Business Profile setup
How should a law firm set up its Google Business Profile?
The setup end to end: the name Google allows, the address rules that catch law firms, service areas, one phone number, hours, categories, services and the description.
By Charlotte Thompson, Co-Founder, Ad Hoc Digital
Last updated
The short answer
If you read one part of this page, read this.
Set up a law firm's Google Business Profile exactly as the firm exists in the real world: the name on your sign with nothing added, the address of a staffed office where you meet clients, one phone number the firm controls, real office hours, a few specific categories, one service per case type, and a plain description with no links or prices.
Most of the trouble we see comes from trying to be clever. Keywords in the name, a virtual office in a second city, a profile for every practice area. Google's guidelines rule out all three, and the penalty ranges from edits being rejected to the whole profile being suspended.
The profile is free, it feeds Google Maps and Google's AI answers, and Local Services Ads won't run without a verified one. We set it up for every firm we onboard for AI search. We work with law firms across the US and Canada, and also in Australia and the UK.
Who qualifies
A law firm qualifies because it meets clients in person during its stated hours.
Google's eligibility rule is simple: the business must make in-person contact with customers during its stated hours. A firm with a staffed office passes. A practice that only ever meets clients online doesn't.
- Eligible
A firm with an office where clients can walk in during posted hours, or a lawyer who meets clients at their homes, the hospital or the jail and runs the practice from a real base.
- Not eligible
Google lists "Lead generation agents or companies" and "online-only businesses" as ineligible. A referral website dressed up as a law firm, or a fully virtual practice that never meets anyone in person, has no claim to a profile.
- Who should own it
The firm. Google says only business owners or authorized representatives may verify and manage a profile, and that a representative must transfer ownership to the owner immediately on request. We're added as managers on our clients' profiles; the firm keeps primary ownership.
The name
Use the name on your sign and letterhead, with nothing added.
Google says your name should reflect the real-world name used on your storefront, website and stationery. Adding keywords, a city or a phone number "could result in the suspension" of the profile.
| What gets added | Not allowed | Use instead |
|---|---|---|
| Practice keywords | Rivera Law, Car Accident Lawyer | Rivera Law |
| Location | Rivera Law Downtown Tampa | Rivera Law |
| Tagline | Rivera Law, Fighting For You | Rivera Law |
| Phone or website | Rivera Law 555-0100 | Rivera Law |
| Legal suffix | Rivera Law, PLLC | Rivera Law, unless your signage and stationery consistently show the suffix |
The suffix row surprises lawyers. Google treats "irrelevant legal terms (e.g. LLC, LTD, INC)" like special characters: you can only include them with real-world proof such as signage and business cards that show them every time. When we build a profile, we drop PLLC, PC and LLP from the name unless the firm really uses them on its sign.
Your practice areas, city and phone all have their own fields. Put them there. The categories guide covers how to say what the firm does without touching the name.
Address and service area
Show the address of a staffed office, and set service areas only if you also go to clients.
Google wants a precise, real-world address with permanent signage. A rented mailing address you don't work from isn't eligible, and that's the rule that trips up law firms most.
- Virtual offices
Google's words: if your business "rents a physical mailing address but doesn't operate out of that location, also known as a virtual office, that location isn't eligible for a Business Profile." P.O. boxes are out too, and Google says a profile set at one will be suspended.
- Shared and co-working offices
Allowed only if the office keeps clear signage, receives clients there during business hours, and is staffed by your own people during those hours. A day-pass desk in an executive suite doesn't meet that. Put a suite number in Address Line 2.
- Storefront, hybrid or service-area
Most firms are storefronts: clients come to the office. A firm that also visits clients can add service areas as a hybrid. A lawyer who never meets clients at the base address should hide it and list service areas only. Google allows up to 20 service areas, within about 2 hours' drive of where you're based.
- Service areas and licenses
Google doesn't check your bar admission on the profile, but your licenses still limit where you can take clients. Keep service areas inside them, the same way our LSA categories guide explains for Local Services Ads.
Phone, website and hours
One phone number the firm controls, the homepage, and the hours the office is actually open.
Google asks for a number under the business's direct control that reaches your location, a website that represents it, and your regular customer-facing hours.
- Phone
Google prefers a local number to a central call center line and bans numbers that redirect callers to anyone other than the business. You can add up to 2 more numbers, but we put one on each profile: the firm's main intake line, which rings the firm and logs every call. Our guide to call tracking explains why one consistent number matters.
