How to Claim Your Google My Business Listing:
I still meet business owners across Derbyshire who have never claimed their Google Business Profile, or who claimed it years ago and have not looked at it since. Meanwhile a competitor two streets over has a full profile with photos, reviews and up to date hours, and gets picked first every time someone searches nearby.
Google Business Profile, the tool most people still call Google My Business, is free. It is also one of the highest impact things a local business can do for search visibility, and it takes less than an hour to set up properly. In 18 years of doing this work for SMBs across the East Midlands, I have never seen a business regret getting this right.
This guide walks through exactly how to claim your Google Business Profile listing, verify it, and set it up so it actually brings in enquiries rather than sitting there half finished.
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Get your free scorecardWhy Claiming Your Google Business Profile Matters
A verified Google Business Profile is what allows your business to appear in the local map pack, the block of three businesses Google shows above the standard search results for local searches. That real estate is often the first thing a potential customer sees, before your website even gets a look in.
Beyond visibility, a complete profile builds credibility. A listing with accurate hours, real photos and genuine reviews signals to both Google and the customer that this is a proper, active business. An empty or unclaimed listing does the opposite, even if the business behind it is excellent.
It also gives you a direct channel to customers. You can post updates, answer questions, and see exactly how people are finding you, whether that is a search for your business name or a general search for what you do in your area. That data alone is worth the hour it takes to set up, and it feeds directly into test and measure work most small businesses never get round to.
How to Claim Your Google Business Profile, Step by Step
Step 1: Sign In with a Google Account
You will need a Google account to manage your profile. If you already use Gmail for your business, use that account. If not, create a dedicated business Google account rather than a personal one, so ownership sits with the business rather than one individual.
Step 2: Search for Your Business
Head to Google Business Profile Manager and search for your business name. Google will check whether a listing already exists, which is common even if nobody at the business ever created one. Directories, past customers and Google's own systems often generate a basic listing automatically.
Step 3: Claim an Existing Listing
If your business appears but shows as unclaimed, select "Claim this business" and Google will walk you through verification. If it is already claimed by someone else, perhaps a previous owner or an old marketing agency, you can request access, which Google reviews before granting.
Step 4: Verify Your Business
Verification confirms you are genuinely authorised to manage the listing. Google offers a few routes depending on your business type:
- Postcard by post: a card with a verification code sent to your business address, usually within a week or two
- Phone call: an automated call reading out a code, where eligible
- Email: a code sent to your registered business email address
- Instant verification: available for businesses already verified through Google Search Console
Once the code arrives, log back in, enter it, and your profile moves from unverified to fully live.
Creating a New Listing If One Does Not Exist
If Google finds nothing at all for your business, you will need to build the listing from scratch. Get these details right the first time, since inconsistent information later causes ranking problems that are far more work to fix.
Enter your business name, address, phone number, website and category exactly as they appear everywhere else online. If you serve customers at their location rather than from a shopfront, such as a mobile hairdresser or a plumber covering Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, set this up as a service area business rather than adding a physical address.
Add your opening hours, including seasonal or holiday hours where relevant, and upload genuine photos of your premises, team and work. Listings with real photos consistently get more calls and direction requests than listings using stock images or none at all.
How one Ashbourne trades business doubled its call volume
We worked with a trades business near Ashbourne whose Google Business Profile had sat unclaimed for years. Once we verified it, corrected the category and service areas, and built a steady flow of reviews through our local marketing support, calls generated directly from the listing more than doubled within three months.
See how we help with local marketingOptimising Your Profile After Verification
Claiming the listing is step one. What you do with it afterwards is what actually moves the needle.
Complete every section of the profile, including a proper business description and any attributes that apply to you, such as accessibility or being locally owned. Then focus on reviews. A steady flow of genuine reviews does more for local trust than almost anything else on the profile, so ask happy customers directly and respond to every review, good or bad, in a professional tone.
Use the Posts feature to share offers, updates and news, which keeps the listing active in Google's eyes and gives customers a reason to check back. Check the Insights data regularly to see how people are finding you and what they do once they land on the listing, then feed that into your wider Google strategy rather than letting it sit unused.
Bringing Your Google Business Profile into a Proper BIG12 Strategy
Your Google Business Profile sits inside the Local Marketing and Google pillars of our BIG12 framework, the 12-part system built from 18 years of running marketing for SMBs across Derbyshire and the East Midlands. A well optimised listing brings people to your door. What happens on your website and in your follow-up once they arrive is what turns that visit into a paying customer.
Most businesses I speak to have claimed their listing but never gone back to it. That gap between claiming and actually using it properly is where most of the missed opportunity sits.
See where the gaps are in your own marketing
The BIG12 Scorecard takes ten minutes and shows you exactly which of the 12 pillars need attention first.
Take the scorecardThe challenge is never learning. It is doing.
Claiming and verifying your Google Business Profile is the easy part. You now know exactly how to do it, and it should take under an hour from start to finish.
The harder part is what comes after: keeping the profile updated, chasing reviews, posting regularly, and checking the insights month after month. This is where most businesses drift, not because the work is difficult, but because it competes with everything else on a busy owner's plate.
That gap between claiming a listing and actually running it well is one I see constantly, 18 years into this work.
Book a free 90-minute audit with Stuart
We will look at your current marketing, benchmark it against the BIG12, and give you a practical set of actions to take. No sales pitch. No fluff. Just 18 years of honest advice applied to your business.
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