Title: What Is a Google Business Profile? | Keres AI URL: https://www.keresai.com/glossary/google-business-profile Updated: 2026-10-12 Description: A Google Business Profile is the free listing that shows your business on Google Search and Maps. How it works, what changed, and what managing it costs. Source: https://www.keresai.com/glossary/google-business-profile (HTML). This is a Markdown copy of the page's main content for AI agents and LLM tools. --- # What is a Google Business Profile? A Google Business Profile is the free listing Google shows for a local business in Search and Maps. It holds your name, category, address or service area, hours, phone number, photos, services and reviews, and it is often the first thing a nearby customer sees before deciding to call. ## How does a Google Business Profile work? 1. **Create or claim the profile.** Google may already have a listing for your business built from public information; you claim it rather than start over. 2. **Verify it.** Google chooses which verification methods to offer, for example a video recording, phone, text or email. 3. **Set the basics:** primary and secondary categories, services, hours, phone, website, and either an address or a service area if you visit customers. 4. **Keep it active:** add photos, publish posts, update holiday hours and reply to reviews. 5. **Google ranks it** in local results on relevance, distance and prominence, the three factors Google describes in its [guide to local ranking](https://support.google.com/business/answer/7091). ## What changed in Google Business Profiles? Some older guides still recommend features that no longer exist. [Google ended Business Profile chat on July 31, 2024](https://support.google.com/business/answer/14919062), and removed the Questions & Answers section from Business Profiles in late 2025. Calls, website visits, direction requests and reviews are what remain, so the phone number on the profile has to be answered. A management plan that still bills for chat or Q&A is out of date. ## Google Business Profile vs your website The profile is where people decide whether to call; the website is where they go for more detail. Google controls the profile’s layout and can show edits suggested by the public, so it needs regular checking. You control the website completely. They work best when they agree: the same name, phone, hours and services on both, so Google and customers see one consistent business. See [NAP consistency](https://www.keresai.com/glossary/nap-consistency). ## What does a Google Business Profile cost? The profile is free from Google. The cost is the time to keep it current, or a service that does it for you. Found, Keres AI’s visibility plan, starts from $249 a month ($499 for law firms), month-to-month, with no build fee at the base tier. See [Google Business Profile management](https://www.keresai.com/google-business-profile-management) for what that covers, and [pricing](https://www.keresai.com/pricing) for how quotes are set. ## How does Keres AI’s Found handle it? [Found](https://www.keresai.com/services/found) optimizes the profile once (categories, services, photos and verification), then works it every week: posts, photo updates, review responses, reporting spam listings that compete with you, and monthly insights. It runs the profile alongside your website, review requests and listings so all of them agree. The number on the profile can be answered by [Remi](https://www.keresai.com/agents/inbound), Keres AI’s AI receptionist, in two rings, 24/7. See the service behind this concept ### Want to see Google Business Profile working in practice? See how Keres puts it to work for your vertical and workflow. ### [Map Pack (Local Pack)](https://www.keresai.com/glossary/map-pack) The map pack, also called the local pack, is the map and short list of businesses, usually three, that Google shows near… ### [Review Generation](https://www.keresai.com/glossary/review-generation) Review generation is the routine of asking every customer for an online review after the job, usually by text or email w… ### [NAP Consistency (Citations)](https://www.keresai.com/glossary/nap-consistency) NAP consistency means your business name, address and phone number appear the same way everywhere you are listed online:… ### [Local Services Ads](https://www.keresai.com/glossary/local-services-ads) Local Services Ads are Google ads for local service businesses that often appear at the top of results for searches like… [← Back to the full glossary](https://www.keresai.com/glossary) ## Google Business Profile — FAQ ### Is a Google Business Profile free? Yes. Creating and managing a profile costs nothing from Google. Paying a service to manage it is optional; Keres AI’s Found includes profile management from $249 a month. ### Does Google Business Profile still have chat or Q&A? No. Google ended Business Profile chat on July 31, 2024, and removed the Questions & Answers section from Business Profiles in late 2025. ### Is Google Business Profile the same as Google My Business? Yes. Google My Business was renamed Google Business Profile in 2021. The listing works the same way. ### Can a service-area business hide its address? Yes. Businesses that serve customers at the customer’s location, such as plumbers, can show a service area instead of a street address. Last updated October 12, 2026 · [Reviewed by the Keres AI team](https://www.keresai.com/editorial-policy)