Google Business ProfileDesign practice India
Google Business Profile for Architects and Interior Designers: A Setup Checklist
A step-by-step Google Business Profile checklist for Indian architects and interior designers: profile type, categories, verification, photos, reviews and posts, from Google's own rules.
Published on 10/16/202611 min read
A Google Business Profile is the free listing that shows your studio on Google Search and Maps when someone nearby types "architect near me" or "interior designer in Baner". Setting it up well takes an afternoon: the right profile type, your real studio name, an honest category, verification, a full description, services and photos, then steady reviews and posts. This checklist follows Google's own help pages, with the points that matter for Indian architects and interior designers.
About the details below: every limit and rule here comes from the Google Business Profile Help page linked next to it, read on 16 Oct 2026. Google changes features often, so check the linked page if a screen looks different. Where we give advice of our own, we say so.
For the wider question of how clients choose, see the shift to verified digital portfolios and our 10 strategies for landing a high-value client. This piece is the hands-on setup.
How Google decides who shows up
Google says local results are based mainly on three things: relevance (how well your profile matches the search), distance (how far you are from the person searching) and prominence (how well known you are, drawing on links, reviews and ratings). It also says there is no way to pay for a better local ranking (Google Business Profile Help: Tips to improve your local ranking).
You cannot move closer to every client, so the work is in the other two: a complete profile for relevance, and genuine reviews for prominence.
Step 1: Check you are eligible, and pick the right type
Google's guidelines for representing your business allow a profile only for a business that meets customers in person, either at a location they can visit or by travelling to them. A virtual office is not eligible.
| How you work | Profile type | What Google asks |
|---|---|---|
| A studio with your name board, where clients come for meetings | Storefront | Permanent fixed signage with the business name, and the office staffed during the hours you list |
| You work from home and meet clients at their site or flat | Service-area business | Hide your address and set the areas you serve |
| A studio clients visit, and you also travel to sites | Hybrid | Show the address and add service areas |
| A desk in a co-working space | Storefront only if conditions are met | Clear signage, and staffed by your own team during business hours |
For a home-based practice, Google says a service-area business "should hide your business address from customers", and its service area page says a business without permanent on-site signage is not eligible as a storefront. You can set up to 20 service areas, within about two hours' drive of your base: Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad and Lonavala, say, rather than "Maharashtra".
One profile per business, not one per specialisation. A solo practitioner under a studio brand uses one profile named "Studio name: Your name", the format the guidelines give.
A note for architects: the COA conduct rules
The Council of Architecture's Architects (Professional Conduct) Regulations, 1989 bar architects from advertising professional services, with listed exceptions. One, added in 2003, lets an architect's name appear in the classified columns of a trade or professional directory, telephone directory or website. In our reading, a factual listing fits that exception, while "offer" posts and discount language do not. The regulations also bar discounts, gifts or other inducements for the introduction of clients. We found no COA ruling on Google profiles, so if unsure, ask the Council.
Step 2: Name and categories
Name. Use the name on your letterhead. The guidelines bar taglines, service descriptions and locations in the name, and extra words can get a profile suspended. "Studio X Architects" is right. "Studio X Best Architect Pune Villa Interiors" is not.
Primary category. Google's category help page says to choose the primary category that best describes the business, that you cannot create your own, and not to pick one for every service. Google does not publish its full list in the help centre, but a compiled list updated in May 2026 (Dalton Luka) includes these. Type them into the category box to confirm they appear for India:
- Architect, Architecture firm, Architectural designer
- Interior designer, Interior architect office, Interior Decorator
- Landscape architect, Landscape designer, Building designer
The law narrows the choice. Section 37 of the Architects Act, 1972 says no one other than a registered architect or a firm of architects shall use the title and style of architect. So "Architect" and "Architecture firm" are for COA-registered practices; an unregistered interior designer should use "Interior designer" and avoid categories with "architect" in them. Add a few more categories only for real parts of the practice. Changing categories can trigger a fresh verification.
Step 3: Get verified
Until you verify, parts of the profile stay on hold: posts, for example, remain pending. Google's verification page lists phone or text, email, a live video call, a video recording and a postcard by mail. Google chooses the method, and some businesses need more than one. Postcard codes usually arrive within 14 days and expire after 30, and editing the name, address or category meanwhile breaks the code.
If Google offers a video recording, which it recommends when you are eligible, it asks for one continuous, unedited clip of at least 30 seconds, recorded live, showing:
- Where you are: street signs or landmarks. A home business can film its immediate neighbourhood.
- Your work tools: for a designer, perhaps your drawing desk and sample boards.
- Proof that you run it: an invoice or utility bill in the profile's name.
Leave out other people's faces and any bank, tax or ID numbers.
Step 4: Description, services, phone and links
Description. Google's edit-profile page caps it at 750 characters and bars URLs and HTML. Describe the business, not promotions or prices. Our suggestion: what you design and for whom, where you work, how you work (design-only or turnkey), and the year you started.
Services. On the services page you can add suggested or custom services; custom names with prices or phone numbers are rejected. Use clients' words: "Residential architecture", "Apartment interior design", "Building plan approval drawings", "Modular kitchen design".
Phone and WhatsApp. Use a number you control. Chat inside profiles ended on 31 July 2024, but eligible accounts can be reached by text or WhatsApp (Changes to Google Business Profile chat and call history).
Website and social links. The guidelines ask for a website that represents your business, not URLs that redirect or refer users to landing pages, including pages on social media sites. You can add one social link per platform, such as Instagram or LinkedIn.
