Google Business Profile Policies 2026: Complete Guide
Understand the Google Business Profile policies businesses must follow in 2026, including eligibility, names, addresses, reviews, verification, agencies, suspensions, appeals, and more.
Google Business Profile Policies 2026: Complete Rules, Guidelines, and Requirements
Google Business Profile policies determine which businesses can have a profile, how a business must represent itself, how locations and service areas should be configured, what businesses may do when requesting Google reviews, how agencies can manage profiles, and what can happen when Google's rules are violated.
This guide covers the major Google Business Profile rules businesses should know in 2026, including eligibility, ownership, verification, business names, addresses, service-area businesses, categories, contact information, reviews, photos, posts, multi-location management, agencies, suspensions, and appeals.
Policy overview
What Are Google Business Profile Policies?
Google Business Profile policies are the eligibility, representation, ownership, content, review, and conduct rules that apply when a business creates and manages a presence on Google Search and Google Maps.
Google's official policy index covers areas including business eligibility and ownership, representing a business accurately, prohibited and restricted content, photos and videos, posts, business links, products, APIs, and third-party management.
When violations occur, Google says it may restrict content from displaying or restrict access to a Business Profile or merchant account.
View all official Google Business Profile policies and guidelines.
For example, using the business's genuine real-world name is a Google requirement. Keeping an internal change log showing who edited each franchise location is useful operationally, but Google does not require every business to maintain one.
Google Business Profile policies at a glance
| Policy area | Core rule | Common mistake |
|---|---|---|
| Eligibility | The business generally must make in-person contact with customers during stated hours. | Creating profiles for online-only businesses or lead-generation companies. |
| Business name | Use the real-world name customers recognize. | Adding cities, services, keywords, phone numbers, or promotional text. |
| Address | Use a precise, legitimate operating location. | Using P.O. boxes, remote mailboxes, or ineligible virtual offices. |
| Service area | Represent where the business actually travels to customers. | Displaying a home address when customers are not served there. |
| Profiles | Generally maintain one profile per eligible business location. | Creating duplicate listings. |
| Categories | Choose the fewest categories needed to describe the core business. | Using categories as an SEO keyword list. |
| Reviews | Reviews should reflect genuine, unbiased experiences. | Incentives, review gating, pressure, fake reviews, or staff quotas. |
| Third parties | Authorized representatives need consent and must respect the client's ownership. | Claiming or retaining profiles without proper authorization. |
| Content | Profile content must follow Google's prohibited and restricted content rules. | Publishing misleading, prohibited, or restricted material. |
| Enforcement | Correct policy violations and use Google's official appeal processes. | Creating another profile while an appeal is pending. |
Eligibility
Who Is Eligible for a Google Business Profile?
Google's current eligibility guidelines state that a business must make in-person contact with customers during its stated hours to qualify for a Business Profile, subject to specific exceptions.
Businesses that can qualify
- Retail stores and storefront businesses customers visit.
- Restaurants and customer-facing hospitality businesses.
- Professional offices that receive customers.
- Service-area businesses that travel to customers.
- Eligible individual practitioners.
- Certain seasonal businesses with permanent signage throughout the year.
- Certain ATMs, video-rental kiosks, and express mail drop boxes when Google's requirements are met.
- Certain delivery-only food services that satisfy Google's applicable rules.
Businesses Google identifies as ineligible
- Online-only businesses, brands, organizations, and artists without qualifying in-person interaction.
- Lead-generation agents or companies.
- Individual rental or for-sale properties such as vacation homes, vacant apartments, and model homes.
- Ongoing services, classes, or meetings at locations the business does not own or have authority to represent.
- Businesses whose address is a P.O. box or mailbox at a remote location.
Read Google's current eligibility and ownership guidelines .
Age-restricted businesses have an additional limitation
Google states that businesses associated with products or services requiring customers to meet a minimum age, including examples such as alcohol, cannabis, or weapons, are not permitted to operate as service-area-only businesses without a storefront.
