Google Business Profile for a factory: what to fill in

A factory qualifies when buyers can visit and staff receive them

A factory can have a Google Business Profile if it is a real location that customers can visit and someone is there to receive them during the hours it states. Google's guidelines for representing your business require a physical location that customers can visit. Where a business also serves customers at their sites, as many manufacturers do, the guidelines add that the location should be "staffed by your team and able to receive customers during its stated hours".

For a manufacturer, the visitors are buyers coming for a plant audit, inspectors witnessing a test, transporters collecting goods and job applicants. If that happens at your gate during working hours, the plant fits. A registered office that is only a mailing address, or a virtual office where the business does not operate, does not: Google says such a location is not eligible.

Some owners skip this, assuming Maps is only for shops. Buyers do look at it, and Google's own guide to its AI features in Search says that using Merchant Center and Business Profiles can help products and services be visible in AI responses as well as ordinary results. The wider set of facts assistants look for is covered in the factory facts AI assistants look for, and the rest of this hub is at AI visibility.

Name, address and phone: copy them from your letterhead

Use the company's real name as it appears on your signage, letterhead and GST registration, and nothing else. Google's guidelines say the name should reflect the real-world name used consistently on the storefront, and that adding unnecessary information to it is not permitted. "Acme Valves Pvt Ltd" is right; "Acme Valves Pvt Ltd Best Ball Valve Manufacturer Kolkata" breaks the rules.

Give the precise plant address with PIN code and place the map pin on the gate buyers actually use. For the phone, Google asks for a number that connects to that location and is under the business's direct control, so give the sales desk, not a call-centre number or an agent's mobile. Google's help page on editing your profile allows a primary number and up to two more.

Choose one specific primary category

The primary category tells Google what the business fundamentally is. Google's editing help allows one primary category and up to nine more, and the guidelines ask you to use as few as possible to describe the core business, and not to use categories as keywords.

Search the category list for the closest match to what you make. Pick the one that most exactly completes "This business is a ...": a category naming your product, if one exists, is better than a broad industrial one. Add a second category only if it is a real, separate line of business.

Hours, website and description

Set the hours when someone at the plant can receive a visitor, which may differ from shift hours, and add special hours for Diwali, Durga Puja or annual shutdowns. Google's guidelines ask for regular customer-facing hours.

Link the website to your home page or to a page for that specific plant if you have more than one. Google's guidelines say not to use URLs that redirect or refer users to landing pages, so link straight to your own site.

The description can run to 750 characters, with no URLs or HTML, and should describe the business rather than offers. A good factory description says what you make, for which industries, key capacities and certifications, and since when. For example, for an invented valve maker: "Manufacturer of flanged and threaded ball valves, 15 mm to 200 mm, for water, oil and chemical process lines. Plant at Howrah with in-house machining and pressure testing. ISO 9001 certified. Supplying EPC contractors and OEMs since 1998." Make sure every figure matches the website exactly.

Services, products and photographs

Google's editing help says the Products section is limited to retail businesses in the US, Canada, the UK and Ireland that connect a point-of-sale system, so many Indian factories will not see it. Use the Services section instead to list product ranges and capabilities, such as "CNC machining", "valve pressure testing" or "custom flanges to drawing", each with a short description. If your profile does show a Products editor, add your main product families with a link to each product page.

Photographs do more for a factory than for most businesses, because they prove the plant exists. Upload the gate with the signboard, the shop floor, key machines, the test bay, the quality lab, finished stock and packing. Use real photographs taken in daylight, not stock images. A clear shot of the gate and signboard also helps a first-time visitor or transporter find the right entrance.

Posts keep the profile current

Updates let you post news to the profile. Google's own Business Profile best practices playbook suggests posting at least once a week with a picture, a description and a date. For a manufacturer, once a fortnight is realistic: a new product size, a certification renewal, a trade fair stand, a dispatch to a new export market. Each post is also a dated record that the business is active.

Reviews from B2B buyers, gathered within the rules

Reviews are harder for a factory to collect than for a restaurant, because buyers are fewer and busier, but even ten reviews from named purchase managers and contractors tell a new buyer more than any brochure claim.

Ask every buyer after delivery, by email or WhatsApp with the review link, and ask everyone, not only the happy ones. Google's policy on fake engagement bars offering incentives such as discounts or free goods for reviews, discouraging negative reviews or selectively soliciting positive ones, and reviews with a conflict of interest, which includes current or former employees. Reply to every review, briefly and by name.

Keep the profile and the website saying the same thing

The facts on the profile should match the website, your directory listings and your catalogue: name, address, phone, capacities, certifications. When they disagree, buyers hesitate and assistants are left choosing between versions. EbizIndia has a note on what happens when a manufacturer's facts disagree across sources, and the specification side of it is covered in when your website, catalogue and IndiaMART give different numbers. Dealers should manage their own profiles for their own shops; your website handles them through a dealer locator.

• Real company name only, as on signage and letterhead.
• Precise plant address and pin on the visitor gate.
• Sales desk number under your control.
• One specific primary category, extras only for real lines of business.
• Visitor receiving hours, with holiday hours.
• Direct link to the website or plant page.
• Factual description up to 750 characters, figures matching the site.
• Services listing product ranges and capabilities.
• Photographs of gate, shop floor, machines, lab and packing.
• A post every week or two.
• Reviews requested from every buyer, no incentives, all replied to.