You can also edit your information before you verify your business. The changes can include the name, category, address, hours, phone number, and website. After choosing a primary Google my Business category, it is possible to add up to 9 secondary categories. Google has a feature that allows searchers to message you directly from your Google My Business listing.
Google will grant you full management access to your new business listing seven days after you become the new owner. If your business name pre-populates, this means that there’s a pre-existing listing (or a business that also shares the same name). You can display your business hours, contact information, services, and more through your Google Business Profile. Now that you’ve set up your Google My Business listing and it’s visible on Google Search, I recommend tracking its performance.
Businesses with well-optimized Google Business Profiles are much more likely to appear in these results. Doing so will improve your chances of ranking, and help build backlinks from your Google Business Profile to your website. Setting this can help create uniqueness, disambiguate businesses with multiple locations, and also help businesses appear in Google’s Knowledge Graph. Once you remove your address, Google will use the service area you set to determine who your profile is relevant to.
If the available verification options for your business don’t work for you, you can contact the Google Business Profile team through their help center. Verifying your business proves to Google that you indeed manage the business listing that you are trying to claim. One of the biggest rankings factors are Google My Business categories, which strongly influence what searches will trigger visibility for your business in Google Search. Instead, Google will show a service area on your listing based on the localities that you’ve selected as service areas.
If you selected No for the option above, this is commonly referred to as service area businesses (also called SABs), meaning that the business delivers goods and services to customers.