How do I verify my Google Business Profile?

You verify a Google Business Profile by claiming it from a Google account your business controls and then completing the verification method Google offers for that profile. You don’t get to pick from a full menu. Google decides which method or methods to show you, based on things it doesn’t publish, and the options have changed several times. So prepare for any of them, and for the exact steps use Google’s Business Profile help pages on the day you do it.

Start with the right Google account

Verify from an account the business owns and will still control in five years. That means an account tied to the company, with a password and recovery details the owner holds. It doesn’t mean an office manager’s personal Gmail or your marketing agency’s login. Whoever completes verification becomes the owner of the profile, and getting ownership back later is slow and uncertain. If you search for your business and find a profile that is already claimed by an account you don’t recognize, stop and read what to do when someone else owns your profile. Don’t create a second one.

The methods Google has used

Each one is a way for Google to confirm that a business is real and that you represent it. Which of them you see is up to Google.

One is a video recording, where you film the business in one continuous take. Google’s instructions for this have asked for evidence of the location, of the business operating there, and of your authority to manage it. A live video call with a Google representative covers the same ground.

The others rely on a code. It has come by phone call or text to the business number, by email to a business address, and on a postcard mailed to the business address.

Any of these may be missing from your screen, and Google may add others. Read the instructions it shows you before you begin.

Get the details right before you start

Google is confirming the profile as you entered it, and changes to core details afterward can lead to it asking you to verify again. So settle the name, address and category first. Use the business name as it appears on your license and signage. Use the address you really operate from. If customers never come to you, which is the case for most plumbers, electricians and heating and air companies, the right service area setup is a service-area business with the address hidden.

If Google asks for a video, prepare before you press record. For a hypothetical plumbing company run from a yard in Santee with no storefront, that would mean having the branded trucks parked where they can be filmed, the tools and stock in view, and the license or registration paperwork ready to show. Read Google’s current instructions first, because it says what the recording must include.

If verification doesn’t go through

A failed attempt usually means Google couldn’t confirm one of the facts, so check the facts before trying again. Look for a mismatch between the profile and the real world. A name that differs from the signage is one. So is an address that isn’t where the work is run from, or a phone number that reaches a call center. Fix the mismatch, then follow whatever Google offers next, which may be another method or a review by its support team.

Never answer a verification problem by entering a different address you don’t work from. A virtual office, a mailbox or a relative’s house breaks Google’s rules, and a profile verified that way can be suspended later, after you have come to depend on it.

What verification does and doesn’t do

Control of the profile is what you get, and it doesn’t make the profile rank. An unverified profile can’t be fully managed, so this is a required first step and no more than that. Categories, services, reviews and the rest of the work on a Google Business Profile come after it.