This checklist is for owners and managers of hotels, restaurants, shops, clinics, schools, travel agencies and service businesses in Nepal who want to show up properly on Google Search and Google Maps. Every rule below comes from Google’s own help pages, listed in the Sources at the end. Nothing here is a trick. Google states plainly that there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking.

How Google decides which businesses to show

Google says local results are based mainly on three things:

  • Relevance: how well your profile matches what someone searched for. Complete, detailed information helps.
  • Distance: how far your business is from the person searching. If they don’t share their location, Google uses what it knows about where they are.
  • Prominence: how well known your business is. Google says this includes how many websites link to your business and how many reviews you have.

You can’t change your distance. You can improve relevance with accurate, complete information, and build prominence over time.

1. Name, address and service area

  • Use your real-world name, exactly as it appears on your signboard, website and receipts. Google’s guidelines say adding extra words, such as “Best Hotel in Lakeside” or a list of services, isn’t permitted and can get the profile suspended.
  • Use a precise address. Where the official street address doesn’t pinpoint your location, which happens often in Nepal, Google allows cross-streets and nearby landmarks. Place the map pin carefully.
  • One profile per location. Don’t create duplicates for the same place.
  • No virtual offices. A rented mailing address you don’t operate from isn’t eligible. A desk in a co-working space only qualifies if it has clear signage and is staffed and open to customers during business hours.
  • Service-area businesses hide the address. If you go to customers, for example as a plumber, tutor or mobile repair service, and don’t receive them at your address, set a service area and hide the address. A hybrid business, such as a restaurant that also delivers, can show both.

2. Categories

  • Use as few categories as possible, and make them as specific as possible.
  • Choose categories that complete the sentence “This business is a…”, not “This business has a…”. A hotel with a restaurant is still a hotel. The restaurant can have its own profile only if it operates as a distinct public-facing business.
  • Don’t use categories as keywords.

Google also notes that it can pick up category information from your website, which is one reason your site and profile should describe your business the same way.

3. Phone and website

  • Give a phone number that connects to that location, under your direct control. Avoid central call-centre numbers where possible.
  • Link a website that represents your business location. Google’s guidelines say not to use links that redirect or refer people elsewhere, including pages created on social media sites.

4. Hours

  • Enter your regular customer-facing hours, and add special hours for festivals and public holidays such as Dashain and Tihar.
  • Some businesses shouldn’t list hours at all. Google’s examples include hotels and other indoor lodging, schools and universities, and businesses that operate only by appointment. If you’re a hotel, leave hours off the hotel profile. A restaurant or spa inside it that runs as a distinct business with its own profile can list its own hours.
  • Restaurants: use the hours when guests can sit down and eat. If you don’t offer dine-in, use takeaway hours.
  • Seasonal businesses, such as some trekking lodges and tour operators, can set their in-season hours as regular hours. Off-season, they can mark the profile as temporarily closed.

5. Verification

Verification tells Google that you’re allowed to manage the business, and Google says it makes the profile more likely to show up. Your photos and videos only appear after the profile is verified.

  • Google decides which verification methods you’re offered, based on your business type, public information, region and hours. You can’t pick. Options can include phone or text, email, a live video call, a postcard, or a video recording. Google recommends the video recording where it’s offered.
  • For a video recording (at least 30 seconds, one continuous unedited clip, recorded and uploaded from a phone through your profile): show your location (street signs, nearby businesses or landmarks), proof the business exists (a permanent signboard with the same name as your profile) and proof you manage it (for example opening the cash counter, kitchen or storeroom). Don’t show bank, tax or ID numbers, private information, or other people’s faces.
  • If you’re waiting for a postcard, don’t edit your name, address or category, or the code won’t work.
  • Google says verification reviews can take up to 5 business days, occasionally longer.

Nepal tip: a clearly readable, permanent signboard matters twice. Customers use it to find you, and Google looks for it during video verification. If you have no permanent signage, Google says to list as a service-area business instead.

6. Photos and videos

  • Add a logo, a cover photo and an exterior photo that helps people recognise your entrance.
  • Add photos of your rooms, food, products, workspace or team at work. Get consent from anyone who appears in them.
  • Follow Google’s standards: JPG or PNG, 10 KB to 5 MB, recommended 720 × 720 px, minimum 250 × 250 px.
  • Photos should be in focus, well lit and represent reality, without heavy filters or edits.
  • Videos: up to 30 seconds, up to 75 MB, 720p or higher.

7. Reviews: what’s allowed and what isn’t

Reviews count towards prominence, and they are also where profiles get into trouble. Google’s rules are strict:

Allowed:

  • Asking customers for honest reviews. You can create a review link or QR code from your profile and share it on receipts, in thank-you emails, at the end of a chat, or printed at your counter. Google says you can also send requests by WhatsApp or a Facebook post.
  • Replying to reviews, positive and negative, briefly, politely and without sharing anyone’s private information.
  • Flagging reviews you believe break Google’s policies.

Not allowed:

  • Offering anything in exchange for a review, such as a discount, free item or payment. This also applies to paying someone to change or remove a negative review.
  • Review gating: asking only happy customers, or discouraging negative reviews.
  • Reviews from staff, family or anyone with a conflict of interest.
  • Pressuring customers to review while they’re still on your premises, or asking them to include specific content.
  • Setting staff review targets, or asking for reviews that name a staff member.

Honest, mixed reviews with thoughtful replies build more trust than a wall of perfect scores.

8. How your website supports your profile

Your profile and website work best together:

  • Consistency. Use the same name, address, phone number and hours on both. Google says it can use information from your website and from mentions of your business elsewhere on the web, so mismatches confuse search engines as well as customers.
  • Depth. Your profile is a summary. Your website can hold what customers need before they decide: room types, menus, treatment details, course outlines, trek itineraries and directions.
  • Links. Google counts links from other websites towards prominence. A real website gives local directories, partners and news sites something worth linking to.
  • Structured data. Google supports LocalBusiness structured data, a small piece of code on your site that states your business details, such as hours, in a format search engines read easily.

Keep it current

  • Update hours before every festival and holiday
  • Add fresh photos when something changes
  • Reply to new reviews every week
  • Check that your phone number and website link still work

Need a website that matches your profile?

A clear, fast website is the natural partner to a well-kept Business Profile. If you’d like help with yours, get in touch.

Sources