You set up your business's Google Business Profile two years ago, added the opening hours, uploaded three photos and haven't been back since. That's normal. The trouble is that the profile doesn't stand still just because you do: customers suggest edits, Google applies them, reviews arrive that nobody answers, and the August hours still say you're open. Nobody tells you the profile has gone stale. You find out when someone turns up to a pulled-down shutter.

Here's exactly what happens to a profile nobody touches, according to Google's own help pages, and the short routine that keeps it alive.

Does a Google Business Profile expire if I don't log in?

Not in the sense of a fixed date. You'll often hear that "if you don't log in for 30 days, Google deletes your profile". We haven't found that on any official page, so we're not repeating it.

What Google does say, in its Business Profile policy summary, is this: if a merchant doesn't access their profile for extended periods, Google may revoke their access and remove the content, after notifying them. It doesn't give a number of days. In plain terms: your profile won't vanish from the map after a month of silence, but a profile left abandoned for a long time can end up without an owner, and getting it back is paperwork nobody wants.

And the real threat isn't deletion anyway. It's something else, and it happens far more often.

Google changes your profile even if you don't

Google explains it in its help page on "Google updates": it gathers information from different sources, such as user suggestions and licensed content, and if those sources indicate your information is wrong or out of date, it may update your profile.

In other words: a customer taps "Suggest an edit" (Sugerir un cambio), says you close at two on Saturdays, and that detail can end up on your profile.

When that happens, Google shows a notice right at the top of your profile and highlights in blue whatever it has changed. You can accept it, correct it or restore the previous detail. But you only see the notice if you log in. Google also warns that not all of its updates can be managed. The longer you go without looking, the more things someone else has decided for you.

What Google says counts for ranking higher

Google publishes how it ranks local results: relevance, distance and prominence. You don't control distance. The other two, partly, you do. Its recommendations for owners come down to four:

Verify your business.
Keep your information complete and up to date: address, hours (including special hours), category, attributes.
Reply to reviews.
Add photos and videos.

And one sentence worth keeping in mind: you can't request or pay for a better local ranking on Google. Anyone who sells you one is lying.

Google says nowhere that posting every week moves you up, and we're not going to say it either. What is obvious is that an incomplete profile, or one with old details, starts at a disadvantage on "relevance", and that a profile with unanswered reviews pays for it in what people decide after seeing it.

What the customer sees when the profile has stalled

Picture a bike repair shop in Gràcia (a Barcelona neighbourhood). A profile with 23 reviews, the last one answered a year and a half ago. Photos from when it opened. Hours with no bank holidays. A customer finds it on 12 October, sees "Open", goes over and finds the shutter down.

Reviews weigh on the decision. According to BrightLocal's annual survey (1,002 consumers in the United States; there's no equivalent study for Spain), 97% read reviews before choosing a local business, 89% expect the owner to reply, and 88% would use a business that responds to all its reviews, against only 47% who would use one that responds to none. All the figures, with their sources, are on our sources page.

A profile with no replies doesn't say "bad business". It says "nobody's home".

The routine: 20 minutes a month and five before every bank holiday

You can do this yourself, for free, from your phone. Get into your profile from the Google Maps app (Business → Edit profile, Empresa → Editar perfil) or by searching for your business name on Google while signed in.

Once a month (about 20 minutes)

Check for notices at the top. If Google has changed anything, you'll see it in blue. Accept what's right; restore what's wrong.
Reply to every pending review, the good ones too. Two lines are enough: their name, something specific they did, thanks. If one arrives that breaks the rules, here's what can and can't be removed.
Upload two or three new photos: the month's work, the premises today, the team from behind if they'd rather not appear.
Check phone, website and category. If the "Website" (Sitio web) field is still empty, it's the most expensive gap on the profile.

Before every bank holiday and before August (5 minutes)

Under Edit profile → Hours → Special hours (Editar perfil → Horario → Horario especial), Google suggests the official bank holidays and asks you to confirm your hours on those days. Confirm them one by one. If you're going to close for seven days in a row or more, Google asks you to mark the business as temporarily closed (cerrado temporalmente) instead of using special hours.

If your profile isn't verified yet, start there: here's how to set it up step by step. And if you want more reviews without being pushy about it, we have the guide with messages you can copy.

Doing it yourself: the full sum

With the times above, this is what it really costs.

Quick, and done once. Verifying the profile, filling in every field, setting the right category, completing the "Website" field. One afternoon. Do it yourself, today, without paying anyone: it's yours and it's free.

Slow: the long weekend. Having a website for that field to point to. This is where the agency quote turns up, or the nephew who'll "do it for you". And a site thrown together in a hurry brings its own maintenance: legal pages, certificate, hosting, the opening hours repeated somewhere else that also has to be changed.

The part that never ends. The 20 minutes a month, plus the bank holidays, plus checking what Google changes without telling you, plus replying to reviews, plus changing the hours on the profile and on the website and on Instagram every time something changes. Twelve times a year, with none of them ever urgent. That's why it gets abandoned: not because it's hard, but because it's never the most important job of the day.

What we do

Let's be clear first: today we don't edit your Google Business Profile for you. The routine above is still yours. What we do is take the rest off your hands.

The website your profile points to. A page made of widgets, with your hours (open or closed right now), your Google reviews live, services with prices, map and contact. It's created and published free, with no card and no expiry, legal pages included. Here's how it works.
Changing it means typing it. "Say we're closed on 12 October" and you see it before it goes live. Nothing is published without your approval.
Grow (€9/month) adds your own domain and a monthly analysis of how Google sees you, with a report by email: the reminder nobody sets.
Pro (€24/month) makes it weekly, keeps an eye on your reviews and your rankings, applies the technical improvements on its own and leaves any new text waiting for your click. Details on pricing.

No plan buys you a spot on the map or a date. What it buys is that the part that never ends stops depending on you remembering.

Create your website free

FAQ

Does Google delete my Google Business Profile if I don't log in for 30 days?

We haven't found that rule on any official page. Google says that if you don't access it for "extended periods", it may revoke access and remove content after notifying you, without giving a timeframe. Logging in once a month keeps you well clear of that risk.

Why have my hours changed when I haven't touched them?

Because Google can update your profile with user suggestions or data from other sources. You'll see it highlighted in blue in the editor, with a notice at the top. Log in, check it, and restore the correct detail if it's wrong.

Will posting updates every week move me up on Google Maps?

Google doesn't say so in its recommendations. What it does ask for is complete, up-to-date information, replies to reviews and added photos. If you're short on time, prioritise those.

Do I need a website if I already have a Google Business Profile?

Your profile is a shop window that Google controls. A website is yours, and it's where the "Website" field points. If you don't have one, we explain here what it should include, and it costs nothing to get started.

Your Google Business Profile doesn't look after itself: what happens if you leave it alone