Google business verification: how it works, and the calls to hang up on (UK, 2026)

The short version

• Verification is how you take charge of your listing. Until it’s done, you can’t edit your business details or deal with customers through it.
• You start it, from your own profile, with the “Get verified” button. Nobody needs to ring you to begin it.
• Google picks the method, not you. It might be a call or text, an email, a live video call, a recorded video or a postcard. Where video is offered, Google recommends it.
• Timing: most postcards arrive within 14 days, and Google’s reviews take up to five working days.
• It’s free. Google says it never charges to verify a profile, and never asks for your code, a password or payment.
• A call out of the blue about “verifying your business” that wants money, a code or a password is not Google. Hang up, and text the caller’s number to 7726.

What Google business verification is, and why it matters

Your Google Business Profile is the panel that appears when someone searches for your business, and the pin on Google Maps. Verifying it is how Google learns that you’re the one in charge. In the words of Google’s help page, Verify your business on Google: "To edit your business info on Google, such as business name or opening hours, and interact with customers, you need to verify your business." And: "When you verify your business on Google, you gain ownership of your Business Profile and can make sure that your business info is accurate."

There’s a security reason too. Google’s page on protecting your Business Profile says: "Please be advised that unclaimed locations will make your business more vulnerable and prone to hijacks." A listing nobody has claimed is one somebody else can claim.

How to verify your business on Google

The steps, from Google’s help page, in short:

1. Sign in to the Google Account you want to manage the profile with. Google says any email address will do, not only Gmail.
2. Find your business on Google. If it isn’t there, add it; if it’s there but unclaimed, claim it.
3. On your profile, choose Get verified and use one of the methods it offers.
4. Wait for Google’s review. You get a confirmation email when it’s done.

You don’t get to pick the method. Google’s page is blunt about it: "Verification methods are automatically determined by Google and can’t be changed." It adds: "The verification options available to you depend on your business type, public info, region or opening hours. In some cases, you may need to verify your business with more than one method."

The verification methods, one by one

Google’s advice on choosing between them, where you have a choice: "If your business is eligible for video verification, we recommend that you use this option."

Video verification: what to film

Google’s page on verifying with a video recording sets out the rules. The video must be filmed live: "pre-recorded videos aren't allowed". It must be "At least 30 seconds long." and "Recorded and uploaded from a mobile device through your Business Profile." It must not show "Other people’s faces." or "Sensitive info like bank account, tax or ID numbers."

What to show depends on the kind of business you’ve told Google you are:

• A shop front (customers come to you, and there’s a permanent sign): where you are (street signs, building numbers, nearby businesses), your sign with the business name, and something only staff can get into, such as the till or the stock room. Google: "The name shown in your video must match the name on your Business Profile."
• A service area business (you go to customers, like a plumber or a locksmith): the area around your business address, your tools or equipment, and proof you run it, such as "unlocking a van that has your business branding" or an invoice or utility bill in the business name.
• A business run from home: "If you run a Service Area Business from your home, you can record landmarks and signs in your immediate neighbourhood to verify the address."

Two more rules worth knowing before you start. Without a permanent sign, you’re not a shop front in Google’s eyes: "If your business doesn’t have permanent on-site signage, list it as a Service Area Business instead of shop front." And a business that only trades online can’t have a profile at all: Google says such a business is "not eligible for a Business Profile and can’t be verified."

If a video is turned down, Google tells you why. Its examples: "Business name not visible on shop front.", "No nearby area shown." and "Missing proof of authorisation to operate the business." You can record a new one that includes everything from the first plus whatever was missing.

How long Google business verification takes

• Postcard: "Most codes arrive within 14 days." While you wait: "Do not edit your business name, address or category on your Business Profile. If you do, the code that we sent you won’t work." And: "Do not request a new code. If you do, we invalidate the code in the mail and send a new one. This can make the process longer." Once it arrives, use it: "Verification codes expire after 30 days."
• Google’s review, whichever method you used: "verification reviews take up to five working days", and "On rare occasions, reviews may take longer." The video page gives the same figure for a recorded video.
• Sometimes instantly. Google says it can verify a profile at once when "You verify your website with Google Search Console." or when a business uses its bulk verification.

If the “Get verified” button comes back on your profile after all that, Google’s page says it means Google "couldn’t completely verify your business". Try again, with another method if your profile offers one.

Verification calls: the real one and the fake one

Type “google business verification” into Google and the suggestions include “call”, “phone call”, “phone number”, “department” and “scam calls”. Both kinds of call are real.

The real verification call is one you asked for. It comes after you choose phone or text under Get verified, it goes to your business number, and it gives you a code to type into your profile yourself.

Google also makes other calls. Its page About automated calls and texts from Google to your business says: "Google might occasionally use automated calls or texts to contact the phone number on your Business Profile." They’re to check details such as your opening hours, or to book something for a customer. Google’s page on fraudulent calls and texts says of its own calls: "You’ll hear that the call is from Google and why they're calling."

