Exporters need a Google Business Profile because overseas buyers Google your company name before they trust you with an order — and the profile is what they find: your name, address, photos, reviews and website, all in one panel that either looks like a real, active business or like nobody is home. This checklist takes you through every section worth completing, in the order we'd do it.
Key takeaways
- Buyers search your company name before ordering — your profile is the trust check.
- Claim and verify the profile, then keep name, address and phone identical everywhere.
- Use your real business name; keyword-stuffed names risk suspension.
- Real photos of your factory and team do more than any stock image.
- Ask every happy buyer for a review, and reply to every review you get.
Your Google Business Profile is the free listing that appears when someone searches your company name on Google or Maps. For a local shop it brings foot traffic. For an exporter it does something different and just as valuable: it proves you're real. An importer in Hamburg or Houston who found your products on a marketplace will search your company name before sending a deposit. What they see in that moment — a complete profile with photos and reviews, or an empty listing Google auto-created from directory data — shapes whether the deposit ever gets sent.
Step 1: Claim and verify your profile
Search your company name on Google Maps. If a listing exists, claim it; if not, create one at google.com/business. Verification usually happens by video or postcard: Google may ask you to record your premises, signage, equipment and business documents, or it mails a code to your address. It can take a few days, and it is not optional — an unverified profile can't be properly edited and may not show at all.
Use your real trading name, spelled exactly as it appears on your invoices, your website and your marketplace stores. Do not add keywords to the name ("Best Aluminium Profiles Export Factory Ltd") — Google treats that as spam, and a suspended profile helps no one. If your registered name differs from the name customers know, use the customer-facing one consistently everywhere instead.
Step 2: Set your categories and business details
Choose the primary category that best matches what you mainly do — "Manufacturer", "Exporter", "Wholesaler" and industry-specific categories exist for many trades — then add every additional category that honestly applies. Categories influence which searches your profile surfaces for, so choose from what you actually sell, not what you wish you sold.
Complete the basics carefully: address (or set a service area and hide the address if customers never visit), opening hours in your local time zone, phone number, and website link. These details must match your website's contact page character for character. Google compares your profile against the rest of the web; when your address appears in three different formats across directories, trust drains away. This consistency work is unglamorous and entirely worth it — it's the same foundation the technical checks in SEO for exporters build on.
Step 3: Write the description and add products
You have up to 750 characters of description. Spend them on facts a buyer wants: what you make, the materials and standards you work to, the markets you ship to, and how long you've been doing it. Write it the way you'd introduce the company at a trade fair — plainly, in the first person plural ("We manufacture…"), and without superlatives you can't back up.
Then use the Products and Services sections. Add your main product families with clear names, a photo each, and a short description with specifications buyers ask about. A buyer comparing two suppliers will open the profile that shows the actual products over the one showing a logo and nothing else. Link your website where Google allows it — and make sure the page they land on answers questions quickly and carries the enquiry path from our WhatsApp enquiries guide.
Step 4: Add real photos — and keep adding them
Upload photos of your real business: the factory entrance with signage, the production floor, your team at work, products being packed, containers being loaded. These are the images a cautious buyer studies, and no stock photo survives that study. Add a clear logo and a cover photo so the profile looks finished.
Then treat photos as maintenance, not a one-off task. A few new genuine photos every month or two signals a living business. Phone photos are fine — natural light, steady hand, real work happening. If you exhibit at trade fairs, add those photos too; they're some of the strongest trust evidence an exporter can publish.
Step 5: Earn reviews properly, and answer all of them
Reviews are the section buyers read closest, and the only one you can't write yourself. Ask for them at the natural moment: after a successful delivery, when a repeat order lands, when a buyer thanks you. Send them your Google review link directly — don't hope they'll find it. Never buy reviews, never ask staff or family to pose as buyers, and never offer incentives; fake reviews get removed and profiles get suspended, and the honest profile with twelve real reviews outperforms them anyway.
Reply to every review, good or bad, briefly and politely. A calm, specific reply to criticism ("We're sorry the July shipment ran late — we've changed our packing schedule since") is read by the next buyer as evidence of how you'll treat them when something goes wrong. Silence reads as indifference.
Step 6: Post monthly and keep details current
Use Google Posts for the things already happening in your business: a new product line, a trade fair you're attending, a new market you're shipping to, with a photo and a link to the relevant website page. A post a month is plenty. It shows the profile is tended, and gives searching buyers something recent to read.
Finally, review the whole profile every few months and whenever anything changes: hours, phone number, product range, website address. Check for suggested edits — Google and users can propose changes to your listing — and accept or reject them yourself rather than letting wrong details stand. Set a calendar reminder; profiles decay quietly, and they decay most at exactly the moment a buyer is checking you.
| Profile section | What to do | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Claim & verification | Claim the listing; verify by video or postcard | Unverified profiles can't be edited properly and may not show |
| Business name | Real trading name, identical everywhere | Keyword-stuffed names risk suspension; consistency builds trust |
| Categories | Best-fit primary + honest additional categories | Determines which buyer searches you surface for |
| Contact details | Address/service area, hours, phone, website — matching your site | Mismatched details drain trust with Google and buyers |
| Description (750 chars) | Products, standards, markets served, since when | Answers "are they real, and do they sell what I need?" |
| Products & services | Main families with photos and key specifications | Shows the actual goods before the buyer visits your site |
| Photos | Real factory, team, packing and loading photos; refresh monthly | The strongest trust evidence a buyer can study |
| Reviews | Ask after deliveries; reply to every review | The section buyers read closest; replies show how you handle problems |
| Posts & upkeep | One post a month; review edits and details quarterly | Signals an active business and stops details decaying |
Where do you start this week?
Claim and verify the profile first — everything else depends on it. Then, in one sitting: fix the name and categories, write the description, add your product families, and upload ten real photos. This week also send the review link to your last three happy buyers. After that, it's maintenance: a post and a few photos a month, a reply to every review, and a quarterly detail check. Once the profile is solid, our ongoing SEO services keep it — and your rankings — improving month after month.
If you'd like us to audit your Google presence alongside your website and social profiles, our free audit covers all three and ends with the first fixes we'd make, in order.
