If you're wondering how to appear on Google Maps, the short answer fits on one line: you create a Google Business Profile, verify it and keep it up to date. It's free — Google says so on its own page — and you don't need an agency. The long answer is the one that matters, because hardly anyone gets left out for not knowing where to click. They get stuck at verification, or they show up half-finished: no opening hours, no photos and an empty website field.

We checked every step against Google's official help on 18 September 2026. Screens change: if you see something different, Google's version wins.

Google My Business isn't called that any more (but it's the same thing)

Plenty of people still search for "Google My Business". The name changed: it's now Google Business Profile, and you manage it straight from Search and from Maps. It does the same job as always: it's the listing that appears when someone searches your name, and the pin on the map when someone searches "garage near me" or "gestoría in Gràcia" (a gestoría is the Spanish admin and tax agency most small businesses use).

Two conditions from Google's guidelines before you start. First: the profile is for businesses that serve customers in person, at premises or by going to their home. Second: one profile per location. If one already exists — because a former employee opened it, or because Google generated it on its own — don't create another: claim it. Duplicating it breaks the guidelines, and Google reserves the right to suspend profiles that break them.

Step 1: check whether Google already has you

Open Google Maps on a computer and search your business name plus your city. One of three things will happen.

Nothing comes up. You create it from scratch: go to step 2.
It comes up and nobody manages it. You'll see "Claim this business" (Reclamar esta empresa). Click it, then "Manage now" (Gestionar ahora). On a phone it sits inside the listing's "About" (Información) tab.
It comes up and someone else manages it. Go to business.google.com/add, search for your business and click "Request access" (Solicitar acceso). According to Google, the current owner gets an email and has 3 days to reply. If it was an agency or a former partner, ask them nicely first.

It takes two minutes, and it avoids the most expensive mistake: two listings for the same business splitting the reviews between them.

Step 2: create the profile with the details Google looks at

Go to business.google.com/add, click "Add your business to Google" (Añade tu empresa a Google) and follow the screens. What you type here decides which searches you show up for, so it deserves ten calm minutes.

Name: the real one, the one on your sign. Google asks for it as it appears on your storefront. "Floristería Marta", not "Floristería Marta cheap bridal bouquets Valencia". Anything extra you add breaks that guideline.
Category: the most specific one that exists. "Auto repair shop" rather than "Services". It's what tells Google what you are.
Address or service area: if customers come to your premises, the address. If you go to the customer's home — plumbers, electricians, locksmiths — Google asks you to hide the address and mark the areas you cover.
Phone and website: the phone you actually answer. The website, if you have one; we'll come back to this.

Step 3: verification, where almost everyone gets stuck

Google makes it a condition: to show your business on Search and Maps, the profile has to be verified. Today it offers five methods, and you don't choose: it shows you the ones available for your case.

Phone or SMS to the business number. It doesn't work with automated switchboards.
Email.
Video recording. It's the one Google recommends when it's offered. It has to show three things: where you are (the sign, the street), what you work with (tools, products) and that you're in charge (opening the till, walking into the staff-only area).
Live video call, only within your opening hours.
Postcard with a code. According to Google, most arrive within 14 days and the code is valid for 30.

The review can take up to five working days. A warning: while you wait for the postcard, don't change the name, address or category, because the code stops working. If you're rejected, try another method.

Step 4: fill in what Google uses to rank

Appearing isn't the same as appearing near the top. Google explains that it ranks local results on three things: relevance (how well your profile matches the search), distance (how far away the searcher is) and prominence (how well known the business is). You don't control distance. The rest, you do.

Full opening hours, public holidays included. A listing that says "open" while your shutter is down costs you a visit.
Real photos of the premises, the team and the work.
Services and description, in your customer's words, not your trade's.
Reviews, and your replies. 97% of consumers read reviews before choosing a local business (BrightLocal, 2026: 1,002 respondents in the United States; there's no equivalent study for Spain, as we explain in our sources). Here's how to get more without being a nuisance.

And one line from Google, for when someone tries to sell you the opposite: "There's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google."

You're on the map. Where does the listing send people?

On prominence, Google says it's based, among other things, on "the number of websites that point to your business and the number of reviews you have". A profile on its own has nowhere to send anyone. And there's no room in it for your price list, your work, or the answer to the question you get ten times a week.

When we counted 309 hair salons in Barcelona, 61% had no website of their own: either nothing, or just Instagram, or just a profile on a booking platform. That's one sector in one city, not all of Spain, but the pattern repeats in garages, gestorías and studios: verified profile, empty website field. If the profile exists and your business still isn't showing on Google, the causes are usually around there.

Doing it yourself: the full sum

Quick, and done once. Checking whether you already exist, creating the profile and recording the video: allow an hour, plus Google's wait. Do it yourself, this week. It's free, it's yours and nobody knows your business better. You don't need to pay anyone for this — us included.

Slow: the long weekend. Good photos, the description, the list of services with prices and, above all, the website for the profile to point to. This is where the agency quote appears, or the nephew who's good with computers. A long weekend, if it goes well.

The part that never ends. August opening hours, local holidays, the price you raised in January, the unanswered review, the shop-window photo from three years ago. Half an hour a month that nobody can find. Profiles don't get abandoned because they're hard to create; they get abandoned because of this.

What we do

Your Google profile is yours and you manage it: we don't touch it. Our job is the other half, the slow part and the part that never ends.

With wiweb you create a page made of widgets: opening hours with "open now", your Google reviews live, services with prices, a map and contact details. You edit it by typing — "say I close at three on Friday" — and you see the change before publishing it. The legal texts and the cookie notice come ready-made. Publishing it is free, with no card, at an address like yourbusiness.wiweb.me: now you've got something to put in that website field.

With Grow (€9/month) you use your own domain and get a monthly analysis of how you're doing on Google, on speed and in the AI assistants. With Pro (€24/month) it's weekly and the technical side fixes itself; any new text waits for your approval. The details are on our pricing page.

What no plan buys, ours or anyone's, is a position or a date. Google decides that.

Create your website free

FAQ

How much does it cost to appear on Google Maps?

Nothing. Creating and managing a Business Profile is free, and Google says explicitly that you can't pay for a better position in local results.

How long until my business shows up?

According to Google, the review can take up to five working days; by postcard, most arrive within 14 days. Until the profile is verified, don't count on it being shown.

Can I appear on Google Maps without premises open to the public?

Yes, if you serve people in person by going to them: plumbers, locksmiths, home tutors. Google then asks you to hide the address and mark your service area. A business that doesn't serve anyone in person doesn't meet the guidelines.

Do I need a website to have a Google listing?

No. But the website is the only place you control completely, the one you link from the profile and the one other pages can cite. The profile says you exist; the website explains why people should choose you.

How to appear on Google Maps: add your business for free, step by step (2026)