Google Business Profile for a Mysuru Shop: A Checklist
By the Fauxigent team
Your Google Business Profile (once called Google My Business) is the free listing that appears on Google Maps and in search when someone nearby looks for what you sell, and a complete, accurate one is the single most useful thing a local business can set up. You can do it in about 30 minutes with a Google account, your real address, a phone number you control and a handful of photos. This checklist takes you through it in order, and ends with the mistakes that get profiles suspended.
Everything below about Google's rules comes from Google's own help pages, which we read on 25 September 2026. Google changes its interface and rules, so check the current pages before you rely on a detail. Where a point is our own reading or experience and not Google's wording, we say so.
Before you start
Have these ready.
- A Google account you will keep. Use one that belongs to the business, not to a former employee or an agency.
- Your real address, written the way it appears on your bills.
- A local phone number that you control and that customers can actually reach.
- The business name exactly as it appears on your signboard, website and invoices.
- Five to ten photos you took yourself: the front of the shop, inside, your team at work, your products or work.
Then search for your business on Google Maps. If a listing already exists, you claim it, and you do not create a second one. One profile per location is Google's rule, and duplicates cause trouble later.
The checklist, in order
- Claim or create the profile. Search Google Maps for your business name. If it appears, choose the option to claim it. If not, add it as a new business.
- Enter the name you actually trade under. Google says the name must accurately represent your business as it appears on your storefront, website and stationery. Its profile guidelines list what is not allowed in a name: marketing taglines, service descriptors, phone numbers or web addresses, business hours, location details ("near the palace"), and legal terms such as LLC, LTD or INC unless they are part of your real-world name. In our reading the same reasoning covers "Pvt Ltd" and "LLP": use them only if your signboard and invoices do.
- Choose the primary category carefully. Google asks for as few categories as possible and for the most specific one that describes your core business. A useful test is to complete the sentence "This business is a…", not "This business has a…". Do not use categories as keywords. Google adds more general categories behind the scenes.
- Set the address, or the service area. Use a precise, accurate address for a real location. P.O. boxes are not accepted, and virtual offices are not eligible unless they are staffed during business hours with clear signage. If you also go to customers, Google's guidance is to keep a service area within about two hours' driving time.
- Set hours only if you keep them. If customers can walk in at set times, enter those. Google's guidelines say businesses that work strictly by appointment should not enter hours, so if that is you, leave them out and put "by appointment" in the description instead.
- Add your phone number and website. Use a number that connects to your own business, and link to your own website. Do not send the link through a redirect to another page.
- List your services or products in plain words, the way customers ask for them.
- Write the description. Keep it to what you do and where, with no web addresses and no offers or prices. The description is limited (widely reported as 750 characters, so watch the counter as you type), and only the start is normally shown, so say what you are and where you are in the first sentence.
- Add photos. See the next section.
- Verify. See the section after that.
Photos that pass
Google's photo and video guidelines accept JPG or PNG files between 10 KB and 5 MB. It recommends 720 by 720 pixels and sets a minimum of 250 by 250. Photos must be in focus and well lit, without heavy filters, and must represent reality. Videos can be up to 30 seconds, up to 75 MB, at 720p or higher.
Start with these, all real:
- Your logo, so people recognise you.
- A cover photo that shows the business at its best.
- The outside of the shop or clinic, taken from the road, so a first-time visitor knows what to look for.
- The inside, including the counter or waiting area.
- People at work, with permission from anyone in the frame.
- Products or finished work.
Do not use stock photographs or pictures of someone else's premises.
Verification
After you submit the profile, Google asks you to verify it. Google decides the method for your business and you cannot change it. The options are a phone or text code, an email, a recorded video, a live video call, or a postcard. On a live video call Google asks you to show your location, your equipment and proof that you manage the business, and live calls are only available during the business hours on the profile. Postcards usually arrive within 14 days, and the code expires after 30. If verification fails, the "Get verified" button returns and you can try again with another method if one is offered.
Reviews: ask, do not buy
Reviews are part of how Google decides who is prominent, and buying or bending them can cost you the profile. Google's policy on fake engagement is clear on the main points.
- Do not offer anything in return for a review: no payment, no discount, no free product.
- Do not pressure customers to leave a review while they are on your premises, and do not ask staff to collect a set number of reviews.
- Do not review your own business, and do not have staff or anyone with a business relationship with you do it.
- Do not post about a competitor to damage them.
What is allowed is asking real customers to share a genuine experience, without any incentive. A polite message after a job is done, with your profile's review link, is enough. Then reply to every review, the good and the bad.
The first month
Once the profile is live, spend ten minutes a week on it.
- Add a new photo.
- Reply to any new reviews.
- Check the name, address and phone against your website and other listings.
- Look at how many people called, asked for directions or visited your website.
Mistakes that get profiles suspended
- Keywords or taglines in the name. "Sharma Sweets - Best Mysore Pak in Mysuru" is a keyword name. "Sharma Sweets" is the name.
- A fake or shared address, or a virtual office you do not staff.
- Duplicate profiles for the same location.
- Bought, incentivised or fake reviews.
- Changing the name again and again. After recent changes to business details, Google may ask you to verify again. Decide the name once.
- Phone numbers that do not reach you.
Keep everything the same everywhere
Your name, address and phone number should read the same on your profile, your website footer, your Justdial and Sulekha listings and your social media pages. Copy the format exactly, down to how you write "Cross" or "Main Road". Inconsistent details make it harder for Google to tell which business is which, and they can hold a good profile back.
Writing a Mysuru address
Mysuru addresses often use layout names, stages and cross numbers, and streets are hard for a stranger to find. Write your address the way it appears on your bills and in your other listings, and use the description to help people find you, with a landmark or how to reach you from a main road. Searchers ask "near me" in neighbourhoods such as Vijayanagar, Saraswathipuram and Hebbal, so it helps to be accurate about which one you are in.
Where a website fits
The profile is the first thing many people see, and the website is what they check next. If you do not have one yet, read what a website costs in Mysuru before you ask for quotes. If you would rather have someone set up and look after the profile with the website and reviews, that is what we do as an SEO company in Mysuru.