How to add your business to Google Maps in Lebanon

A Google Business Profile is the free listing that shows your business on Google Maps and in Google Search: the pin, the opening hours, the call button, the photos and the reviews. Verification can take a while, so start early and get the details right the first time.

Before you start

Gather these first so you can finish in one sitting:

• A Google Account that belongs to the business. Avoid an employee's personal account: if they leave, access to your profile leaves with them.
• Your business name exactly as it appears on your sign.
• Your address the way a customer would find you: area, street, building name, floor and a landmark.
• A phone number you answer yourself, ideally the WhatsApp number your customers already use.
• Your real opening hours, including any change caused by power cuts or generator hours.
• 5 to 10 good photos: the front of the shop from the street, the inside, your products or your work. See how to take shop photos with your phone.

Create the profile

1. 1Go to business.google.com/add and choose Add your business to Google. You can also start from Google Maps: search for your business, and if it already exists, tap Claim this business.
2. 2Type your business name. Google suggests existing places as you type; if yours appears, select it rather than creating a new one.
3. 3Choose your main category.
4. 4Say whether customers can visit you at a location, then place the pin.
5. 5Add a service area if you also travel to customers.
6. 6Add your phone number and, if you have one, your website.
7. 7Pick a verification option and follow the steps on screen.

Getting each detail right

Name

Google asks for your real-world name, as used consistently on your storefront, website and stationery and as customers know it. Its guidelines forbid adding marketing taglines, phone numbers, website addresses or location details to the name, and ask you not to repeat the same name in two languages. For a hypothetical bakery called Furn Samir, “Furn Samir” is right; “Furn Samir Best Manakish Achrafieh 03 XXX XXX” is not.

Category

Pick the category that completes the sentence “this business IS a...”, not “this business HAS a...”. A café that also sells cakes is a café. Google asks you to use as few categories as possible and not to use them as keywords.

Pin and address

Many Lebanese streets have no numbers, so the pin does most of the work. Switch to satellite view, zoom in all the way and drag the pin onto your actual entrance, not the middle of the road or the building next door. In the address, add the building name, the floor and a landmark people know. Our local SEO checklist shows how to write one.

Storefront or service area

If customers come to you (a salon in Jounieh, a shop in Tripoli), enter your address. If you go to customers and do not receive them at your premises (a plumber, an AC technician, a home caterer), remove the address and enter only a service area: Google asks these businesses to hide their address. If you do both, enter both. You can add up to 20 service areas, and the whole area should stay within about 2 hours of driving from your base.

Hours, phone and website

Enter the hours when customers can really walk in or reach you. Use a local number under your direct control rather than a call centre. If you have a website, link to its home page, or to the page for this branch if you have several.

Photos

Start with your front from the street, so people recognise the entrance, then the inside, your products and your team at work. Google lists photos and videos among the things that help your profile in local results.

Verification: the options you may see

Your profile is not fully active until Google verifies it. Google decides which methods each business sees, based on things like the type of business, the region and the public information available, and you cannot change them. You may be offered:

• Phone or text: a call or SMS with a code. Automated phone systems (IVR) won't receive the code, so use a number a person answers.
• Email: a message to the address shown on the verification screen.
• Live video call: a real-time call with a Google support agent during business hours. You show your location signs, your business operations (products, tools, equipment) and management access, such as an employee-only area or the cash register.
• Video recording: you record a video of your business and upload it.
• Postcard by mail: not available to every business. Most codes arrive within 14 days and they expire after 30 days. Do not edit your business name, address or category while you wait, or the code won't work.

Once you submit, Google says its review can take up to 5 business days.

What to do while you wait

• Don't create a second profile because the first one seems stuck. That creates a duplicate.
• Don't change your name, address or category, especially if you are waiting for a postcard.
• Prepare your description and photos, so the profile is complete the day it goes live. Our guide on writing a business description helps.
• Be findable elsewhere too: set up your WhatsApp Business profile, your Instagram, and a free page on Lebanon Local, which comes in English, Arabic and French with a map pin, hours, photos and a description.

Common mistakes that hurt your listing

• Keywords in the name. Adding “best”, your area or your services to the name goes against Google’s guidelines.
• Duplicate profiles. Google allows only one profile per business, and duplicates do not show in Search or Maps. If you created one by mistake, remove it; if two old ones exist, suggest a merge from Google Maps.
• A wrong pin. A pin on the main road or at the wrong end of a souk sends customers to the wrong door.
• The wrong address setting. A home-based caterer showing a home address, or a shop hiding the address customers need.
• An employee's personal account as owner. Add staff as managers if they need access, and keep ownership yourself.

Keeping it up to date

Customers trust what Google shows, so an outdated profile sends them to a closed door. Keep these current:

• Public holidays. Lebanon marks many religious and national holidays. Use special hours for these days so your regular hours stay unchanged. Google suggests confirming your hours for official holidays even when they are the same as usual.
• Power cuts and generator hours. If you close earlier when the generator is off, reflect it. For a short change, use special hours; if you close for 7 days or more in a row, or for an unknown period, Google recommends marking the business temporarily closed.
• Seasonal hours: Ramadan hours, summer hours in beach towns like Batroun or Jbeil, school-season changes.
• A new phone or WhatsApp number, the same day it changes.
• Reviews. Reply to them, good and bad. Google notes that replying shows customers you value their feedback.
• Photos. Add a few new ones each season so the profile looks alive.