You have opened the bakery, the clinic, the workshop or the tattoo studio, and now comes the other part: being found. If you search for your business on Google Maps and nothing shows up, you are not alone. It is the first question we get from newly opened businesses in Marbella, San Pedro and Estepona. Here is the whole process, in order, with what you can control and what you cannot.
Before you create the profile: gather these details
Filling in the profile takes fifteen minutes, but fixing it takes months. So the first step is to sit down with a coffee and lock in the details you will repeat on Google, on your website and on social media. If these five points keep changing, Google receives contradictory signals and the profile loses strength.
- Exact name. The one on your shop sign and on your company registration. No “Marbella” or “best in town” added: that breaks Google's rules and can get your profile suspended.
- Full postal address with street number and postcode, or your service area if you go to the customer.
- A phone someone actually answers. If the shop landline is not connected yet, use the business mobile.
- Real opening hours, including local holidays and holiday closures. Wrong hours generate one-star reviews.
- A specific primary category plus two or three secondary ones. And photos of the finished premises.
Setting up the profile, step by step
Sign in to Google Business Profile with a Google account for the business (not the personal one you use on your phone) and search for your name on Maps first. That step, which many people skip, avoids the most common mistake: creating a new profile when another one already exists.
- 1. Search before you create. If your business appears, even with old data or no owner, claim that profile.
- 2. If it does not exist, add the business with name, category, address and phone number.
- 3. Choose the primary category carefully. A “bakery” does not compete like a generic “food store”. If in doubt, check which category the businesses already ranking in your area use.
- 4. Add website and hours before requesting verification, so the profile is not half-empty during the review.
- 5. Verify. Google will offer video, phone, email or postcard depending on your case. Follow their instructions exactly.
If this all sounds familiar but you want the detail of each field, we break it down in our guide to the Google Business Profile.
Verification: what to expect, honestly
This is where expectations break. Verification is handled by Google and can take days or weeks, and in some cases they ask for extra documentation or a second video because your shop sign was not clearly visible. Nobody serious can give you an exact date.
While you wait, do not sit still
Prepare photos of the empty space and of the fit-out, get your website and social profiles ready with the same details, and tell your first customers the profile is on its way. When it goes live, you do not want to start from zero.
The three local pack signals, as cards
If you take one idea from this article, make it this: the map is not something you hack, it is something you work on. These are the three signals Google mentions and what depends on you in each one:
1. Relevance
How well your business matches what is being searched. You build it with the right category, detailed services, an honest description and photos showing what you offer. It is the leg you control most.
2. Distance
Your distance from where the search happens. You cannot move the premises, but you can pick the verified address and service area carefully. If your customer is in Estepona and you are in Marbella, distance works against you.
3. Prominence
How much people talk about you and how consistent that is: reviews, local press mentions, links and directories. It is built over time, not with a one-off purchase.
Your first-week checklist
Profile 100% complete, ten real photos, hours double-checked, first post published and three customers told they can already leave a review.
First photos: less filter, more reality
A newly opened business has a huge advantage: the premises look spotless. Use it. Upload photos of the exterior with the sign clearly visible (it helps people find you when they arrive), the interior without people, the product or service, and the team. At least ten, shot on a phone with natural light. Refresh them every few weeks: a profile with only opening-day photos and nothing since signals neglect.
What does not work: stock images that are not your premises, screenshots, or pictures with text plastered over them. If you sell products, one well-shot photo changes how people perceive your prices.
The four most common mistakes
- Duplicates. Creating a new profile when one already existed. You end up with two half-finished profiles and reviews split between them. Always claim the existing one.
- Using your home address when you do not serve customers there. If you work on the road, set a service area and hide the address.
- A category that is too broad. “Services” or “Shop” says nothing. The more specific it is, the better Google understands which searches to show you for.
- Abandoning the profile after verification. No new photos, no posts, no replies: the profile goes quiet.
If you want the wider context of how this fits into a local strategy, start with what local SEO in Marbella means.
Why Solaris
Local Pack
Optimisation and management of your Google profile: categories, photos, posts, reviews and consistent details.
Content Pack
Everything in the Local Pack plus monthly articles for your website, aligned with what your customer searches for.
Fixed prices, no lock-in contract and a focus on local businesses across the Costa del Sol: we know what competing in Marbella in high season feels like, and what a quiet January feels like. If you have just opened, we will tell you what we would do in the first 90 days.
Your plan for the first four weeks
- Week 1: details locked in, a quick search on Maps and creation or claiming of the profile.
- Week 2: verification submitted, website and social profiles aligned with the same details.
- Week 3: photos of the premises and the product, description and services fully filled in.
- Week 4: first reviews from real customers, replies and your first post.
From there, consistency: at least one post a month, new photos and answered reviews. That is the work almost nobody does, and the work that makes the difference.