How to get your business on Google Maps
If your customers are in your district or your city, this comes first: before the website, before social media, before spending a sol on ads.
Updated 13 September 2026
It's called a Google Business Profile and it costs nothing. You create it at google.com/business, Google verifies the business exists — almost always with a short phone video — and from then on you appear on Maps and in the block of three businesses at the top of a «near me» search. What decides whether you show up is mostly your primary category, your reviews, and how close you are to whoever is searching.
Why this comes before the website
When someone searches «rotisserie near me» or «plumber in Los Olivos», Google doesn't show a list of websites first. It shows a map with three businesses. That block takes most of the taps, and you don't need a website to be in it — you need a profile.
So if you have to choose where to start and you sell locally, the profile wins. It's free, you build it in an afternoon, and it can bring you calls this week. A website takes months to rank; a profile doesn't.
Setting it up, step by step
- Search for yourself first
Type in your business name. The profile often already exists because Google created it or a customer suggested it. If it's there, claim it rather than making another — two profiles for one business compete, and Google shows the worse one.
- Create it with a business account
At google.com/business. Use a business email, not an employee's personal one: the day they leave you lose access to your own profile, and getting it back is a headache.
- Verify by video
Google will ask for proof the business exists, and in Peru the usual route is a short phone video: the sign from the street, the entrance, something inside, a tool or product of yours. Film it in daylight, in one take. Until you verify, the profile doesn't show.
- Fill it in completely
Hours, phone, WhatsApp, website, services, payment methods — list Yape and Plin there too — and whether you deliver. Every missing detail is a phone call asking for it.
The address, which is the tricky part in Peru
A formal address often doesn't help people find you here: people navigate by landmarks, not numbering. Two things you can do.
- Move the pin by hand. Google usually places it wrong where numbering isn't exact. Drag it to your actual door — that's what the customer's GPS will use.
- Put the landmark in the business description: «half a block from the market», «opposite the petrol station». That's how customers actually look for you, and Google reads it.
If you work at the customer's home or have no public premises — plumbers, electricians, technicians, photographers — use service-area mode: register your real address, hide it, and define the districts you cover instead. What you must never do is invent an address in San Isidro to look established: that's grounds for suspension, and recovering a suspended profile is worse than starting over.
The primary category matters most
You can add several, but the primary one decides when you appear. Almost everyone gets this wrong by picking the most generic option.
If you're a rotisserie, choose that, not «Restaurant». Specific wins: less competition, better match for what the person typed. Quick trick: find three competitors already ranking on Maps and see what category they use.
List WhatsApp, not just a phone number
In Peru people message before they call. The profile lets you add a chat link, and that's where your WhatsApp belongs rather than only a landline. It's the difference between being messaged from Maps and being closed in favour of the next result.
Reviews, where this is won or lost
- Ask at the right moment: when the customer has just told you they're happy, not three weeks later.
- Your profile gives you a short review link. Save it and send it on WhatsApp, where people will actually open it.
- Reply to all of them, bad ones included. A calm reply to a two-star review convinces more than ten five-star ones.
- Don't buy them or trade them for discounts. Google detects it, and it's misleading advertising.
Mistakes that sink a profile
- Stuffing keywords into the name. It breaks the rules and any competitor can report you.
- Hours or phone saying one thing on the profile and another on Facebook. Google cross-checks and the mismatch costs you.
- Abandoning it. Three-year-old photos and national-holiday hours showing in March say exactly what you don't want.
- Not marking public holidays. That «may be closed» next to your name sends the customer next door.
Other questions about this
What does a Google profile cost?
Nothing, it's free and always has been. If someone calls offering to «rank your profile» for a monthly fee, be sceptical: it's usually something you can do yourself in an afternoon.
Do I need a RUC to create the profile?
No. Google doesn't ask for a RUC: it verifies the business exists somewhere, not your tax status. That said, if you're already registered, the profile name should match the one you invoice under.
What if my address shows up wrong on the map?
Very common, especially outside the centre. Drag the pin by hand to your door and add the landmark to the description. That fixes most cases without fighting the numbering.
Do I need a website if I have the profile?
Depends what you sell. For something simple and familiar the profile may carry you a while. As soon as you have prices to explain, a catalogue, or customers who want to look before messaging, the profile falls short: send them somewhere to decide, and that's the website.