A church’s Google Business Profile, step by step
A Google Business Profile is the free listing Google keeps for a place people visit, such as a shop, a school or a church. It is what shows on Google Maps and in the panel Google puts beside the results when someone searches your church’s name. Google can create a profile on its own, so your church may already have one that nobody at the church controls.
Claim the profile
Sign in to a Google account that belongs to the church, such as one made with the church office’s email address, then go to business.google.com and search for your church. If nobody has claimed the profile, you can claim it, and if someone else manages it, Google lets you ask for access and gives that person time to answer.
Google then asks you to prove that the church is yours. It picks the method, such as a short video of the building and its sign, a phone call or a postcard mailed to the address, and your changes go live after Google accepts the proof.
Add a second person from the church as a manager, so the church can still reach its profile when one person leaves.
Name
Use the church’s real name as it reads on your sign, such as Cedar Hill Baptist Church (a sample name we use in these guides), with no town or other words added. Google’s rules for profiles ask for the real name, and Google can suspend a profile whose name is stuffed with extra words.
Category
The main category tells Google what kind of place you are, and Google matches searches that name a kind of church against it. Pick the most specific one that fits, such as Baptist church, Non-denominational church, Methodist church or Presbyterian church, and add more categories only for things the church runs in its building, such as a preschool.
On October 13, 2026 we searched Google Maps for “church near me” from 25 points across Topeka, Kansas, and 183 listings came up, nearly all of them churches. Of those, 73 had the plain category Church and 24 had Baptist church. Searches for “baptist church near me” average about 90,500 a month in the United States, by Google’s figures, which we read the same day through DataForSEO, a service that reports Google’s search counts.
Address and map pin
Enter the street address where the church meets on Sunday and check that the pin sits on the building, or on the main entrance if the property is large. Keep the address public on the profile, because Google places a church on the map by its address and a family needs it to find you.
Service times
Enter your service times as the profile’s hours, so the listing shows when the church meets. Before Christmas Eve, Easter and any Sunday when the times change, add special hours for that date, and the profile shows them in place of the usual hours on that day.
Holiday searches come in a rush, and by the same figures “christmas eve service near me” had about 2,400 searches in November 2025 and 90,500 in December 2025. Set your Christmas Eve hours by the start of December.
Phone and website
Give a phone number that someone answers during the week, or one whose voicemail gives your service times and address. Link the website field to your home page, and make sure that page gives the same service times and address as the profile.
Description
The description holds up to 750 characters. Say what kind of church you are, when you meet, where to park and where children go during the service, in the words you would use with a visitor at the door.
Photos
Add photos of the building from the street, the door people use on Sunday, the room where you worship, the parking lot and the children’s area. Photos from a phone in daylight are fine, and a family that has seen the entrance on the map can find it on a first Sunday.
Accessibility
In the profile’s accessibility details, mark whether the entrance, the parking, the seating and the restrooms take a wheelchair, so a family that uses one knows before they come.
Updates before holidays
The profile also lets you post updates, and an update with the day and time of your Christmas Eve or Easter service, posted a few weeks ahead, shows on the profile while families are searching for one.
Reviews
Anyone can leave a review on your profile, and the church can answer each one from the profile. Thank people by name, answer questions plainly, and keep anything private out of a public reply.
Church SEO Experts offers a free search check, which reads your church’s profile against these steps and emails you what is missing. Ask for a free search check, or see how we do the profile setup for you.