How to get your business on Google — free.

If you own a shop, clinic, school or restaurant and you only ever do one thing online, do this one. It costs nothing, takes an afternoon, and for most local businesses it brings in more phone calls than a website does.

What we are actually setting up

Search for "hospital in Narnaul" or "school near me" and look at what Google shows before the ordinary results: a map with three businesses on it, each with a star rating, opening hours and a call button.

That box is called the local pack, and it takes almost all the clicks. Getting into it requires a Google Business Profile — free, run by you, and separate from your website.

Being one of those three businesses changes your week. It is the single highest-return hour a local business owner can spend online.

Before you start, collect these

• Your exact business name, as written on the board outside
• Your full address with pin code
• A phone number you actually answer
• Your opening days and hours
• Ten to fifteen real photographs — outside, inside, staff, whatever you sell. Taken on a phone is fine. Stock photos are worse than none.

Step 1 — Create the profile

Go to google.com/business and sign in with a Gmail account. Use one you will still have in five years, and keep the password somewhere safe — this account controls your listing.

Search for your business name first. Google may already have a listing created automatically from other data, in which case you claim it rather than making a duplicate. Duplicates split your reviews and hurt you.

Step 2 — Category, and why it matters more than you think

Your primary category is one of the strongest signals Google uses to decide which searches you appear in. Be specific: "Multispeciality Hospital" rather than "Hospital". "CBSE School" rather than "School". "Orthopedic Surgeon" rather than "Doctor".

Add secondary categories for the other things you genuinely do — but only things you genuinely do. Stuffing categories you do not serve gets listings suspended.

Step 3 — Address and service area

Enter the address exactly as it is written locally. Then drag the map pin to the actual door. Google's automatic pin placement in small Indian towns is frequently wrong by two hundred metres, and a customer who cannot find you is a customer lost.

Step 4 — Verification (the slow bit)

Google needs to confirm you are really there. Usually this means a postcard with a code, posted to your address, arriving in one to two weeks. Some businesses are offered phone or video verification instead, which can be same-day — take it if it is offered.

Nothing appears on Maps until verification is done. Start this today, because the clock only runs once you begin.

Step 5 — Fill in everything

Most listings are half-finished, and half-finished listings rank below complete ones. Complete every field:

• Hours — including whether you close for lunch, and mark public holidays
• Website — if you have one
• Description — 750 characters explaining what you do and where, in normal language
• Services — list them individually; each one is another phrase you can match
• Attributes — wheelchair access, parking, UPI accepted, 24-hour emergency
• Photos — all of them, and add a few more every month

Step 6 — Reviews, the part everyone gets wrong

Reviews affect both how you rank and whether anyone picks you. A business with 40 reviews at 4.5 stars beats one with 3 reviews at 5 stars almost every time.

What works:

• Ask in person, when someone is visibly happy. That moment is the whole thing.
• Make it one tap. Your profile dashboard has a short review link — save it as a WhatsApp shortcut and send it the same day.
• Reply to every review, good and bad. Google reads replies as activity, and a calm reply to a complaint reassures readers more than the complaint worried them.
• Never buy reviews. Google detects the patterns and removes listings for it. Years of work, gone.

Step 7 — Keep it alive

An abandoned profile slips down. Fifteen minutes a month is enough:

• Post an update — an offer, a new service, a photo from an event
• Add two or three fresh photos
• Answer any questions people have asked
• Reply to new reviews
• Update hours before every festival

Where the website comes in

The profile gets you seen. The website is what makes someone choose you once they tap through. A complete profile pointing at a fast, credible site converts far better than either on its own — and Google treats a working website as one more signal that the business is real.

If you have not got one yet, what that costs is published here, and we will build you a working demo free before you decide anything.

Common mistakes

Do this today

Start the verification, because that is the part with a waiting period. Everything else can be finished while the postcard is in the post.