- Messages
Google ended Business Profile chat on July 31, 2024. For eligible accounts, people can now text you or use WhatsApp from the profile. We switch on text and route it to the same intake number.
- Website
Link the homepage, or for a second office, that office's own page. Google says the website for a profile should be the single, authoritative site for the business.
- Hours
Enter office hours. An answering service that picks up at night is phone cover, not office hours, so we never set "Open 24 hours" because of it. Google also says businesses that operate only by appointment shouldn't list hours, which matters for a lawyer with no staffed front desk.
Categories, services, description
Say what the firm does in categories, services and the description, never in the name.
Categories tell Google what kind of firm you are. Services list each case type. The description explains who you help, in up to 750 characters.
- Categories
One primary category plus up to 9 more, chosen from Google's list. Google asks for the fewest it takes to describe your core business. Picking them well is its own decision, covered in our categories guide.
- Services
One service for each case type the firm takes, each with a short description written for that case type. Google rejects custom service names with prices or phone numbers. We also remove services Google adds by itself that the firm doesn't offer.
- Description
Google allows 750 characters and no links of any kind. We write what the firm does, who it serves, where, and how long it has practiced if that's over five years, and we leave out fees, results and the phone number. The lawyer advertising rules apply to it like any other ad; our advertising rules overview has the basics.
- Opening date
Add the month and year the firm opened. Google may use it to show how long you've been in business.
The practice list comes from the firm, confirmed in writing, never from what the website happens to mention. A family firm that stopped taking adoptions three years ago shouldn't have an adoption service on its profile because an old page still exists.
Step by step
The order we set up a law firm's profile in.
Doing it in this order keeps you from triggering a second verification halfway through, and gets the firm's approval on the parts that are hard to change later.
Search for what already exists
Look up the firm's name and city on Google and Maps. Old profiles, a departed partner's profile and duplicates show up here. Google allows one profile per location, so a second one gets merged or removed, never left running.
Claim or create, then verify
Sign in with an account the firm owns. Verification comes before almost everything else; our verification guide covers each method.
Agree the fixed facts with the firm
Name, address, primary category and practice list. We put these in front of the firm for approval before anything goes live, because changing them later can send the profile back through verification.
Fill in contact details and hours
One phone number, texting to the same line, the homepage, office hours, languages, and the booking link if the firm has one.
Add services and the description
One service per case type, then the description, spaced into short paragraphs so it reads cleanly on a phone.
Add photos and a review link
Logo, cover and real photos of the office and team, then the direct review link. The posts and photos guide has our photo rules, and our reviews guide covers asking.
Check it monthly
Google's terms say it may show an edited version of your content, or content from another source. Look at the live profile once a month and reject changes that aren't true.
What it feeds
The profile feeds Maps, Local Services Ads and Google's AI answers.
Google says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and prominence, and that there's no way to pay for a better local ranking. A complete, verified profile is the part you control.
- Maps and the local results
Google says verified businesses are more likely to show up, complete and accurate profiles do better, and more reviews and positive ratings can help. Distance you can't change.
- Local Services Ads
Google requires a public, verified Business Profile before Local Services Ads will run, and the reviews on the ad come from the profile. The DUI defense solo who made $13,500 from $600 in ad spend did it on an LSA listing that rests on this groundwork. Our Google Verified guide has the rest of the checks.
- AI answers
People now ask Google's AI tools for lawyers, and those answers are built from what Google already knows about local firms. Our Gemini guide sets out what Google actually documents about how its AI uses profile data.
Below about $1,000 a month in total ad spend, we usually tell firms to put the effort into the profile and reviews before paying for ads at all.
From our client work
The profiles that work for firms are boring and accurate, and someone checks them.
We see the same pattern on new and long-established firms: the profile matches the sign, the website and the directories, and it gets a look every month.
One boutique tax firm came to us early, and we started with its reputation: profiles, presence and the look of an established firm, then added ads. Today more of its cases come from referrals than from paid. A new business law firm spent six months on a reputation build and now gets approached by prospective clients and referral partners. Neither result is the profile alone, but neither happens with a profile that looks abandoned.
- This week: search your firm's name and city, and note every profile that comes up.
- Compare the name on the profile with your sign, and remove anything else.
