AI tools (ChatGPT, Gemini) jumped from 6% to 45% of consumers using them for local recommendations, making AI the third most-used discovery source behind Google and Facebook.¹⁷ AI assistants pull from GBP data, so the same review quality matters for AI-mediated discovery as for direct Map Pack queries.

Response rate benchmarks

• Only 54% of Google reviews receive a business response (industry average)
• 68% of negative reviews go unanswered
• Average response time: 2.7 days; 32% of consumers expect same- or next-day responses
• Businesses responding to 90%+ of reviews see 23% more profile views and 18% more direction requests than those replying to under 50%

Source: ReplyOnTheFly 2026 Google Review Response Benchmark.

Each new review is measurable revenue

Per Birdeye's 2026 dataset, each additional Google review correlates with approximately:

• 600 search impressions
• 80 website visits
• 63 direction requests
• 16 calls

For most local businesses, this means review acquisition is the highest-ROI marketing activity available. For more on systematic review management at scale, see our Google Business reviews guide.

Photos and visual content

The benchmark to beat here is low. Birdeye's 2026 analysis found the average verified Google Business Profile has fewer than one photo. The opportunity:

• Profiles with photos receive 30 to 50% more views
• Listings with photos get 42% more direction requests and 35% more website clicks (Google's own data)
• Listings with 20+ photos earn about 18% more clicks than profiles with fewer than five
• Profiles updating photos every 90 days earn about 22% more engagement than stagnant listings
• Profiles with 15+ photos outperform across every engagement metric

Source: New Media GBP statistics.

What to add:

• Exterior photos so customers recognize the location on arrival
• Interior photos so first-time customers know what to expect
• Team and staff photos for trust
• Products and services with clear descriptions
• Customer experience moments (with consent)
• Updated seasonal photos every quarter

GBP Posts: the underused content surface

Most businesses don't post to their GBP, which is exactly why it's a leverage opportunity. Businesses posting 2 to 3 times per week see 34% higher engagement than businesses posting monthly.¹⁸

The four post formats in 2026:

In 2025, Google added scheduling and multi-location publishing for Posts, which made consistent posting much easier at scale. posterly handles GBP scheduling alongside 17 other platforms. See /google-business-scheduler for the practical scheduling view. For a real example at scale, see how Webserv schedules Google Business Profile posts for 100 profiles with Claude.

What changed in 2025 and 2026

Several meaningful shifts affect how you should operate your GBP in 2026.

Features removed

• Original GBP Chat / Messaging: shut down July 31, 2024. Past chat history was downloadable via Google Takeout until August 30, 2024. Google's help pages still describe text message and WhatsApp chat options for select regions, so check whether they appear on your profile
• Auto-generated Business Profile Websites (the .business.site mini-sites): shut down March 1, 2024, affecting 21 million sites. Redirects stopped June 10, 2024
• Merchant Q&A is shrinking: Google says owner Q&A is available only for select business categories and regions, and its appearance and functionality might change. AI-generated answers increasingly draw on your business info, reviews, and website content

Features added or upgraded

• Scheduling and multi-location publishing for Posts (2025)
• "What's Happening" content slot for food/drink businesses (May 2025, expanding through 2026)
• Performance Insights overhaul with discovery share, AI-surface attribution, message/booking conversion, and offers data (2026)
• Social Media Updates section that surfaces recent social posts on the profile (2024)
• AI-generated answers drawing on business info, reviews, and website content, alongside owner Q&A where it is still available

The AI Overviews impact

This is the single biggest change in 2026. Google's AI Overviews now appear in:

• ~7% of pure local-intent queries
• ~68% of broader queries with local language (e.g., "best restaurants in Austin")

When AI Overviews appear, GBP data is the primary citation source. But there's a catch: 32% fewer local businesses show up in AI local packs than in traditional Map Packs, meaning AI-mediated local search is more concentrated.¹⁹ Optimization implication: GBP signal quality (categories, reviews, photos, posts, completeness) matters more than ever, because the businesses Google's AI surfaces are the businesses Google's AI is most confident about.

