Short answer: Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is Google's free business listing that controls how a business appears on Google Search and Google Maps: hours, phone, photos, reviews and posts. Google ranks local businesses on three factors, relevance, distance and prominence, and ranking cannot be bought. Daaistudio looks after clients' profiles in its monthly SEO GEO plan, and the business always keeps ownership.
We checked Google autocomplete in Thailand on 27 October 2026. "google business profile คือ" (what is Google Business Profile) suggested "google business profile คืออะไร", "google business profile สมัคร" (sign up) and "google business profile ความ ช่วยเหลือ" (help), and in English "what is google business profile" suggested variants such as "manager", "post", "verification" and "seo". People want the meaning, the sign-up and fixes. We covered creating and verifying a profile in How to put your business on Google Maps. This post picks up from there: what the profile does, what Google ranks on, who should hold access, and what to look after once it exists, based on Google's own help pages.
What Google Business Profile is, and what it does
Google Business Profile is the business information people see when they search a business name, or search "near me", on Google Search and Google Maps. Google says creating one is free, and owners can use it for:
- Basic details: name, address or service area, hours, phone and website link.
- Products and services: lists, menus, and bookings or appointments.
- Reviews: reading and replying to customer reviews.
- Posts: news, offers and events.
- Insights: the searches people used to find the business, calls, reviews and bookings.
"Pinning" sets the location on the map, which is only one part of the profile. Many businesses pin and stop there, even though the rest of the profile is what customers use to decide.
How Google ranks businesses on Maps
Google's help page names three main factors for local results.
| Factor | What Google means | What an owner can do |
|---|---|---|
| Relevance | How well the profile matches what someone searches | Choose the right category, fill in services and details |
| Distance | How far the business is from the searcher | Cannot be changed, but the address and service area must be correct |
| Prominence | How well known the business is, including reviews and links from other sites | Ask real customers for reviews, reply to them, and have a website people refer to |
Google is direct about it: "There's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google." If someone sells a guaranteed Maps ranking, be careful.
Who should own the profile
A profile can have several users with different access, according to Google's help page.
| Role | Can do | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| Primary owner | Only one per profile, full control | The business owner, using a company email account |
| Owner | Everything, including adding or removing users and removing the profile | Partners or directors |
| Manager | Edit details, reply to reviews, post, but cannot add or remove users or remove the profile | Staff, or an outside team managing it |
A common problem: the profile was created with the personal email of a former employee, or of a marketer who is no longer hired. When that person cannot be reached, the business cannot edit its own listing. So we have clients hold ownership with the business's own email and add the studio's email as a user. If they ever stop working with us, they remove us at once and keep the profile.
Rules that get profiles suspended
Google has guidelines for representing a business. If they are broken, Google may remove information or suspend access to the profile. The ones we see broken most often:
- Keywords in the business name: the name must match the real name on the sign, website and stationery, with no taglines, services, locations or phone numbers added.
- Virtual offices or mailboxes: not eligible. The address must be where the business really is.
- Several profiles for one location: one location, one profile, apart from cases Google allows, such as separate departments or individual practitioners.
- Businesses that visit customers: one profile for the main office, hide the address if there is no storefront, and set a service area instead.
What to look after every month
- Hours: set special hours before public holidays. A customer who makes the trip and finds the place closed is a bad experience you can avoid.
- Posts: Google offers three types, updates, offers and events. Posts older than 6 months are archived unless a date range is set.
- Photos: add real photos of the place, products and team from time to time.
- Reviews: reply to every review, good or bad, in the same tone you use with customers in person.
- Changed details: Google's guidelines say Google decides how some details are shown and may use information from other sources, so check each month that hours, phone and address are still right.
- Match the website: services, prices and hours on the profile should match the website.
Google Business Profile and AI search
AI search tools such as Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Perplexity read business details from several sources before answering. If the profile says one set of hours and the website says another, AI may give customers the wrong answer without anyone meaning to. So the first job in our SEO GEO plan is to make the facts match across the website, the profile and review or booking sites, before writing new articles. More on this in What is AI search.
An example from our work: Brasserie 9 is a French restaurant in Sathorn, and its website appears on Google's first page for French restaurant Sathorn. The site says clearly what kind of place it is and where, which is the same set of facts that belongs in the business profile.
The Brasserie 9 website on Google's first page for French restaurant Sathorn (screenshot from the client report, October 2026). You can search this term yourself; results vary by location and time.
Advice from our client work
- Check who holds access first: many clients do not know whose email their profile sits in. Our first step is to review the user list and move ownership back to the business's email.
- Pick a narrow primary category: a French restaurant should be "French restaurant", not just "Restaurant". The primary category tells Google which searches to show the business for.
- Do not dress up the name to rank: adding keywords to the name may work briefly, but it risks suspending the whole profile, which is not worth it.
We hold a 5.0 rating on both Google and Fastwork, with 18 Fastwork jobs and 8 repeat clients, and the restaurants Al Saray and Brasserie 9 renewed for 6 months after their first 3. You work directly with the founder; the studio team builds under the founder's direction.
Want to know what your business profile is missing?
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Summary
Google Business Profile is a business's shopfront on Google Search and Maps. It is free to create but needs ongoing care. Ranking comes from relevance, distance and prominence, and cannot be bought. The business should hold ownership and give the team that manages it Manager access. Our website care + SEO GEO plan includes profile and review care, at ฿8,500 a month, first month ฿4,900. See the details on our monthly plans.
No one can guarantee Google rankings or AI answers. We show only real, measurable results.
Sources
- Google: Google Business Profile (free business listing)
- Google Business Profile Help: Tips to improve your local ranking on Google
- Google Business Profile Help: Manage owners and managers of a Business Profile
- Google Business Profile Help: Guidelines for representing your business on Google
- Google Business Profile Help: Create & manage posts on your Business Profile
- Google autocomplete, Thailand, Thai, English and Japanese (checked 27 Oct 2026)