How to Verify Your Google Business Profile.

It stops strangers taking control of your business on Google. Google picks how it checks you, based on your business and where you are.

• Google Business Profile: your free business listing on Google Search and Google Maps.
• Service area business: a business that goes out to customers, rather than customers coming to it.
• Verification: Google's check that your business is real and that it's yours.
• Verification video: a short unbroken video, filmed in the app, showing where you are, your tools and that you run the business.
• Postcard: a card Google posts with a code to type in. It can take up to 14 days to arrive.
• Suspended: when Google hides or locks a profile because something broke its rules.

Don't start while your profile says one name, your van says another and your paperwork has a third address. Get it all saying the same thing first.

• Your real business name and the right category
• Your base, and the towns you cover
• A business phone and email you can get to
• A recent invoice or letter with the same name
• Your tools, workwear and van to hand
• You can sign in to the right Google account

You can't ask for a postcard because it's easier. Follow what Google shows you on screen. And never pay anyone who says they can get you verified a quicker way.

How long it takes

• Google says checking a verification can take up to 5 working days.
• Postcard: most codes arrive within 14 days and expire after 30. Don't ask for a new one while you wait (it cancels the first), and don't change your business name, address or category, or the code won't work.
• Live video call: only available during your opening hours.

Google's rules: one video, in one go with no cuts, recorded and uploaded from your phone inside your Business Profile, at least 30 seconds long. No other people's faces, and nothing private.

For a trade that goes to customers, a simple order works:

• Start outside: a street sign or a landmark near your base
• Walk to your base
• Show your tools, kit, workwear or business cards
• Unlock your van, if it's signwritten
• If you need to, show an invoice with your business name, with private details covered

A plain van doesn't mean you'll fail. Tools, workwear and paperwork all help prove you're real.

If Google shows Review issues, it tells you what was missing. Use that to plan the next video. If Get verified comes back, you need to verify again. Try not to change your name or address while you're being checked, unless they're wrong.

We can help you understand the steps, check everything matches and plan your video. Google makes the decision. If it keeps failing, use Google's own support. Don't make a new profile.