Common mistakes that hurt your ranking

The most-cited GBP failures from Rio SEO's 2026 analysis:

1. Keyword-stuffing the business name: leads to manual edits, ranking suppression, or full suspension. Your name must match the real-world business exactly
2. Wrong primary category: the #2 most common reason for poor rankings per Whitespark
3. NAP inconsistency across the web: weakens local trust signals
4. Duplicate listings: treated as spam, common suspension trigger
5. Buying or incentivizing reviews: automatic suspension. Google removed 292 million policy-violating reviews in 2025
6. Using a P.O. box as your address: Google says P.O. boxes and remote mailboxes are not acceptable addresses, and listing one risks suspension
7. Incomplete fields: every blank field is a missed relevance signal
8. Broken or low-quality website link: signals sloppy maintenance, hurts trust

Source: Rio SEO 8 GBP mistakes.

Local SEO checklist

Use this as a working checklist for any location. Every item comes from a section above, so follow the link for the detail and the source.

1. Check eligibility and look for an existing profile. Only businesses that qualify under Google's guidelines can have a profile, and Google allows one profile per location, so claim an existing one instead of creating a duplicate.⁵ See before you start.
2. Use your real business name. No taglines, keywords or service descriptions added to it. See common mistakes.
3. Pick the most specific primary category, then add relevant secondary categories. Whitespark ranks the primary category as the most important controllable local ranking factor.¹⁶
4. Enter an accurate address or service area. P.O. boxes, remote mailboxes and virtual offices are not acceptable addresses.⁵ See add your location or service area.
5. Add phone, website and opening hours, including holiday hours. Businesses open at the moment of search rank higher, per Whitespark.¹⁶
6. Verify the profile with the method Google offers, and do not edit the name, address or category while a postcard is on the way. See how to verify.
7. Fill in services, attributes and the description. Every blank field is a missed relevance signal. See what to add after you are verified.
8. Add real photos, such as the exterior, interior, team and products or services. See photos and visual content and Google's photo requirements.¹⁰
9. Ask for reviews and reply to them. Reviews are one of the controllable ranking factors, and consumers read them before choosing.¹⁷ See reviews.
10. Publish Posts on a steady schedule. Posts keep the profile current. See GBP Posts.
11. Keep your name, address and phone number identical across your website and major directories. Inconsistency weakens local trust signals. See common mistakes.
12. Check that your website link works and that the page is relevant to the location. On-page SEO of the linked website is also a ranking input.¹⁶

Review the list every quarter. The cheapest improvements are usually the missing fields and the unanswered reviews.

Best for, not best for

GBP is essential for

• Any business with a physical location that serves walk-in customers
• Service-area businesses (plumbers, electricians, locksmiths, mobile services)
• Restaurants, cafes, bars, hospitality of all sizes
• Retail and shopping
• Local professional services (doctors, lawyers, accountants, real estate)
• Multi-location chains: bulk verification and multi-location publishing are now well-supported

GBP is less relevant for

• Pure-online businesses with no physical presence: no service area, no Map Pack
• B2B SaaS or remote-only services: your audience doesn't search "near me"
• Anything sold direct via shipping nationally with no local component

How to operate a GBP in 2026

Three patterns that work consistently:

The "complete and consistent" baseline. Fill every field. Verify the listing. Add 20+ photos. Pick the most specific primary category that matches your business. Add all relevant secondary categories. List every service and product. Update hours including holiday hours. NAP must match exactly across your website, Yelp, Bing Places, and major citations. This baseline alone moves most businesses into the top 5 for their categories within 60 days.

The "review velocity" approach. Build a systematic review-request process: ask happy customers within 48 hours of service, with a one-click link to leave a review. Respond to every review (both positive and negative) within 24 to 72 hours. Track count, recency, and rating monthly. Aim for at least 20 reviews and a 4.5+ star average. This is the highest-ROI ongoing GBP investment.

