How to set up and optimise a Google Business Profile in Dubai

Before you start

Gather what you'll need so you can finish in one sitting: your trade licence name, the exact address with building and unit, a phone number that is answered during business hours, your website URL, and a set of real photos. If you're a service-area business, write down the cities or areas you actually cover. Having this ready also helps if Google asks for video verification.

Step 1: Claim or create the profile

Search for your business name on Google Maps first. If a profile already exists, claim it rather than creating a duplicate. Google's guidelines don't allow more than one profile for each location. If someone else, such as a former employee or agency, already owns it, you can request ownership through Google; the current owner has a few days to respond before other options open up.

Step 2: Get the name right

Google requires your profile name to reflect your real-world business name, as used on your storefront, website and stationery. Adding keywords like "Best Salon Dubai Marina" breaks the guidelines and is a common reason for suspensions. Put location and service details in the other fields instead. Also note that changing the name after verification can mean verifying again, so get it right the first time.

Step 3: Address or service area

This is where Dubai businesses most often go wrong, because so many work from shared offices, free zone flexi-desks or home.

• If customers visit you, add your exact address, including building and unit.
• If you visit customers, such as cleaners, movers or mobile services, remove the address from the profile and set service areas instead.
• Google lets you set up to 20 service areas by city or area, not as a radius, and suggests keeping the overall area within about two hours' drive of your base.
• Don't use a virtual office or a P.O. box. Google says virtual offices aren't eligible, and a co-working office only qualifies if it has clear signage and is staffed and receiving customers during business hours.

Step 4: Verification

Google will ask you to verify that you run the business. Google decides which methods you're offered, and some businesses need more than one. Video recording is common in the UAE. Plan the recording before you press start: one continuous take that shows where you are, what you do, and that you control the place.

Google says verification reviews can take up to five business days, sometimes longer. Don't edit the name, address or category while it's under review.

Step 5: Fill in everything

On the description, Google's guidelines say no links of any kind and no focus on promotions or prices. I write it as two or three plain sentences a customer would find useful: what you do, who it's for, and where you are, using area names people recognise, such as "in JLT, near DMCC metro".

Step 6: Keep it alive

A profile isn't a one-off job. Google checks and updates details from many sources, and a profile nobody looks after slowly drifts out of date.

• Post updates, offers or events every week or two, if you have something real to say.
• Reply to every review. More on getting reviews the right way.
• Check the Performance tab monthly for calls, direction requests and website clicks.
• Review your details after any move, phone change or new service. A new address means verifying again.
• Watch for suggested edits from Google or the public, and correct anything wrong.

Clinics, law firms and agents

Google's guidelines allow public-facing practitioners, such as doctors, lawyers and property agents, to have their own profile, alongside the main location. Support staff can't. If you run a clinic in Dubai Healthcare City with several doctors, the clinic gets one profile and each doctor may have one in their own name. Don't create extra profiles for departments unless they genuinely operate as distinct entities with their own name and entrance.

Questions people ask