Ownership & verification
Google Business Profile Ownership and Verification Rules
Only the business owner or an authorized representative may verify and manage business information in a Google Business Profile.
If an employee, consultant, marketing agency, software provider, or other third party helps manage the listing, the business should retain appropriate ownership and control.
Google chooses the verification methods
Depending on the business and circumstances, methods may include video recording, phone or text, email, live video call, or mail.
Verification may happen again
Google may require more than one verification method or require a previously verified business to verify again.
Video verification requirements
If video verification is required, Google says the video must be an unedited, unique, complete recording with no breaks, be at least 30 seconds long, and be recorded and uploaded from a mobile device through the Business Profile.
Google may require the video to demonstrate:
- The business's location.
- Permanent signage or evidence that the business exists.
- Tools, equipment, products, or branded business materials.
- Evidence that the person recording the video manages or represents the business.
Business identity
Google Business Profile Name Guidelines
Your Business Profile name should reflect the name the business uses and is consistently recognized by in the real world, including on signage, stationery, branding, and other customer-facing materials.
Do not turn the business name into an SEO keyword field
Google provides separate fields for categories, addresses, service areas, websites, hours, and other information. Those details generally should not be inserted into the name unless they genuinely form part of the real-world business name.
Good
Smith Plumbing
Problematic if not the real name
Smith Plumbing - Dallas Emergency Plumber & Water Heater Repair
Google's name guidelines prohibit unnecessary information such as:
- Marketing taglines.
- Store codes.
- Business hours.
- Phone numbers.
- Website URLs.
- Unnecessary service or product information.
- Unnecessary location information.
- Containment descriptions explaining that the business is inside another business.
See Google's official business name examples and representation guidelines .
Location rules
Address, Virtual Office, Storefront, and Service-Area Rules
Google requires a precise and accurate address and/or service area that reflects the business's actual operations.
P.O. boxes and remote mailboxes
P.O. boxes and mailboxes located at remote locations are not acceptable Business Profile addresses.
Virtual offices
A rented physical mailing address where the company does not actually operate is considered a virtual office and is not eligible.
Co-working spaces
The office must maintain clear signage, receive customers during business hours, and be staffed during business hours by the business's own staff.
Storefront signage
Google states that businesses displaying an address should maintain permanent fixed signage showing the business name at that address.
Service-area businesses
If a business travels to customers and does not serve customers at its address, Google says the address should not be displayed publicly.
Service-area size
Google says the overall service area generally should not extend farther than approximately two hours of driving time from where the business is based, while acknowledging some exceptions.
Hybrid businesses
A hybrid business serves customers at its location and also travels or delivers to customers. A publicly displayed storefront should satisfy Google's staffing and customer-facing requirements.
Profile data
Categories, Phone Numbers, Websites, Hours, and Descriptions
Categories
Choose the fewest categories necessary to describe the core business. Categories should describe what the business is, not every service, amenity, department, or keyword related to it.
Phone number
- The number should be controlled by the business.
- It should direct customers to the actual business.
- Premium-rate phone numbers are not accepted.
Website
The website should represent the actual business or location and should not redirect users to an unrelated destination.
Business hours
Businesses with regular customer-facing hours should keep them accurate and use special hours when temporary schedules change.
Special cases
Duplicate Profiles, Departments, Practitioners, Chains, and Rebrands
Generally, use one profile per eligible business location
Google says businesses should not create more than one profile for each location unless a specific exception applies.
Individual practitioners
Eligible public-facing professionals such as doctors, dentists, lawyers, financial planners, insurance agents, and real estate agents can qualify under Google's practitioner guidelines.
Departments
Certain distinct public-facing departments within businesses, universities, hospitals, and government organizations may qualify for separate profiles.
Multi-location naming
Locations belonging to the same business in the same country generally should use the same business name unless legitimate real-world branding differences apply.
Rebranding
Minor qualifying rebrands can sometimes update an existing profile. A change that effectively creates a different business may require the old profile to be closed and a new one created.