What Google never does, in its own words, across those pages:

• "Google will never ask for your verification code. Do not share the verification code with anyone, even with those who manage your Business Profile."
• "Google will never ask for one-time password (OTP) or Personal Identification Number (PIN). Google will never try to convince you to pay to maintain your Business Profile. This includes having your Business Profile verified or reinstated."
• "Google will never ask for payment, credit card information or account passwords. If a caller asks for money to keep your business on Google, it is not a call from Google."
• "You won’t be asked to sign up for a service, pay money or give personal info."

And on the people who pretend: "They might say they work 'with Google' or 'for Google'." Google’s page on protecting your profile warns about "people or companies claiming to be Google support or Google employees" who offer help in exchange for money, and adds: "Note that Google doesn’t charge for this service."

So a call about verifying your business that you didn’t ask for, and that wants money, a code or a password, isn’t Google. A code that has just arrived on your phone is the key to your listing. If a caller asks you to read it out, that’s what they’re after.

Marketing firms that manage profiles for businesses are bound by Google’s third-party policies, which ban posing as Google. Among the false claims they ban: "Misrepresent as Google through robocalls (calls placed with a recorded voice) or other techniques." Among the behaviour they ban: "Threatens that clients will lose their profile if they don't sign up with the agency." We covered the rest of those rules, and whether to pay someone at all, in our post on what to do when a Google Business Profile is suspended.

What to do about a fake call in the UK

Google’s page on fraudulent calls starts with "If someone calls you pretending to be from Google, hang up. Do not press any buttons even if the voice prompt tells you to." The places it then sends you to report a call are in the US, apart from a form of Google’s own (below). For the UK, Ofcom’s page What to do about a scam call, text or message and the government’s guide to reporting scams fill the gap:

• Hang up. Ofcom: "Hang up if you have any suspicion it might be a scam."
• Don’t ring back on a number they gave you. Ofcom says to call an organisation back only "using a number from that organisation’s official website or your account statement". For your Google listing, you don’t need to call anyone: everything is on your profile.
• Report the number. Ofcom: "Forward the phone number to 7726 if you believe the call was a scam - this service is free to use and alerts your mobile provider to investigate and potentially block the number." How: "Open recent calls, select the number, then copy or share it in a text to 7726." For a scam text, the government’s guide says: "Forward suspicious text messages to 7726 - it’s free."
• If you’ve paid or given details, ring your bank first (Ofcom suggests the number on your card, or "call 159 to be connected safely to your bank"). Then report it to Report Fraud. Ofcom: "Report to Report Fraud online or by calling 0300 123 2040. In Scotland, report to Police Scotland on 101."
• Tell Google. Its fraud page asks: "Help us track calls that pretend to be from Google." It has a form for it.
• If you read out a code, check who can manage your profile now. Look at the owners and managers listed on your profile, and remove anyone you don’t know. Google’s advice on requests to join: "Do not approve those requests unless you know the individual requesting access."

What the guides on page one say

We read three of the guides on the first page for this search in full. (Our search tool shows US results, so the British page one may differ.) All three walk through the methods. None of them mentions scam calls, or that Google never asks for your code, though Google’s own suggestions for the search are full of them. One gives video verification as "1–3 business days", where Google’s page says up to five working days, and its title still says 2025.

What argues the other way

• Not every call from Google is a scam. Google does ring businesses, to check details or book for customers. The test isn’t whether the caller says “Google”. It’s what they ask for: money, a code or a password means it isn’t Google.
• Paying for help can be fine. Marketing firms can manage a profile and charge for it, within Google’s rules. You still don’t need anyone to verify for you, and you should stay an owner.
• Your options may differ. Google decides the methods for each business, so your profile may offer fewer than the five here, or ask for more than one.
• We haven’t verified a profile for this post. It rests on Google’s, Ofcom’s and the government’s own pages, read in full, not on our experience.
• We have an interest. We’re a company that helps small businesses with technology, so we could be one of the people offering help with this. Verification doesn’t need us: it’s free, and you do it from your own profile.

Sources, and what we checked

• Google Business Profile Help: Verify your business on Google, Verify your business with a video recording, Help protect against fraudulent calls and texts, About automated calls and texts from Google to your business, Help protect your Google Business Profile and Business Profile third-party policies, all read in their British English versions.
• Ofcom: What to do about a scam call, text or message (published 15 July 2026, last updated 24 August 2026).
• GOV.UK: Avoid and report internet scams and phishing.
• Google’s search suggestions for “google business verification” and related phrases, in British English.
• Page one: three guides on the first page of results, seen through a US search tool, each read in full.
• Every page above was read on 26 October 2026, and again on 28 October 2026, the morning we published.
• Every quotation above was tested automatically against the text of its source before publication.