The "always-on content" approach. Publish 2 to 3 GBP Posts per week (Updates, Offers, or Events as appropriate). Update photos quarterly. Refresh products and services as they change. Build an internal habit so your GBP looks alive. Google's algorithm explicitly rewards freshness.

For more on systematic review management, see our Google Business reviews guide.

GBP vs other platforms

A short comparison for local businesses choosing between channels:

• vs Facebook: Facebook reaches existing customers and community; GBP reaches new customers ready to buy. Most local businesses need both. See our Facebook guide
• vs Yelp: Yelp is meaningfully smaller and concentrates in specific verticals (restaurants, services); GBP is universal
• vs Instagram: Instagram is for visual brand and audience-building; GBP is for transactional discovery. Different jobs. See our Instagram guide
• vs paid Google Ads: Map Pack organic ranking compounds over time without ongoing spend; paid ads stop the moment you stop spending. Most local businesses should do both
• vs SEO content marketing: pure organic SEO is slower and more competitive; GBP optimization produces faster results for local-intent queries

Manage your Google Business Profile with posterly

Google handles the setup: posterly does not create or verify a profile for you. Once your profile is live and verified, posterly handles the ongoing work behind the ranking factors covered above: posts, reviews, photos, and audits, across every location you manage.

Connect your locations. On the Accounts page, connect Google Business with Google's sign-in. posterly fetches every location your Google account manages and shows a picker with search by business name, city, or address. Check the locations you want and connect only those. If your Google account has exactly one location, it connects automatically.

Schedule posts. Compose an update, offer, or event for one or more locations, attach media, add a call-to-action button, and schedule it. Updates and events can use Book, Order, Shop, Learn More, Sign Up, or Call; offers can use Order, Shop, or Learn More. Offers support a coupon code, redemption link, and terms. GBP posts sit in the same calendar as your other social content. See the Google Business Profile scheduler for the full feature list.

Reply to reviews faster. Get new-review alerts by email, Slack, or Telegram, then work through one inbox across all locations. Filter by rating or unanswered, ask for an AI-drafted reply in your brand voice, edit it, and post the owner reply to Google. Nothing is posted publicly until you approve it.

Ask for more reviews. Generate the direct review link for each location, download a QR code, or send a review request email campaign with scheduling and tracking.

Audit the profile. The profile audit returns a completeness score with recommendations covering profile basics, hours, categories, description, photos, attributes, and review health, so you can see what to fix without checking fields by hand.

Manage photos and videos. The Photos and Videos tab shows the media on a location's profile grouped by type, and lets you add or remove items (cover, profile, logo, exterior, interior, product, team, and more) for each connected location. Media management needs a verified location.

Use it from your AI assistant. The posterly MCP server includes Google Business tools for listing reviews, replying to them, listing and managing profile media, and running the profile audit, so you can ask Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor to do it. Replies and deletions show a preview first and need your confirmation. See the Google Business Profile MCP connector.

Final word

Google Business Profile is the most under-optimized marketing surface for local businesses in 2026. The data is clear: businesses that invest in completeness, reviews, posts, and photos meaningfully outperform competitors that treat GBP as a static directory listing. With AI Overviews increasingly surfacing GBP data as the primary local-business citation source, that gap is widening.

The product is not a social network. It is a structured-data layer that Google uses to surface your business at the moment a customer is ready to buy. The mental model that wins is local SEO, not social media. The businesses that internalize that difference compound over time; the businesses that treat GBP like Instagram waste effort and lose ground.

When you're ready to manage GBP at scale (multi-location posts, review management, photos, and profile audits), posterly handles Google Business Profile alongside 17 other platforms from one composer. Start with the Google Business Profile scheduler, or read our other platform guides if you want to see how GBP fits next to social platforms.