What is a Google Business Profile?The free listing every local business owns on Maps and Search
A plain definition of the Google Business Profile, the fields it holds, how it differs from a Maps listing, and why it is the raw material behind local lead data.
Database··7 min read
Key takeaways
A Google Business Profile is the free listing a local business owns and manages on Google Maps and Google Search
It holds the name, address, phone, category, website, hours, photos, and reviews (the fields you see when a place appears on the map)
The profile is the source of truth; the Maps listing is how that profile is shown to searchers
Those public fields are the exact data a browser extension captures to build a local lead database
The short answer
Google Business Profile, defined
A Google Business Profile is the free business listing that appears on Google Maps and in Google Search. It is the record a company uses to tell Google (and searchers) who it is, where it is, what it does, and how to reach it. Google renamed the product from "Google My Business" in 2021, so the two names refer to the same thing.
Every business that shows up on the map has an underlying profile, whether the owner has claimed it or not. When an owner verifies the profile, they gain control over the details, can respond to reviews, post updates, and see how people found them. When it is unclaimed, Google still displays what it knows from public sources.
The profile is owner-facing; the Maps listing is searcher-facing. They are two views of the same record. That distinction matters the moment you start collecting this data for prospecting, so it is worth getting straight early.
Turn profiles into a working lead list
The Vonsel Chrome extension captures the public fields of any business you browse on Maps and drops them into a mapped CRM. Free download. No trial, no credit card.
A profile is a structured record. Each field maps to something you see on the listing card. Here is what the record typically carries, and how each part is used.
Field
What it is
Owner editable
Business name
The public name shown on Maps and Search
Yes
Address (NAP)
Street address plus the map pin location
Yes
Phone number
Primary contact line for the business
Yes
Category
Primary and secondary business types (for example "Dentist")
Yes
Website
The linked site, if the business has one
Yes
Hours
Opening times, including special and holiday hours
Yes
Photos
Images from the owner and from customers
Partly
Rating & reviews
Star average and the written reviews left by customers
No
Attributes
Flags such as "wheelchair accessible" or "outdoor seating"
Yes
Place ID
Google's stable identifier for the location
No
Reviews and the star rating are the one part an owner cannot edit, which is exactly why they are so useful to a salesperson: they are unfiltered signal about what customers love and where a business is falling short. For a wider list of everything a listing exposes, see our guide to Google Maps data fields explained.
10+
structured fields per profile, from name to Place ID
$0
cost to create and manage a Google Business Profile
1
stable Place ID that identifies each location
Common confusion
Profile vs Maps listing vs your database
These three terms get mixed up constantly. They describe the same underlying business at different stages, so a quick comparison clears it up.
Concept
What it is
Who controls it
Google Business Profile
The owner-managed record behind a place
The business owner
Google Maps listing
How that record is displayed to searchers on the map
Google
Your lead database
A copy of the public fields, organized for outreach
You
Put simply: the owner writes the profile, Google renders it as a listing, and you capture the public fields into a database you can actually work. If you want to go deeper on the first two, we cover the nuance in Google Maps vs Google Business Profile.
The third column is where a tool earns its keep. A raw scrape gives you rows. What you want is those rows enriched, deduplicated, and ready to sell against. That is the difference between data and a local business database you can prospect from.
A Google Business Profile is not a marketing gimmick. It is a structured public record with a stable identifier, and that structure is precisely what makes local business data so easy to collect and organize at scale.
Why it matters for you
From profile to prospect
If you sell to local businesses, the Business Profile is your raw material. The category tells you the niche. The absence of a website flags a web design lead. The reviews tell you the pain points. The address lets you plan a route. Everything you need to qualify and open a conversation is already there, published for free.
The public fields a profile shows on the map can be captured with a browser-based extension as you browse, no API keys and no code. This is different from Google's official Places API, which is metered and billed per request. On the question of what is and is not fair game, we lay out the boundaries in is it legal to scrape Google Maps.
Capturing the fields is only step one. The Vonsel extension is the means; the end is the dashboard behind it. Captured businesses land in a mapped CRM, you can add reviews to a profile you already saved, reopen a past capture to extend it, and let Email Intelligence draft an AI email tailored to each business using its own reviews and context. Raw fields become a value-added database with the pain points attached.
Build your first local database today
Search a niche on Maps, capture the profiles, and see them plotted on your CRM in minutes. Free download. No trial, no credit card.
Creating and managing a profile costs nothing. Google offers it so local search results stay accurate and useful.
Publicly visible
The core fields (name, address, phone, category, hours, reviews) are shown to anyone who finds the business on Maps.
Formerly "My Business"
Google renamed Google My Business to Google Business Profile in 2021. Same product, newer name.
Structured and identifiable
Each location carries a stable Place ID, which is why the same business can be matched across tools without guesswork.
The owner writes the profile. Google renders the listing. You build the database.
Ready to work the profiles, not just read them?
Capture Business Profile fields into a mapped CRM with AI emails per business. Free download. No trial, no credit card. Explore features or read more database guides.
A Google Business Profile is the free business listing that appears on Google Maps and Google Search. It holds the name, address, phone number, category, website, hours, photos, and reviews of a local business, and the owner can claim and manage it at no cost.
Is a Google Business Profile the same as a Google Maps listing?
They are two views of the same record. The Google Business Profile is the owner-managed source of truth. The Google Maps listing is how that profile is displayed to searchers on the map. Any business shown on Maps has an underlying profile, whether the owner has claimed it or not.
Can I extract Google Business Profile data at scale?
Yes. The public fields that a profile shows on Maps (name, address, phone, category, website, hours, ratings) can be captured with a browser-based extension while you browse. The free Vonsel Chrome extension collects those fields and sends them into a mapped CRM so you can act on them.
Add Chrome Extension