How to create a Google Business Profile: a guide for businesses in Austria, Germany and German-speaking Switzerland

Google’s help says you can add or claim a Business Profile for free. With a verified profile you control how your business shows up on Google Maps and in Google Search: opening hours, website, phone number and address become visible. Depending on your category, your location is an address, a service area or a pin on the map. You post photos, collect reviews and reply to them.

Google’s help article on adding or claiming your Business Profile describes the way to a new profile:

1. Open business.google.com/add.
2. Choose to add your business to Google.
3. Enter the details the screen asks for.
4. Pick a verification method and follow the instructions.

Your address has to meet Google’s address guidelines. If an unverified profile for your business already sits on Maps, you claim it instead of creating a second one. On a computer, search Google Maps for your business name and city, choose the option to manage or claim the business, then pick a verification method. In the Maps app, the same option sits on the business’s info tab.

If someone else has already verified the profile, you request ownership from the current owner. Google has a separate help article for that. A second profile for the same location is the most common reason details on Maps get mixed up. Google’s basic rule: create only one profile per business.

“Google Business Profile” and the German “Google Unternehmensprofil” are the same tool. In a Bing keyword export from 15 October 2026, “google unternehmensprofil” had 6,246 searches a month in Germany and “google business profile” 4,949. People search for the name of the profile, not for a second brand. A page that sells the two names as two different products answers the question wrong.

A profile is reserved for businesses that meet customers in person, or can meet them, during the hours they list. Shops, studios, practices, workshops and offices that welcome the public qualify. So do service businesses that travel to their customers, as long as they enter that as a service area.

Google lists exceptions and exclusions in its eligibility and ownership guidelines. Not eligible, among others:

• online-only shops with no service on location,
• holiday rentals, model homes and vacant apartments (sales and leasing offices with their own verification are a different case),
• classes or meetings in rooms you don’t own and don’t represent,
• addresses that are only a PO box or a mailbox somewhere else.

ATMs, video rental kiosks and express mail drop boxes may have a listing if a reachable point of contact is provided. Seasonal businesses such as an ice rink may have one if there is signage on site all year round.

Google’s video help repeats the rule for the case that fails most often in forums: a purely online business, such as a shop with a virtual storefront and no service on location, isn’t eligible for a profile and can’t be verified.

Only the owner or an authorized representative may verify and manage the profile. You need a Google account either way. Google recommends an account that stays with the business: a business email address linked to the Google account. A private account belonging to someone who leaves later is tomorrow’s ownership dispute.

The name is the name on your sign, your letterhead and your legal notice. Google asks you to represent your business the way it appears offline, on signs, stationery and other marketing materials. Add-ons that only serve search don’t belong in the name. “Salon Lena – cheap Vienna – balayage” is a different name from the one on the door. Chains, departments and independent practitioners inside someone else’s practice have extra rules on the same help page. Enter the name exactly as customers read it at your door, including the legal form if it’s on the sign.

The category describes your core business. Google asks you to choose as few categories as possible. One primary category carries the profile. Add more only for services you really offer. “Beauty salon” plus “hairdresser” when you don’t cut hair moves your profile into the wrong searches.

Then the location question, before you type the address:

• Customers come to you and there is permanent signage on site: show the address. That’s a storefront profile. A hybrid business welcomes customers and also travels out or delivers. A restaurant with a dining room and delivery is the example in Google’s video help.
• You travel to your customers and there is no permanent sign at your base: no storefront profile. You enter a service area and don’t show your home address as a business address. The video help is explicit: without clear, permanently installed signage, the business is a service-area business without a fixed location. An apartment you publish as a shop address stands out during verification.

Write the address in full: street, house number, postcode, town, country. Use the same spelling on your website, in your legal notice and in directories. “Hauptstraße” on Maps and “Hauptstr.” on your website are two addresses for one and the same entrance. mekyn keeps name, address and phone in one place in your business profile and takes them from there. The phone normalization in the product treats 0660 and +43 660 as the same number. You decide the spelling once. The team doesn’t retype it from memory in every portal.

