How to set up a Google Business Profile in Singapore, get verified and rank on Google Maps (2026)

Here’s the order that gets a Singapore business onto Google Maps: claim or create, verify, then the details Google ranks on. Every step comes from Google’s own Business Profile help pages, which we read on 2 November 2026. If you’d rather hand the whole job over, that’s what our Google Business Profile optimisation service does.

How your business appears to customers on Google Search and Maps

A Google Business Profile is the box that shows your business on Google Search and Google Maps. It carries your name, hours, phone number, photos and reviews, with buttons people tap to call you or get directions. Google lets you add or claim one at no charge.

It used to be called Google My Business. Google renamed it Google Business Profile, so you’ll see GMB and GBP used for the same thing, and older guides often describe screens that have since changed.

You manage it on Google itself. Sign in with the Google Account that owns the profile, then search “my business” or your business name and city. Run 10 or more outlets and Google points you to Business Profile Manager, where you edit them in bulk.

Can your business have a profile? Home, co-working and virtual offices in Singapore

Google gives a profile to a business that “must make in-person contact with customers during its stated hours”. A clinic that customers walk into qualifies, and so does an aircon contractor who goes to their homes, but an online-only shop or a lead generation company doesn’t.

Four Singapore cases trip people up:

• If the only address you have is the registered address your corporate secretary gave you for ACRA, and you just receive mail there, Google calls it a virtual office and won’t list it.
• If you rent a desk in a co-working space, it counts only when your office there has clear signage, receives customers during business hours and is staffed by your own people during those hours.
• If you run the business from your HDB flat, list it as a service-area business, which shows the areas you serve and hides your home address. Google’s own example is a plumber working from home.
• If you sell alcohol or another age-restricted product, Google won’t list you as a service-area business at all; you need a storefront.

Online-only businesses get pointed to Google Ads instead.

What you need before you claim and verify your business on Google

• A Google Account, on Gmail or your company email. Pick one the business keeps, because whoever controls that account controls the profile.
• Your business name exactly as it appears on your signboard and stationery.
• The address customers visit, with the unit number, or the areas you serve if they don’t visit you.
• A phone number a person answers, plus your website if you have one, and your opening hours.

How to claim a profile Google already made for your business

Search for your business before you create anything. Google builds some listings from information it finds elsewhere, so yours may already be there, unverified. You’re allowed one profile per business, and a duplicate won’t show on Search or Maps.

When your business is there and nobody has verified it, open Google Maps on your computer and search for your business name and city. Select Claim this business, then Manage now, and pick a verification option. On the Google Maps app, Claim this business sits under the About tab.

If an old agency or ex-staff member still owns it

Someone else verified the profile if Google shows “Someone else may manage this Business Profile”. This happens a lot when a former agency or a staff member who has since left set it up.

Go to business.google.com/add, enter your business name and address, choose your business and select Request access. Fill in the form. Google emails the current owner, who then has 3 days to reply.

Approved means it’s yours. Silence for 3 days may let you claim it from the link in Google’s confirmation email, though Google warns that option “isn’t always available”. A service-area business with no shop or office can’t use the form at all; Google asks you to contact its support and pick “Transfer ownership of listing”.

Once it’s yours, keep it that way. A profile can have several owners but only one primary owner, and Google tells agencies to let the business own the profile and add the agency as a manager. Managers can edit, reply to reviews and post. They can’t add or remove users or delete the profile. Sign in every so often too, because Google can take ownership away from an account that hasn’t signed in recently.

How to set up your Google Business Profile from nothing

With no profile to claim, go to business.google.com/add and select Add your business to Google. The on-screen steps ask for your business name and category, whether customers visit you, your address or service areas, and your phone number and website, before you pick a verification option. If Google suggests a match while you type the name, stop: that’s an existing profile to claim.

Singapore addresses need a little care. Google asks for suite numbers in Address line 2, so a unit like #08-37 goes there rather than in the street line. Check the map pin sits on your block too. If it doesn’t, select Adjust and move the map until it does.

Service areas work by area or postal code, up to 20 of them, and never as a radius. Google says the whole area shouldn’t stretch beyond about 2 hours’ drive from your base, which all of Singapore fits inside, so the real choice is naming the districts you actually cover. Edits to service areas can take up to 48 hours to show.

