Google Business Profile by industry

Google publishes one set of guidelines for representing a business, with additional guidelines for chains and brands, departments, and individual practitioners such as doctors, lawyers, and real estate agents. On top of that, Google's category page says special features may be available based on the business category: hotels can show class ratings and list amenities, restaurants can add links for online orders, reservations, and menus, and health and beauty businesses can add a booking button. Service-area businesses follow their own address rules, and products or services subject to local regulation have their own content restrictions. Each guide in this collection sets out which of those rules reach one trade.

Google defines an individual practitioner as a public-facing professional, typically with their own customer base, and names doctors, dentists, lawyers, financial planners, and insurance or real estate agents as individual practitioners. A practitioner should create their own dedicated Business Profile if they operate in a public-facing role and can be contacted directly at the verified location during stated hours, and the profile may include a title or degree certification such as Dr., MD, JD, Esq., or CFA. Support staff should not create their own profiles, and Google says sales associates or lead generation agents for corporations are not individual practitioners and are not eligible for a Business Profile.

Google defines a service-area business as one that visits or delivers to customers directly but does not serve customers at its business address, and gives cleaning services and plumbers as examples. A service-area business should hide its address, can set up to 20 service areas by city, postal code, or another type of area, and can only have one profile for the whole area it serves. A business that serves customers at its address and also visits them is a hybrid business, which can show its address and set a service area. Businesses whose products or services require a minimum customer age, such as alcohol, cannabis, or weapons, are not permitted as service-area businesses without a storefront.

Google's category page names health and beauty businesses as the ones that can add a booking button to their profiles and update their list of services. A business signs up with a provider through Reserve with Google or adds its own booking link, and Google's business link policies require the link to lead to a dedicated landing page for the business, and for a business with several locations to a page for the specific location. Google publishes no list of every category that receives the button beyond that page, so the guides for health and beauty trades cover it and the guides for other trades do not claim it.

Restaurants. Google's category page says restaurants can add links for online orders, reservations, and menus, and can also add menu items directly. The same page says hotels can show class ratings and list the amenities they offer. Google's local business links page adds that a profile can carry a link to a menu and links to book an appointment, make a reservation, or place a food or shopping order, and that these links are not available through the Business Profile API or a spreadsheet upload.

Google's prohibited and restricted content policy applies extra rules to products and services subject to local regulation, and its list includes, but is not limited to, alcohol, gambling, tobacco, guns, health and medical devices, regulated pharmaceuticals, adult services, and financial services. For those, uploaded content may not feature calls to action or offers for sale, links to a page where they can be bought, contact details for buying them, or promotional deals, coupons, or pricing. Google's posts page says a business in a regulated industry can still use posts but must not include content about the products, and Google's hotel posts policy says hotels cannot create offer posts or any post that mentions or links to deals, promotions, special offers, or discounts.

Google says Local Services Ads are available only for certain service categories, and its getting-started page for the United States lists them. The list carries, among many others, Dentist, Orthodontist, Primary care physician, Chiropractor, Physical therapist, Veterinarian, Plumbers, Roofers, Electricians, HVAC, Lawyers, Financial planning services, Tax services, Real estate services, Hair Salon, Barber Shop, Auto Repair Shop, and restaurant categories such as Pizza Restaurant, with Insurance agency available in California and Florida only. Every Local Services advertiser must have a public, verified Google Business Profile, and Google says screening varies by category and region and may include license, insurance, and background checks.

Google publishes no review count target for any industry; its ranking page says more reviews and positive ratings can help a business's local ranking, and its category page says the categories you select affect local ranking. The GBPcentral audit sets its own thresholds per industry group rather than one standard for every business: it recognizes 20 named groups, from dental practices to hotels, each with the review count that begins its average, good, and excellent bands. The table on this page lists every group and its thresholds, read from the scoring code.

Google publishes no target. In the GBPcentral audit, a profile scores review volume against the thresholds for its industry group: no reviews scores 0 of 100, below the group's first threshold is poor and scores 20, from there to the second is average and scores 50, from the second to the third is good and scores 75, and at or above the third is excellent and scores 100. The same thresholds gate the certificates: Gold requires an audit score of 90 or higher, a rating of 4.5 or higher, and at least the review count that begins the group's good band, and Platinum requires 95 or higher, 4.7 or higher, and at least the count that begins the excellent band. The table on this page gives the numbers for every group.

Retail businesses. Google's local ranking page says showing in-store products on a profile is available only for retail businesses in eligible countries or regions, and that when a retail store does so, its in-store products might show in local search results so customers can find out what is in stock. Google's performance report counts product views only for products sold at the profile's location, not those sold online.

Google says a business must make in-person contact with customers during its stated hours, with named exceptions: ATMs, video-rental kiosks, and express mail drop boxes are permitted with contact information for help, seasonal businesses such as an ice-skating rink open only in winter are eligible if they display permanent signage year-round, and delivery-only food services are permitted with conditions. Google lists rental or for-sale properties, an ongoing service, class, or meeting at a location you do not own or represent, lead generation agents or companies, brands and other online-only businesses, and any business whose address is a P.O. box or mailbox in a remote location as not eligible.

The audit reads the primary type Google assigns to the listing and scores it against the industry group that type belongs to, so a dentist or dental clinic is measured against the dental practice thresholds and a plumber, electrician, or roofer against the home services thresholds. A listing whose Google type belongs to no named group is scored against the General Business thresholds, average from 10 reviews, good from 50, and excellent from 150, and the report says so beside the review volume score. The audit does not read the categories a business typed into its profile; it reads the type Google publishes for the listing.