- Check the phone number, hours and website against what's true today.
- List the case types you take, and compare them with the services on the profile.
- Confirm the firm, not a past vendor, is the primary owner.
If you'd rather we look at it with you, schedule a consultation. Our family law marketing and personal injury marketing pages show where the profile fits in a full plan.
Common mistakes
Where firms go wrong.
These are the setup mistakes we fix most often when a firm hands us an existing profile.
Keywords in the business name
"Smith Law | Divorce Lawyer Austin" breaks two rules at once: Google lists service information and location information as things a name must not include, and says unnecessary information can get the profile suspended.
A profile for a virtual office
A mailing address in a second city, with no staff and no sign, is exactly what Google calls ineligible. Google also says a pattern of violations can restrict the account, and a restricted account has every profile it manages suspended, the real office included.
Open 24 hours
An answering service doesn't make the office open. Someone who drives over at 9 p.m. finds a locked door and leaves a review about it.
Services the firm doesn't take
Old website pages and Google's own suggestions both add case types the firm dropped. Every wrong service is a call the front desk has to turn away.
A vendor owns the profile
We still take over profiles where a past agency is the primary owner. Google says representatives must hand ownership back on request; ask for it in writing.
Real results
What this looked like for real firms.
Firms where the profile and the rest of the firm's public presence came first, and the results that followed.
Identifying details are anonymized to protect our clients. Individual result, not a promise or prediction of any specific outcome for your firm.
FAQ
Questions lawyers ask us.
Straight answers to the questions that come up most.
Is a Google Business Profile free for a law firm?
Yes. There's no charge for the profile, and Google says there's no way to pay for a better local ranking. Calls from the profile cost nothing, which is why we build it before any ad spend. Local Services Ads are separate and paid per lead, but they need a verified profile first.
Can I put my practice area in the business name?
Only if it's genuinely part of the firm's real-world name, on your sign and stationery. Otherwise Google treats it as unnecessary information, which can lead to suspension. Use categories and services for practice areas instead; our categories guide explains how.
I work from home and meet clients elsewhere. Can I have a profile?
Yes, as a service-area business, as long as you meet clients in person. Hide the home address and set the areas you serve, up to 20, within about 2 hours' drive. A practice that only meets clients online isn't eligible under Google's rules.
Should each lawyer at the firm have their own profile?
Google allows it for public-facing lawyers who can be reached at the verified office during stated hours, and the firm keeps its own profile too. It has trade-offs, such as reviews spread across profiles. Our guide on profiles for each office or each lawyer covers when it makes sense.
Do we need to list our hours?
If your office has staffed hours, yes, list them. Google's guidelines say businesses that operate only by appointment shouldn't provide hours, so a lawyer with no front desk who sees clients only by appointment may leave them off. Never list the answering service's hours as office hours.
Does the profile work for firms in Canada, the UK and Australia?
Yes. The guidelines are the same, and in Canada and Australia, where Local Services Ads aren't offered for lawyers, the profile carries even more weight. Use "lawyer" wording in Canada. Our Canada guide has the other differences.
What if our profile gets suspended?
Don't create a new one. Fix whatever broke the guidelines, then appeal once, with documents that show the firm's name and address. Our suspension guide walks through it, or schedule a consultation and we'll look at it with you.
Where we do this
The services this guide touches.
What this looks like when we run it for a firm, with a demo for your practice on each page.
Sources
Where these facts come from.
Official pages we read when writing this page. Platforms and rules change, so check the current version before you act on any of it. This is marketing guidance, not legal advice.
- Google Business Profile Help, Guidelines for representing your business on Google
- Google Business Profile Help, Business eligibility and ownership guidelines
- Google Business Profile Help, Overview of Google Business Profile policies
- Google Business Profile Help, Edit your Business Profile
- Google Business Profile Help, Manage your service areas for service-area and hybrid businesses
- Google Business Profile Help, Manage your services on your Business Profile
- Google Business Profile Help, Tips to improve your local ranking on Google
- Google Business Profile Help, Manage your Business Profile owners and managers
- Google Business Profile Help, Additional Terms of Service for Business Entities
- Google Business Profile Help, Changes to Business Profile chat and call history
- Google Local Services Help, About Google Business Affiliation
Written by
Co-founder of Ad Hoc Digital. Leads social media and content, runs onboarding for new client firms, and is on the regular check-in calls with clients.
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