Reviews
Google Review Policies Businesses Must Follow in 2026
Google's review rules are part of its broader Google Maps user-contributed content policies. Reviews and ratings should reflect real, genuine, unbiased customer experiences.
Read Google's current prohibited and restricted content policies .
Allowed
Ask genuine customers for reviews
Google allows businesses to encourage customers to leave genuine reviews and provides review links and QR codes for this purpose.
- Receipts
- Thank-you emails
- Customer chat interactions
- Printed materials
Not allowed
Paying for or incentivizing reviews
Google prohibits incentives in exchange for posting, changing, or removing reviews.
- Cash payments
- Discounts
- Free products
- Free services
- Other benefits tied to review activity
Review gating
Google prohibits discouraging negative reviews or selectively soliciting positive reviews.
Rating pressure
Businesses should not pressure or coerce customers to leave a particular star rating or specific wording.
Staff quotas
Google's rating-manipulation rules specifically identify requests that staff solicit a certain number of reviews.
Conflicts of interest
Google treats biased content caused by conflicts of interest as a review-policy concern. Potential conflicts can include employment, consulting relationships, professional affiliations, competitors, family relationships, and other personal affiliations.
What Google can do after fake-review activity
- Temporarily prevent the profile from receiving new ratings or reviews.
- Temporarily unpublish existing reviews or ratings.
- Display a consumer warning indicating that fake reviews were removed.
Read Google's Business Profile restrictions for policy violations .
Content
Google Business Profile Photos, Videos, Posts, and Content Policies
Prohibited and restricted content applies beyond reviews
Google's content policies cover areas such as fake engagement, impersonation, misinformation, misrepresentation, harassment, hate speech, personal information, offensive content, sexually explicit material, violent or dangerous content, illegal content, and off-topic contributions.
Photo guidelines
- JPG or PNG format.
- File sizes between 10 KB and 5 MB.
- Recommended resolution of 720 × 720 pixels.
- Minimum resolution of 250 × 250 pixels.
- Photos should be in focus and well lit.
- Images should represent reality rather than use excessive alterations.
Video guidelines
- Videos up to 30 seconds.
- File sizes up to 75 MB.
- Resolution of 720p or higher.
Business Profile post rules
Business Profile posts must comply with Google's prohibited and restricted content policies as well as post-specific rules.
Links
Google Business Profile Business Link Rules
Eligible profiles can include action links that let customers perform activities such as placing an order or booking an appointment.
Correct location
For a multi-location business, action links should lead to the applicable location rather than a generic page or another branch.
Completable action
A booking link should let the customer book, while an ordering link should let the customer complete an order.
Agencies
Google Business Profile Policies for Agencies and Third Parties
Marketing agencies, SEO companies, consultants, booking providers, ordering providers, and similar organizations managing profiles they do not own can be considered third parties under Google's policies.
Get consent first
Third parties may claim and manage a Business Profile only after obtaining the business owner's express consent.
Client ownership
End customers must retain ownership or co-ownership of their Business Profile.
No ranking guarantees
Google lists guarantees of top placement and promises that a profile will always appear in Search or Maps as misleading claims.
Return control
Google says third parties must provide a way for clients to regain exclusive control within seven business days after notice ending the relationship.
Scale
Multi-Location, Franchise, and Bulk Google Business Profile Management
Multi-location businesses must apply Google's core representation and content rules to every eligible location.
Keep chain names consistent
Locations belonging to the same business within the same country generally should use the same business name unless legitimate real-world branding differences apply.
Keep categories aligned
Locations offering the same core service should generally use the same primary category.
Bulk verification has specific requirements
Google's current bulk-verification process requires at least 10 qualifying profiles from the same business. Duplicate, suspended, and disabled profiles do not count toward that minimum.
Google's instructions also state that the bulk-verification process described there is not available for service-area businesses.
An agency cannot simply combine unrelated client businesses until it reaches 10 profiles and treat those profiles as one business for standard bulk verification.
