Google Business Locations
Locations are your Google Business Profile listings — one per outlet. The tab shows what Google currently has, lets you change it, and tracks every change as a request until Google confirms it. Nothing you type here is live until Google says so.
What a listing holds
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Business name | As it appears on Google. |
| Primary category | Searched against Google's own list. A category Google does not have is refused. |
| Address | Lines, area, postcode and country. |
| Phone | The number customers call. |
| Website | Where the listing sends people. |
| Opening hours | Per day. |
| Open status | Including Permanently closed. |
A country change has to be done at Google itself — it is not something a profile edit can carry.
Categories
Search Google's categories finds the category to use. Google's list is fixed; if nothing matches what you do, the screen says Google has no category matching that rather than accepting a description that would be rejected later.
Sending a change
Send changes to Google submits the edit. The listing then shows both figures:
| Shown | Means |
|---|---|
| Now | What is live on Google. |
| Change to / (new value) | What you have asked for. |
When nothing differs, the screen says Nothing changed instead of sending an empty request.
Reading from Google
Read this listing again from Google refreshes one listing; Read again from Google refreshes them all. The Last read from Google stamp says how current what you are looking at is.
Verification
Listings that Google has not verified are counted and flagged. An unverified listing does not carry the weight a verified one does, and some changes cannot be made to it at all — it is worth clearing the count before worrying about anything else.
On the map
Open in Google Maps shows the listing as a customer sees it. Doing that occasionally is worth more than reading the fields, because a listing can be technically correct and still look wrong.