F
I was auditing a GBP for a hardware store in Columbus, OH last month and found something I've seen on literally hundreds of listings: a product catalog section sitting completely empty. The owner had been running the business for 18 years, had great reviews, and was losing clicks to a competitor with half the inventory — because that competitor actually showed what they sold on their profile.
Adding products to your Google Business Profile is one of the most underused features available to US small businesses. It takes about 20 minutes to set up. It shows up directly on Google Search and Maps. And most of your local competitors haven't done it.
In this guide, I'll walk you through exactly how to add products to your GBP, how to write listings that show up in search, and how to avoid the mistakes that get products ignored — or worse, flagged.
📊 Flento Data: Based on Flento's analysis of 2,000+ US business profiles, businesses with active product listings get 32% more profile interactions than those without.
Google Business Profile Products is a built-in feature that lets you showcase your inventory or service offerings directly on your Google listing — before a customer ever visits your website. When someone searches for your business (or your business category) on Google Search or Maps, your products can appear as a visual grid right on your profile.
Each product listing includes a photo, a name, a price (optional), and a short description. You can group them into categories and link each one directly to a product page on your website. Google displays these products in the "From the business" section of your profile — it's prime real estate most businesses leave completely blank.
A retail shop in Austin, TX that filled in 12 product listings with good photos and keyword-rich descriptions saw a 40% jump in website clicks from their GBP within 30 days. The product section functions as a visual storefront on Google.
💡 Pro Tip: Product listings also feed into Google's AI Overviews and Shopping results for some categories. A well-written product description with the right terms can get your listing cited in AI-generated answers for local product searches.
Action Step: Log into your Google Business Profile today and check whether your Products tab is populated. If it's empty, this guide covers everything you need.
Most small and medium-sized businesses in the US can add products to their Google Business Profile — but there are a few category restrictions worth knowing.
Eligible businesses include retailers, restaurants (who can use the menu feature instead), service businesses, salons, auto repair shops, gyms, and most healthcare providers. The Products feature is available to businesses that manage their own GBP directly, rather than through certain third-party platforms.
Businesses in these categories typically do not have access to the Products feature through GBP:
For the vast majority of US small businesses — a plumber in Phoenix, a law firm in Chicago, a gym in Atlanta — the Products feature is available and underused.
⚠️ Common Mistake: Confusing the Products feature with the Menu feature. Restaurants and food businesses should use the Menu tool instead. Products are for physical inventory and service packages, not food items.
Action Step: Check your GBP dashboard for a "Products" tab. If you see "Menu" instead, use the Menu feature. If you see neither, your business category may require a different content format — check Google's GBP help center.
Adding products to your GBP takes about 20 minutes for the first batch. Here's the exact process.
Step 1: Access Your Google Business Profile
Log into business.google.com or search for your business name on Google while signed into the account that manages your profile. Click "Edit profile" to enter your GBP dashboard.
Step 2: Find the Products Tab
In your dashboard, look for the "Products" option in the left navigation menu or in the "Add to profile" section of your profile overview. Click it to open the product editor.
If you don't see Products in the navigation, try accessing it through the "Info" tab or the "See your profile" button on Google Search — some UI variations exist depending on account type and device.
Step 3: Add Your First Product
Click "Add product" (or the "+" button). You'll see a form with these fields:
Fill in all fields. Click "Save." That's one product added.
Step 4: Organize Into Collections
Once you've added a few products, Google lets you organize them into Collections (categories). Examples: "HVAC Services," "Men's Haircuts," "Summer Inventory," "Monthly Memberships." Collections make your profile easier to scan and help Google understand your business offerings at a glance.
🔥 Quick Win: Add at least 3–5 products before your profile goes public. A single product looks sparse; a populated grid looks professional and signals active management to Google.
Step 5: Review and Publish
After saving each product, Google may take a few hours to review and display it publicly. Products that violate GBP content policies (misleading claims, inappropriate images, prohibited categories) will be removed. Most standard product listings go live within 24 hours.
Action Step: Add your top 5 bestsellers or most-searched services this week. Don't wait until you have a full catalog — a partial product shelf is far better than an empty one.
The photo and the name are what stop the scroll. The description is what converts that click into a website visit or a call.
Product Names
Use the exact name your customers search for — not your internal SKU or a branded label they've never heard of. If you're an HVAC company in Denver, CO, "AC Tune-Up Service" converts better than "Comfort Care Package." If you're a salon in Seattle, WA, "Balayage Color" outperforms "Signature Color Treatment."
Include the most relevant search term in the product name. Google uses product names as a relevance signal.
Product Descriptions
You get up to 1,000 characters. Use them. A strong product description covers:
Example of a weak description: "Great haircut service for men and women. Contact us to book."
Example of a strong description: "Classic men's haircut with a hot towel neck shave and styling. Our barbers in Houston, TX use scissor-cut techniques for a clean, natural finish. Includes shampoo and style. Walk-ins welcome. Appointment booking at the link below."
The second version is searchable, specific, and local. The first is a placeholder.
Product Photos
Photos are the first thing people see. Use real photos of your actual products or services — not stock images. Google's own data shows that listings with photos receive significantly more requests for directions and calls than listings without them.
For physical products: clean background, good lighting, product in focus. For service businesses: before/after shots, photos of your team doing the work, or the end result.