How to get verified, and what to film if Google asks for a video

Until you’re verified you can’t edit your business info or reply to reviews, and your photos stay hidden. Google picks the methods you’re offered from your business type, public information, region and hours. You can’t change them, some businesses have to verify more than one way, and if video is on the list Google recommends it.

While a postcard is on its way, leave your name, address and category alone and don’t ask for a new code. Either cancels the one in the post.

Google then reviews what you sent, which takes up to 5 business days and occasionally longer. Some profiles go through at once, for example when you’ve already verified your website in Google Search Console or you bulk verify 10 or more locations. An email tells you when it’s done.

What your verification video has to show

Plan it first. Google wants one unedited take, at least 30 seconds long, recorded live on your phone through your Business Profile; you can’t upload something you filmed earlier.

For a shop, clinic or office, film the street signs and block number so Google can place you. Then the signboard: your business name on a permanent fixture, and it has to match the name on your profile. Finish with something only staff can get to, like opening the cash register or the back room.

A service-area business films the street signs or landmarks near its base (your neighbourhood, if you work from home), the tools or branded van you use, and a document carrying your business name, such as an invoice or a utility bill.

Keep bank account, tax and ID numbers out of the frame, along with other people’s faces. When a video is turned down, select Review issues. Google lists what was missing, “Business name not visible on storefront” for example, and you record a new one that repeats everything from the first video and adds the missing parts.

Why a competitor shows up on the map and you don’t

Google says local results are mainly based on three things:

• Relevance: how well your profile matches the search. Complete, detailed information helps Google make the match.
• Distance: how far you are from the person searching, which you can’t change.
• Prominence: how well known you are. Google looks at how many websites link to you and how many reviews you have, and says more reviews and positive ratings can help.

It also says there’s no way to request or pay for a better local ranking, and that third parties can’t promise you a position. Treat any promise of a top map spot as a warning sign.

That leaves relevance and prominence for you to work on, and these fields carry most of it.

Pick the primary category that matches your main search

Your primary category tells Google which searches you match. Choose the most specific one on Google’s list, “Nail salon” rather than “Salon”, because you can’t make up your own. You can add up to 9 more for other services, though Google says not to add one per product or use categories as keywords. Changing a category can mean verifying again.

Use your real name, as it’s on your signboard

Extra words in the name are a common reason Google suspends a profile. Leave out taglines and area names, and leave out “Pte. Ltd.” unless your signboard and invoices show it. If your shopfront has the name in English and Chinese, pick one, because Google doesn’t allow the same name repeated in two scripts even when the signboard does it.

Keep your hours right, public holidays included

Set your regular hours first. Before Chinese New Year, Hari Raya, Deepavali and Christmas, add special hours so the profile doesn’t tell people you’re open when the shutters are down. Businesses that only see customers by appointment shouldn’t list hours at all, Google says.

Write the description customers read

The “From the business” section takes up to 750 characters. Use them on what you offer and how long you’ve been open. Google doesn’t allow links there and wants the text to be about the business rather than promotions or prices.

Fill in everything else

Add your attributes, such as parking or wheelchair access, plus your services, your website and booking links, and up to 2 more phone numbers. Once you’re verified, Google’s Profile Strength tool lists whatever is still missing. Some profiles also show a Chat option, which Google offers in select regions; if yours does, you can add a WhatsApp click-to-chat link there.

How to catch up when the shop down the road has twice your reviews

Reviews count twice. Google uses them for prominence, and customers compare yours with your competitor’s before they call. Google’s rule is that every review must reflect a genuine experience, and that shapes how you ask.

• Ask every customer, at the end of the job. On your profile, select Read reviews, then Get more reviews, to copy your link or download a QR code (the QR code can only be made on a computer). Print it on receipts or send the link on WhatsApp after the job.
• Offer nothing in return, not even a lucky draw entry. Google calls that fake engagement.
• Ask everyone, not only the customers you know are happy. Google’s policy also rules out giving staff a review quota or telling people what to write.
• When you answer a review, Google checks your reply before it goes up, usually within 10 minutes but sometimes up to 30 days, and the reviewer is told you replied. They can change their review after reading it.

