Google Business Profile
A Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is a free Google listing with which a company controls how it appears in Google Search and on Google Maps – with name, address, phone number, opening hours, photos and reviews.
In practice
Complete, up-to-date profiles – every field filled in, suitable categories chosen, new photos added regularly – help Google match a business to the right queries, according to its own documentation; patchy listings give that matching away. Managing a listing starts with verification – depending on the case by phone or text message, email, live video call or post. Which methods are offered is determined by Google itself; they cannot be chosen freely.