📊 Flento Data: Across Flento's analysis of US business profiles, product listings with custom photos (not stock images) receive 2.8x more profile engagement than those using generic imagery.
Action Step: Photograph your top 5 products or services before adding them. A phone camera in good natural lighting produces perfectly acceptable product photos for GBP.
Most businesses add products in random order and call it done. The Flento Product Shelf Method is a simple 3-step approach to organizing your product listings so Google and customers can make the most sense of them.
Step 1 — Lead with your highest-margin or most-searched items. Google displays products in the order you add them (or by your sort setting). Put your flagship products first. For a dental practice in Miami, FL, that might mean "Teeth Whitening" and "Invisalign Consultation" before "Standard Cleaning."
Step 2 — Create 2–4 Collections that match how your customers think. Not internal departments — customer intent categories. A gym in Portland, OR might use: "Membership Plans," "Personal Training," and "Class Packages." Each Collection functions as a mini-menu that helps new visitors understand your offering in 5 seconds.
Step 3 — Link every product to a specific landing page, not your homepage. Every "Learn more" or "Buy" button should go to the exact product or service page. Homepage links add friction. Product page links convert.
Run through these three steps after your initial setup and you'll have a product shelf that's organized for both Google's crawlers and human visitors.
Listing products without photos. A text-only product listing is barely better than no listing at all. The product grid view that Google shows is visual first. If you don't have a photo, the listing either won't render properly or will show a blank placeholder that looks neglected.
Using prices that don't match your website. If your GBP says a service is $99 and your website says $129, customers will bounce — and potentially flag the listing. Keep pricing consistent or use a range.
Setting product links to the homepage. This is one of the most common mistakes I see across audits. If a customer clicks "Learn more" on your "Oil Change" product and lands on your generic homepage, you've lost them. Link to the specific page.
Ignoring the description field. Every week I see product listings that have a name, a price, and a beautiful photo — and absolutely nothing in the description. That's leaving search visibility on the table. Google uses the description for relevance matching.
Adding too many products at once without quality control. Twenty product listings with no photos and placeholder descriptions are worse than five great ones. Start small, do it right, and expand.
⚠️ Common Mistake: Copying product descriptions directly from manufacturer spec sheets. These are generic, often don't include local signals, and sound nothing like how your customers search. Always rewrite them in your own voice with local context included.
Action Step: Audit your existing product listings (if any) against this list. Fix the most common issue first — usually missing photos or homepage links.
For businesses with multiple locations or large product catalogs, manually updating product listings across multiple GBP profiles becomes a real management problem. A photo change, a price update, a seasonal product — every update has to be replicated manually location by location.
Flento's Google Business Profile Optimizer lets you manage product listings across all your locations from one dashboard. Add a new product once, push it to all profiles. Update pricing in bulk. Monitor which product listings are driving the most engagement and clicks.
For businesses that also need help with the broader profile — photos, posts, description, categories — Flento handles all of it in one place, rather than logging into GBP one location at a time.
✅ Done? See how Flento manages GBP product listings across multiple locations →
Q: How many products can I add to my Google Business Profile? A: Google doesn't publish a strict maximum, but in practice most US businesses can add up to several hundred products across multiple Collections. For practical purposes, focus on quality over quantity — 10–20 well-written, well-photographed listings outperform 50 sparse ones.
Q: Do Google Business Profile products show up in Google Shopping? A: Not automatically. GBP product listings are separate from Google Shopping (which requires a Google Merchant Center account and a product feed). However, well-optimized GBP product descriptions do appear in Google Search results and can be pulled into AI Overviews for relevant local queries.
Q: How long does it take for new GBP products to appear publicly? A: Most product listings go live within 24 hours of submission. Some may take up to 3 business days if Google flags them for manual review. If a product hasn't appeared after 3 days, check Google's GBP content policies to ensure it doesn't violate any restrictions.
Q: Can I add products to my Google Business Profile from mobile? A: Yes. The Google Business Profile app (iOS and Android) supports product management. The desktop experience at business.google.com is generally easier for adding multiple products at once, but mobile works fine for adding or editing individual listings.
Q: Do I need a price to add a GBP product? A: No. Price is optional. You can list products with a specific price, a price range, or no price at all. For service businesses that quote custom pricing, leaving the price field blank or using a range (e.g., "Starting at $199") is perfectly acceptable.
Q: What types of images work best for GBP product photos? A: Real photos of your actual products or services perform best. Google recommends a minimum of 250×250 pixels, but 1200×900 is the standard for sharp display. Avoid heavy text overlays, logos as the primary image, or heavily filtered photos — Google's review process sometimes flags these.
Q: Will adding products to my GBP help my local rankings? A: Product listings are a profile completeness signal, and Google rewards complete, active profiles with better visibility. They're not a direct ranking factor on their own, but as part of a broader GBP optimization strategy, they contribute to the activity and engagement signals Google uses to rank local listings. See how local SEO ranking factors work for more context.
Every week your product shelf sits empty is another week potential customers are searching for what you sell — and landing on a competitor's listing that actually shows it. The businesses ranking well on Google Maps right now aren't using secret tactics. They're using every feature Google gives them, and most of their local competitors aren't.
Product listings take 20 minutes to set up properly. They show up directly on Google Search and Maps. They give Google more context about what your business does. And for most US small businesses, they're sitting there unused.
Add your first five products today. Not next week. Today.
Get started free with Flento →
