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How do I verify my business on Google? And what’s next?

Get your Google Business Profile verified and take it to the next level with Semrush Local

Joshua SaxonJune 27, 20236 min read

So, you’ve set up your Google Business Profile, or claimed an existing one, but you’re stuck at the verification stage. Verifying your business on Google can seem tricky when you’ve never done it before, but it’s actually a straightforward process with multiple options to get your profile online. And once it’s done, you’ll be ready to start integrating your profile with powerful local SEO tools like Semrush Local's Listing Management to really start to improve your online visibility.

Verifying your business on Google

Once you’ve added your business to Google, you’ll be asked which verification method you want to use to prove you’re the legitimate business owner. You can verify your Google Business Profile by phone, text, email, postcard, video recording or live video call. The standard verification method is via postcard, especially for businesses with a physical location, because it's the simplest way to prove you have access to the premises. So even if you choose an alternative verification method, you might be obliged to verify by postcard as well. Let’s go through the process of verifying your business on Google from the beginning:

Step one

Make sure you added your business address correctly during the profile creation process (you can edit this by pulling up your profile on Search or Maps).

A screengrab of where to add your address before you verify your business on Google

If you don’t have a business address because you go out to visit clients in your area, you can choose to include your service area only, but you’ll still be asked for your personal address to verify your business on Google.

Step two

Choose your verification method. You’ll probably be asked to verify by postcard, but if that’s impractical, you can try verifying by phone, text, email, video recording or live video call.

The screen to verify your business on Google

Step three

Wait up to 14 days for your postcode to arrive. Once you have it, bring up your Google Business Profile via Search or Maps and click “Get verified” to enter your five-digit code. If you chose a different verification method, you should be verified on Google a bit sooner than two weeks.

If you’re struggling to verify your business on Google, you can contact the Google Business Profile help center.

Congratulations! You've successfully verified your business on Google! But that’s not the end of your local SEO story…

With Semrush Local's Listing Management, you’ll take your business to the next level of online visibility by building out a solid citation presence, managing your reviews the right way, and reliably tracking your local position on your journey to the top.

Discover new citation opportunities

Now you’re verified, it’s time to connect your Google Business Profile to Semrush’s Listing Management and really improve your local rankings. First, you’ll want to add a few more citations so Google knows you mean business. But which directories are worth submitting to? How much traffic do they get? And do you really have to search for your business, including previous company names, in every directory to make sure you don’t post a duplicate listing? Relax. Listing Management takes care of everything, checking your Google Business Profile against the top directories in your country and pinpointing the best opportunities to easily earn a citation and link.

Save yourself a lot of busy work

Once you’ve identified the hottest opportunities for getting your business out there, leverage Listing Management to do all the time-consuming leg work for you.
Manually creating profiles on 70+ of the best citation websites involves a lot of spreadsheets and password organizing that most business owners and marketers could do without.
Listing Management gets your NAP data (name, address, phone number) onto the top directories that Google checks to verify your online presence and decide where to rank you.
Plus, you only have to connect your verified Google Business Profile once to upload your details and the tool will take it from there.

A screengrab of Semrush’s Listing Management connecting to important directories

Stay on top of your Google reviews

Once you’ve verified your Google Business Profile and connected it to Listing Management, it’s time to start shining up your star rating. A big part of increasing your local visibility on Google is campaigning for more reviews, but getting back to each one can soon become unwieldy. But with a verified Google Business Profile connected to Listing Management, you’ll be able to monitor all your reviews in one place thanks to Semrush Local's Review Management tool, not just for Google, but across every platform your business is listed on. And for ultimate peace of mind, the Reply Rate widget lets you know when you’ve thanked everyone for their feedback (or that you've got a few people you still need to get back to).

Track your profile’s progress

Google Business Profile verification is an essential step before you can start improving your rankings for local search terms. So with that out of the way, you’re now ready to begin your journey to the top with Semrush Local and track your successes with some useful reporting tools. The Local Ranking tab in Listing Management gives you an average position for up to five keywords—far more reliable than checking Google for positions from your own account. Premium users can dive deeper and see rankings in a specified area at a glance with the Map Rank Tracker tool.