Google Business Profile verification: every method, what to film for a video, and what to do when it fails.

Short answer: to verify a Google Business Profile, open the profile while signed in to the Google account that owns it, select Get verified, and use one of the methods Google offers: a phone call or text, an email, a recorded video, a live video call or a postcard. Google decides which methods you see. After you finish, Google reviews it, which can take up to five working days. Don’t change your business name, address or category while you wait.

What verification is, and why it matters

Verification is Google checking that you really run the business on the profile. Google’s own help page puts it simply: to edit your business information and interact with customers, you need to verify (Google Business Profile Help). Until then you can’t properly fix your hours, add photos or reply to reviews, and anyone can suggest edits that change how you appear.

It is also the first step for everything that helps you show up. Your category, services, service area and review replies all sit behind it. That’s why verification is near the top of our Google Business Profile checklist.

Before you start: five things to get right

• Use a Google account the business owns. Not a staff member’s personal Gmail. If that person leaves, the profile can leave with them. Add your web person or agency as a manager later rather than sharing the login.
• Use your real business name, exactly as it appears on your signage, invoices and website. Google’s guidelines don’t allow extra keywords or a suburb added to the name, and a mismatch makes verification harder.
• Decide shopfront or service area. If customers don’t come to your address, hide it and set a service area. Plumbers, cleaners, mobile mechanics and most trades are service-area businesses.
• Make sure you can answer the business phone. Google’s phone check won’t get through an automated answering menu.
• Verify your website in Google Search Console first if you can. Google says a profile can sometimes be verified instantly when the website is verified there.

The verification methods, and how each one works

Google says the verification methods are chosen automatically and can’t be changed. What you see depends on your business type, public information, region and opening hours. Some businesses need more than one method.

In our experience, video is the method most small businesses get wrong the first time, so plan it before you press record.

Video verification: what to film

Google’s video verification rules are specific. The video must be recorded live, in one take with no breaks, for at least 30 seconds, and filmed and uploaded from your phone through your Business Profile. You can’t record it beforehand and upload it later. Don’t show bank, tax or ID numbers, private information, or other people’s faces.

What it needs to show depends on the kind of business.

Shopfronts and hybrid businesses

• Where you are: street signs, building numbers, or the businesses next door, so Google can match the spot to the map.
• That the business exists: your shopfront and signage, with your business name on a permanent fixture. It must match the name on your profile.
• That you manage it: something only staff can access, such as opening the till, the kitchen or the storeroom.

Service-area businesses (most tradies)

• Where you operate: street signs or landmarks near your business address. If you work from home, Google says you can film signs and landmarks in your immediate neighbourhood.
• That the business exists: your tools, equipment, workspace, business cards or branded work shirts.
• That you manage it: you doing the work, or unlocking a van with your business branding on it. A business document such as an invoice that matches your profile name also counts.

After you submit

Google reviews what you’ve sent. For most methods, that review takes up to five working days, and occasionally longer. When it’s done, you get a confirmation email and the profile is yours to manage.

While you wait:

• don’t edit your business name, address or category, because a postcard code stops working if you do;
• don’t request a second postcard, because the first code is cancelled and it starts again;
• never share the verification code with anyone, including people who help manage your profile. Google says it will never ask you for it.

When verification fails

A few things can happen, and each has a fix.

• The Get verified button appears again. Google couldn’t fully verify the business. Try again, using another method if one is offered.
• A Review issues notice after a video. The video wasn’t accepted. Open the notice, read the reasons and record a new one that covers them.
• You’re asked to re-verify after an edit. Changing details like your name or address can trigger another check. Follow the steps again.
• Someone else already owns the profile. A former staff member or an old agency may control it. Google has a process to request ownership of an existing profile.

If nothing works and no methods are offered, contact Google Business Profile support from inside the profile. Don’t create a second profile for the same business to get around it. Duplicates split your reviews and cause more trouble than they solve. If the profile has been suspended rather than left unverified, that’s a different problem: see Google Business Profile suspended or posting disabled.

The verification mistakes we see most

• A suburb or keyword added to the business name on the profile, which then doesn’t match the signage in the video.
• A home address showing publicly because the profile was set up as a shopfront.
• A profile created on an employee’s or a previous web designer’s account, so the owner can’t get in.
• Repeated postcard requests, each one cancelling the last.
• A video that never shows the business name, or stops at 20 seconds.

Once you’re verified

Verification on its own won’t move you up the map box. It gives you the controls. The next jobs are the ones that help Google match you to searches: the right primary category, a full services list, your service area, opening hours, real photos and replies to every review. Our checklist covers each one, and if your profile is verified but you still can’t find it, start with why isn’t my business showing on Google?

For our clients, the business owns its profile on its own Google account and adds us as a manager. That way the owner never loses access, and we can do the work. It’s part of our Google Business Profile optimisation.

Frequently asked questions