Enforcement
Google Business Profile Suspensions, Restrictions, and Appeals
Google may restrict Business Profile content, limit account access, suspend a profile, disable a profile, or restrict a Google Account used to manage Business Profiles when applicable policies are violated.
Policy areas to audit after a suspension
- Business eligibility.
- The real-world business name.
- The listed address or service area.
- Duplicate profiles.
- Ownership and authorization.
- Misleading or prohibited profile content.
- Fake engagement or rating manipulation.
- Whether the profile accurately represents the actual business.
Step 1
Correct the problem
Review the cited policy and correct the violation before appealing where possible.
Step 2
Prepare evidence
Evidence can include business registrations, licenses, tax certificates, and business utility bills.
Step 3
Submit the appeal
Use Google's official appeal flow instead of creating a replacement profile.
Review disputes
How to Report a Google Review That Violates Policy
A review being negative or disputed does not by itself mean Google will remove it. The review should be reported when there is a genuine reason to believe it violates an applicable policy.
-
1
Identify the policy issue
Look for fake engagement, conflicts of interest, harassment, prohibited personal information, impersonation, or another applicable violation.
-
2
Report the review
Use the Business Profile or Google's applicable review-management tools.
-
3
Wait for Google's review
Google evaluates the content and determines whether it violates its policies.
-
4
Appeal when eligible
If Google initially finds no violation, eligible businesses can use the one-time review appeal process where available.
Read Google's instructions for reporting inappropriate reviews .
Review monitoring
Track Google Review Changes Instead of Relying Only on the Current Snapshot
Policy compliance and review monitoring solve different problems. Following Google's policies helps a business maintain a compliant profile. Review monitoring helps the business understand how its review data changes over time.
A Google review can disappear from public view, a business's total review count can change, and rating trends can shift over time. A business should not assume the cause of an individual review disappearance unless Google provides that information.
ReviewPanel helps businesses monitor Google reviews, maintain rating and review-count history, detect reviews that disappear after previously being recorded, preserve evidence, identify patterns, and organize review information for reporting.
Reporting
Use Review Data for Multi-Location Reporting and Audits
For franchises, agencies, and multi-location companies, profile compliance and review management can quickly become an operational reporting problem.
ReviewPanel provides review analytics and export tools that can help teams use Google review data for reporting, audits, spreadsheets, BI workflows, and stakeholder updates.
Checklist
Google Business Profile Compliance Checklist for 2026
Use this checklist to review one profile or build a repeatable compliance process across multiple locations.
- 1. Confirm eligibility. Make sure every profile represents a qualifying business or location.
- 2. Check ownership. Confirm owners and managers remain authorized.
- 3. Remove outdated users. Former employees, vendors, and agencies should not retain unnecessary access.
- 4. Audit the business name. Compare it with real-world signage and branding.
- 5. Check addresses. Confirm every listed address is a legitimate business location.
- 6. Review service areas. Hide addresses customers do not visit and keep service areas realistic.
- 7. Find duplicate profiles. Resolve unnecessary listings.
- 8. Review categories. Use categories describing the core business.
- 9. Check phone numbers. Make sure they connect to the actual business.
- 10. Check website destinations. URLs should represent the correct business or location.
- 11. Update hours. Keep regular and special hours accurate.
- 12. Audit descriptions. Remove prohibited or irrelevant material.
- 13. Review photos and videos. Make sure media accurately represents the business.
- 14. Review posts. Check for prohibited content and industry-specific restrictions.
- 15. Check action links. Make sure booking and ordering links go to proper destinations.
- 16. Audit review requests. Remove incentives, review gating, pressure tactics, quotas, and requests for specific ratings.
- 17. Review conflicts of interest. Avoid biased review activity.
- 18. Review agency permissions. Make sure clients retain appropriate ownership.
- 19. Keep evidence organized. Maintain relevant registrations, licenses, signage evidence, and other records.
Avoid these
Common Google Business Profile Policy Mistakes
Adding SEO keywords to the business name
Use the business's real-world name rather than converting the name field into a list of services and cities.