Opening hours are your regular hours. You may enter seasonal hours as regular hours while they apply. For holidays and one-off occasions there are special hours. A profile that says “open” while the door is locked produces the reviews you’ll have to answer later. Businesses that haven’t opened yet enter the opening date before verifying. Google asks for year and month, at most one year in the future. After verification, the profile becomes visible 90 days before that date. Use the option to verify later while the business isn’t open yet.

The phone number is the number of that location, not the head office in another country if someone else picks up on site. The website is the page that shows exactly this location. A social profile can be listed as well. It doesn’t replace your own site if you want services, prices and booking in one place. That’s what your website is for; see building your website with mekyn.

Google allows at most 750 characters for the description. The help article on editing your profile states the limit plainly. No URLs, no HTML. No prices and no promotions in that field: Google says on the same page that the description should be about the business, not about promotions, prices and offers. One acceptable example there is an ice-cream parlor describing its location, its flavors and its pizza delivery without naming a price. Your text says what you offer, what sets you apart and how long you’ve been around. Content unrelated to the business isn’t allowed. Google offers an AI draft in the edit dialog. The business remains responsible for every sentence. An invented founding story is a false claim, even if a model wrote it.

mekyn stores a short and a long version of your description for the profile. The long version stays within 750 characters and contains no links. What you write there is the same text the team puts into the profile. Google rejects special characters used only to grab attention as low-quality content.

Enter services and products in their own fields, with a short description and a price if the price is right. A price in the service line is allowed. A price as a teaser in the business description is not. Choose attributes (wheelchair access, payment options, languages) only if they’re true. Photos of the outside help customers find the door. Google’s editing help says so.

Without verification you can’t manage your name, hours or reviews. Google picks the methods automatically. You can’t switch them. Depending on the type of business, public information, region and opening hours, you’ll see one method or several. Sometimes Google asks for more than one.

Google’s help on verifying your business lists, as of this version:

Phone or text. The code only arrives if you take the call on the business number or can read the text message. It isn’t sent to voicemail. Open the profile, choose phone or text, receive the code and enter it.

Email. You need access to the address shown on screen. Then follow the email.

Live video call. Not available to every business. Only during opening hours, at the location. You’re on site with a device that can take the call. You show the location (street sign, neighborhood), the business (products, tools, materials with your name) and that you run it (cash register, kitchen, storeroom, keys). A support agent guides the call.

Recorded video. Google recommends it when it’s offered. Google’s help on verifying with video requires:

• an unedited, unique, continuous recording without cuts,
• at least 30 seconds,
• recorded and uploaded from a mobile device through the profile, not as a file from a laptop,
• no bank details, no ID numbers, no private data, no faces of other people.

For a storefront or hybrid business, the video shows three things. First the location: street sign, house number, neighborhood. Second the business: exterior or sign, with the same name as in the profile, permanently mounted on a sign, wall or window. Third that you manage it: open the register, kitchen, storeroom, point-of-sale system. For a pure service-area business without a customer address, you show orientation around your base, tools or branded clothing, and a document whose name matches the profile, such as an invoice or your trade license. Empty lots without features aren’t enough. Run from home means: show signs in the immediate surroundings, don’t publish your home address as a shop.

On your phone: open the profile, start verification, choose the business video, read the requirements, allow location, camera and microphone, record, review, upload. The review takes up to five business days. If it’s rejected, Google names what was missing, for example the sign or the surroundings. Your new video contains everything from the first one plus what was missing. You can delete the video yourself later; otherwise Google deletes it.

Postcard. Not available everywhere. The code is mailed to the business address. Most codes arrive within 14 days. The code has five digits and expires after 30 days. While you wait, don’t change your name, address or category, or the code won’t work. Don’t request a second code, because the first one then expires. Google never asks you for this code. Don’t pass it on, not even to someone who co-manages the profile. mekyn doesn’t see the code and doesn’t want it. If the postcard is the only way, the dashboard tells you to enter it yourself. The status then says, in effect: your verification is needed, and why.

After you submit, Google reviews the details. That takes up to five business days, rarely longer. Sometimes verification is instant, for example when the website is verified in Search Console or bulk verification applies to many locations. The confirmation email arrives when it’s done. Only then do you add more people as owners or managers; Google’s help on managing owners and managers explains how. An agency or mekyn gets a role after the business is verified. Before that, there is nothing to manage.