For a bad review, keep the reply short and leave the customer’s details out of it. Say plainly what you can and can’t do, apologise when it’s on you, and offer to sort it out by phone. A review that breaks Google’s policies should be reported, not argued with in public.

Break the review rules yourself and Google can stop your profile getting new reviews for a set period, hide the reviews you already have, or put a notice on your profile telling customers that fake reviews were removed.

Old hours and opening-day photos tell customers you might be closed

Photos

Photos appear on Google only after you’re verified. Start with your shopfront, since it helps people recognise you when they arrive, then add the inside and your work over time. Google asks for JPG or PNG files between 10 KB and 5 MB, recommends 720 by 720 pixels and accepts 250 by 250 at the least. Keep them in focus and go easy on filters. Videos can run up to 30 seconds and 75 MB, at 720p or higher.

Posts

On phones, posts show on your profile’s Updates or Overview tab; on computers they sit under “From the owner”. An Update is news, with a photo or video and a button. An Offer needs a title and dates, and Google adds a View offer button to it. An Event needs dates too.

You can schedule any of them, or repeat one weekly or monthly. Posts older than 6 months get archived unless they have a date range. Leave phone numbers out. Google may reject a post with a number it can’t tie to your business, and it checks every post before it goes live anyway.

Google doesn’t say posts lift your ranking. A recent post shows a customer that someone is minding the business, and Google says that helps people decide to visit.

Suspended, duplicated or locked out: how to fix the common problems

Suspended. Google suspends profiles that break its guidelines, and the usual causes are the ones above, such as extra words in the name or a virtual office address. Fix the cause before you open the Business Profile appeals tool, then attach evidence carrying the same name and address as your profile, such as your ACRA business profile, a business licence, or an electricity, water, phone or internet bill. Each decision can be appealed once, so attach everything the first time, and don’t open a new profile for the same business.

Duplicated. Two profiles for one business break Google’s one-profile rule, and the duplicate won’t show. If a verified one already exists, request access to it. If Google merged two separate businesses that share an address, contact support with photos of both signboards.

Locked out. If whoever verified the profile has left, use Request access as described above. Lost the login yourself? Google’s Accounts troubleshooter recovers it.

“Get verified” is back on your profile. That means Google couldn’t fully verify you, often after a change to the name, address or category, and you verify again with whatever method it offers.

How to tell whether your profile is bringing you customers

On your profile, select Performance. It only works for verified profiles, and it counts both organic results and Google Ads.

• Searches: the terms people used to find you, updated at the start of each month and up to 5 days late.
• Views: people who viewed your profile, each counted once a day.
• Calls: taps on your call button, which needs a phone number on the profile. For most service businesses this is the line that turns into enquiries.
• Directions and website clicks, then messages and bookings if you use them.

Look once a month and compare it with the month you changed something. To see what those website clicks do on your site, link the profile to Google Analytics 4 under Admin, then Product links, then Google Business Profile links.

Frequently asked questions

Is Google My Business the same as Google Business Profile?

Yes. Google renamed Google My Business to Google Business Profile, and it’s the same free listing on Search and Maps.

Is Google Business Profile free?

Yes. Google charges nothing to add, claim, verify or manage a profile. Google Ads are separate and optional, and an agency charges for its own time if you hire one.

How long does verification take?

Up to 5 business days after you submit, occasionally longer. A postcard usually arrives within 14 days.

Can I have a profile without a shop?

Yes, if you meet customers in person. List it as a service-area business and hide your address. An online-only business can’t have one.

Can I manage several outlets from one account?

Yes. Each outlet customers visit gets its own profile, and all of them share one primary category. Once you have 10 or more, Business Profile Manager edits them in bulk and you can bulk verify. Our walkthrough on adding locations to your listing covers the steps.

Why can’t I see the Q&A section?

Google offers Q&A only for select business categories and regions, so it may not be on your profile.

Can an agency guarantee me the top spot on Google Maps?

No. Google says nobody can request or pay for a better local ranking, and that third parties can’t promise one.

Rather have someone else keep your profile current?

Our Google Business Profile optimisation service claims and verifies your profile in your name, then keeps your categories, hours, photos, posts and review replies up to date. It’s part of our local SEO plans, from S$700 a month on a yearly plan.

See local SEO plans