Step 5: Photos that look like your work
Google's photo guidelines ask for JPG or PNG files between 10 KB and 5 MB, with 720 x 720 px recommended and 250 x 250 px the minimum. Videos can run up to 30 seconds and 75 MB, at 720p or higher. Photos should be in focus, well lit and "represent reality", without heavy filters.
So keep renders for your portfolio, labelled, and give Google real photos: finished rooms, facades, details and the studio. Add your logo and cover photo first, then your strongest built work. Our portfolio examples guide covers what makes project photos work.
Step 6: Reviews, within Google's rules
Reviews feed prominence, and homeowners read them before calling. You can create a review link or QR code and share it by email or WhatsApp; the QR code can only be made on a computer browser (Create a Google link or QR code to request reviews).
The rules are in Google's prohibited and restricted content policy for Maps. Businesses may not:
- offer incentives such as payment, discounts, or free goods or services for a review, or for changing or removing one
- discourage negative reviews, or selectively ask only happy clients
- pressure people to review while they are on the premises, or set staff a target number of reviews
Reviews with a conflict of interest, including from current or former employees, are also barred. So no reviews from your team or your regular contractor.
What works: send the link to every client at handover, when the home looks its best. Reply to each review briefly and specifically. Google's review tips advise against generic thank-yous and say a mix of positive and negative feedback often seems more trustworthy. Answer a bad review calmly, without the client's private details.
Step 7: Posts, and features Google has removed
Google's posts page lists updates, offers and events. Updates can carry a photo or video and an optional button. Posts older than six months are archived unless they have a date range. A monthly update on a finished project, with a button to its full page, is the simplest useful habit.
Two features from older guides are gone:
- Chat and call history ended on 31 July 2024.
- Questions and answers. Google discontinued the Q&A API on 3 November 2025 (Business Profile APIs: sunset dates). In December 2025, a post on Google's Business Profile help forum confirmed that Q&A on Maps would give way to an AI "Ask" button answering from business-provided information and reviews (PPC Land, 22 Dec 2025). Your description, services and reviews now answer clients' questions for you.
Step 8: Keep your details the same everywhere
Google asks for your real-world name and accurate details. Our advice: use exactly the same studio name, locality and phone number on your profile, website, Instagram bio, letterhead and MOA profile.
Where a MOA profile fits
A Google profile is built to get you found and called, not to show a body of work. A portfolio profile does that half of the job.
On MOA, each project gets its own page with its images, location and write-up, and architects whose registration has been checked show a COA Verified badge. See our guide to building a MOA profile.
To connect the two:
- If you have your own website, put it in the website field and link your MOA profile from it. That fits Google's guideline most cleanly.
- If you do not have a website, leave the website field empty rather than risk it. Google's guideline counts pages on social media sites as landing pages, and a profile on any third-party platform, MOA included, is close to that. Share your MOA profile link in your posts' buttons and in replies to enquiries instead, and put it on your own site once you have one.
- In posts, point each project update's button to that project's MOA page.
FAQ
Can I create a Google Business Profile if I work from home?
Yes, as a service-area business. Google says service-area businesses should hide their address from customers. Set the areas you serve, up to 20, within about two hours' drive of your base.
Which Google Business Profile category should an architect choose?
If you are registered with the Council of Architecture, "Architect" or "Architecture firm" as the primary category. Section 37 of the Architects Act, 1972 reserves the title of architect for registered architects, so an unregistered interior designer should use "Interior designer".
How do I get more Google reviews for my design studio?
Share your review link or QR code with every client at handover, by WhatsApp or email. Do not offer gifts or discounts, and do not ask only the clients you expect to be happy: both break Google's content policy.
Is Q&A still available on Google Business Profile?
Not in its old form. The Q&A API ended on 3 November 2025, and from December 2025 Q&A on Maps has been giving way to AI answers.
Put your portfolio on MOA, free, and link it from your Google profile.
Sources
- Google Business Profile Help: Tips to improve your local ranking on Google (accessed 16 Oct 2026)
- Google Business Profile Help: Guidelines for representing your business on Google (accessed 16 Oct 2026)
- Google Business Profile Help: Manage your service areas for service-area and hybrid businesses (accessed 16 Oct 2026)
- Google Business Profile Help: Manage your business category (accessed 16 Oct 2026)
- Google Business Profile Help: Verify your business on Google (accessed 16 Oct 2026)
- Google Business Profile Help: Verify your business with a video recording (accessed 16 Oct 2026)
- Google Business Profile Help: Edit your Business Profile (accessed 16 Oct 2026)
- Google Business Profile Help: Manage your services on your Business Profile (accessed 16 Oct 2026)
- Google Business Profile Help: Photo and video guidelines (accessed 16 Oct 2026)
- Google Business Profile Help: Create a Google link or QR code to request reviews (accessed 16 Oct 2026)
- Google Business Profile Help: Tips to get more reviews and reply to them (accessed 16 Oct 2026)
- Maps User Generated Content Policy Help: Prohibited and restricted content (accessed 16 Oct 2026)
- Google Business Profile Help: Create and manage posts on your Business Profile (accessed 16 Oct 2026)
- Google Business Profile Help: Changes to Google Business Profile chat and call history (accessed 16 Oct 2026)
- Google for Developers: Business Profile APIs sunset dates (accessed 16 Oct 2026)
- PPC Land: Google quietly kills Q&A for an AI button (22 Dec 2025) (accessed 16 Oct 2026)
- Dalton Luka: Google Business Profile Categories, complete list (updated 9 May 2026) (accessed 16 Oct 2026)
- Council of Architecture: Architects (Professional Conduct) Regulations, 1989, as amended in 2003 (accessed 16 Oct 2026)
- Council of Architecture: The Architects Act, 1972 (accessed 16 Oct 2026)