If the verification prompt shows up again, the review was incomplete. Repeat it, with another offered method if needed. A notice about issues after a video means the video wasn’t enough. Being asked to verify again after changing your name, address or category is normal. Google then checks once more that the new detail is correct.

A second profile. First search Maps for your name and city. If there’s an unverified listing, claim it. If there’s a verified one, request ownership. Two pins for one salon split reviews and directions.

Keywords in the name. The name on the sign is the name in the profile. City, “cheap”, “best” and your whole service list stay out. The basic rule “as on the sign” is the yardstick Google uses for later edits.

An apartment as a shop. Without a sign and without customers on site, the address is a service area. A published home address where nobody is received fails the video and the eligibility rules.

A description with a link or price. 750 characters, no URL, no discount line. Put the price in the service, not in the description.

Hours that are wrong. Enter special hours for holidays before the weekend arrives. A locked door while the profile says “open” is an operations error, not the algorithm.

Passing on the code. Type the postcard code in yourself. Anyone asking for the code on the phone is not Google.

One person’s account. The profile is tied to a Google account. Put it on an account the business keeps, and after verification add a second person as manager. That way you keep access if a phone gets lost.

Categories as a wish list. Every extra category claims that you offer that service. Wrong categories attract the wrong calls.

Showing “open” before opening day. Set the date, verify later, and the profile becomes visible 90 days before.

Add photos of the outside and of your work, services, attributes and your website. Posts announce what’s current: a new treatment, changed hours, a finished project. Google reviews posts. Rejected texts often contain a link, an exaggerated offer or a claim unrelated to the location.

Reviews come in through the link or QR code in the profile. How to ask for them without breaking the rules is covered in the guide How to get Google reviews.

The profile doesn’t replace your website. Maps shows the quick overview. Services, prices, legal notice and booking live on your own site. Local SEO as a discipline, beyond this one profile, is explained in Local SEO. mekyn doesn’t sell this as ongoing agency retainer work at four-figure monthly fees.

You can follow the steps above yourself. They’re public, and creating the profile at Google stays free. mekyn takes them over when your profile, your website and your directory listings should all carry the same version of your name, address, phone, hours and description.

In the dashboard, under SEO and statistics, you’ll find Local visibility. There you state your access to the Google profile as one of five answers: you don’t know, there isn’t one, you have access, you’ve invited mekyn, or mekyn has access. If listings already exist, you mark them. The team claims them and doesn’t create a duplicate. The country of the location decides which directories are added. The Google profile itself is the same tool in Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

The checklist in the product has 13 items with review intervals: name, category, address or area, phone, website, hours, description, photos, services and the items a profile only unlocks once it’s verified. An order counts as done only with a proof link and a date. A planned listing without a link isn’t a listing.

Coin prices for Local visibility, decided on 15 October 2026: a directory listing 3 coins, the Google profile including verification 6 coins, a Google post 2 coins, a reply to a review 1 coin. Coins are charged once the listing is live with proof. A rejection releases the reserved coins. Start includes 2 Google posts a month, Business 4. Additional posts cost 2 coins. Free has 0 coins a month. Purchased coins sit in your balance: 10 for €9.90, 30 for €24.90, 100 for €69.90. The public coin table on Pricing doesn’t list these four Local visibility items as separate rows yet. The dashboard shows the price before you place an order. If no price is shown, nothing is charged.

What mekyn doesn’t do: there’s no interface that pulls Google reviews onto your website automatically. A review on your site comes from an import with a proof link. Posts and replies go live when you accept the draft in the dashboard. Changing your hours doesn’t yet update every directory in the same moment. The team follows up, with a date. Nobody promises a specific ranking on Maps. Google decides the order. A complete, verified profile with correct hours is the prerequisite, not a guarantee.

The plans this work belongs to: Free €0, Start €19.90 a month or €199 a year, Business €49.90 a month or €499 a year. On the pricing page, the yearly prices are marked “2 months free”. Local visibility isn’t a fourth plan. It sits on top of these three and on coins.

mekyn doesn’t pretend to have an office in your city. Your website describes your business; your profile uses the address where you actually welcome customers, or the base you actually travel out from.