It is free, it takes an afternoon, and for a local business it carries more weight than the website. How to claim it, verify it and configure it so you show up on the map when someone searches near you.
If you run a business with customers in Costa Rica and you can only do one thing this month to show up on Google, do this one. The Business Profile is free, it takes an afternoon to set up, and for a local business it matters more than the website: it is what puts you on the map and in the block of three results that appears above everything else when someone searches for a service near them.
What it is and why it carries so much weight
It is the panel that appears on the right when someone searches for your business by name, and what puts you on the map when they search by category. It shows your hours, your phone number, your photos, your reviews and a directions button.
Google treats it as a source of information separate from your website. You can have no site at all and appear on the map; you can have an immaculate site and never appear. They are two different jobs and both are worth doing.
Claiming and verifying the listing
Search for your business on Google. If a listing already exists, it is because someone created it or Google generated it from public data: it has to be claimed. If nothing appears, create it at google.com/business with the account you want to own it — use a company account, not the personal one belonging to an employee who will eventually leave.
Then comes verification, which is where most people get stuck. Google may ask for a video of the premises, a call, an email or a postcard. If you get the video, have the sign, the interior and something that proves you manage the place ready. Without verification, the listing does not show.
How to fill it in so it pays off
The most common mistake is completing it halfway. Google favours complete listings, and every empty field is a reason to show someone else:
- The exact primary category. "Website designer" and "Advertising agency" compete for different searches: pick the one that describes what you do, not the one that sounds better.
- The name exactly as it is. Do not add keywords: it is grounds for suspension and it does not help.
- Real opening hours, holidays included. Wrong hours generate one-star reviews from people who showed up to a closed door.
- A local phone number and a link to the site.
- Service area if you travel to the client, or an exact address if they visit you.
- Your own photos: storefront, interior, team, finished work. Stock photos are obvious and build no trust.
- The products or services section, with short descriptions.
Reviews are the deciding factor
Between two similar businesses, the map shows the one with more reviews and a better rating first. There is no shortcut: you have to ask. What works is asking at the moment of peak satisfaction — right as you deliver the work, not three months later — and sending the direct review link, which Google gives you from the dashboard.
Reply to all of them, the bad ones included. A calm reply to a two-star review is more convincing than ten five-star reviews in a row. And never buy reviews: Google detects them and the penalty lands on the whole listing.
Keeping it alive
A listing that goes untouched for six months loses ground to an active one. Posting something every two or three weeks — a finished job, a promotion, a change of hours — and adding new photos now and then is enough. That is fifteen minutes that pays off better than almost anything else you could do with the time.
How it connects to your site
The two reinforce each other. The link from the listing sends traffic to the site, and having your name, address and phone number written on the site exactly as they appear on the listing confirms to Google that they describe the same business. That consistency — same address, same phone, everywhere — is one of the most underrated factors in local SEO.
If you like, we can review your listing together with your site and tell you what is missing. It is a short conversation and it costs nothing.
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