Using a rented mailing address as a storefront
A virtual mailing address does not become eligible merely because the company pays for it.
Creating another profile after losing access
Use Google's ownership-request process instead of creating a duplicate listing.
Displaying a residential address customers never visit
A service-area business should hide its address when customers are not served there.
Selecting every remotely related category
Google tells businesses to choose the fewest categories needed to describe the core business.
Offering discounts for Google reviews
Review incentives are prohibited.
Requesting reviews only from happy customers
Selective solicitation of positive reviews is prohibited.
Setting review quotas for employees
Google's rating-manipulation rules specifically address merchant requests that staff obtain a certain number of reviews.
Assuming every negative review violates policy
Negative opinions are not automatically policy violations.
Giving an agency permanent control
Google's third-party policy says clients must retain ownership or co-ownership.
Creating a new listing during a suspension appeal
Google explicitly instructs businesses not to create another Business Profile for the same business while an appeal is pending.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions About Google Business Profile Policies
What are Google Business Profile policies?
Google Business Profile policies are the eligibility, business-representation, ownership, content, review, and management rules businesses and authorized representatives must follow.
Can an online-only business have a Google Business Profile?
Generally, no. Google's current eligibility guidance lists online-only businesses among entities that are not normally eligible.
Can I use a virtual office for Google Business Profile?
Not simply because you rent the address. Google says a virtual mailing address where the business does not actually operate is not eligible.
Can I ask customers for Google reviews?
Yes. Businesses can request genuine reviews without offering incentives or manipulating which customers are asked.
Can I offer a discount for a Google review?
No. Google prohibits incentives tied to posting, changing, or removing reviews.
Is review gating against Google's policies?
Yes. Google prohibits discouraging negative reviews and selectively requesting positive reviews.
Can employees be required to collect a certain number of reviews?
Google's rating-manipulation policy specifically identifies merchant requests that staff solicit a certain number of reviews as prohibited behavior.
Can I remove a negative Google review?
You cannot remove a review simply because it is negative. You can report it when you believe it violates Google's policies.
Can an agency own my Business Profile?
Google's third-party policy says the client must retain ownership or co-ownership of the profile.
How many locations are required for bulk verification?
Google's standard bulk-verification process requires at least 10 qualifying profiles from the same business and includes additional requirements.
Does bulk verification work for service-area businesses?
Google's current bulk-verification instructions state that service-area businesses cannot use the bulk-verification process described there.
How long can a Business Profile appeal take?
Google currently says appeal reviews and decisions can take up to five business days.
How long do I have to submit appeal evidence?
If you open Google's optional evidence form after submitting an appeal, Google currently says the evidence must be submitted within 60 minutes to be attached to that appeal.
Can ReviewPanel restore a review Google removed?
No. ReviewPanel cannot override Google's moderation decisions. It helps track disappearing reviews, preserve available evidence, identify patterns, and maintain historical review data.
Primary sources
Official Google Business Profile Policy Resources
Google's documentation should remain the primary reference when a specific policy or enforcement issue affects your business.
- All Google Business Profile policies and guidelines
- Business eligibility and ownership guidelines
- Guidelines for representing your business on Google
- Verify your business on Google
- Video verification requirements
- Google Maps prohibited and restricted content
- Report inappropriate reviews
- Business Profile restrictions for policy violations
- Business Profile post content policy
- Business links policies and guidelines
- Business Profile third-party policies
- Business Profile bulk verification requirements
- Appeal Business Profile restrictions
ReviewPanel
Keep Google Review Changes From Becoming a Blind Spot
Following Google Business Profile policies helps keep profile information legitimate and accurate, but compliance alone does not provide a historical record of review changes across every location.
ReviewPanel helps local businesses, franchises, agencies, and multi-location organizations track Google reviews, detect disappearing reviews, preserve evidence, monitor rating and review-count history, compare locations, export data, and track local rankings.
It works alongside Google Business Profile rather than replacing Google's moderation, policies, verification, or appeal processes.