Google Business Profile for your Tenerife business: the complete 2026 guide

In Tenerife, before a tourist ever reaches your website, they've already seen your Google profile. It's the first impression, the first trust filter, and increasingly the place where the decision is made — to eat here, sleep here, or call you.

Check whether your profile is missing any of these: a precise category, secondary categories, attributes, recent photos or a post in the last few months. Here's what to change for 2026.

A quick note before we start: Google Business Profile is the same thing as the old Google My Business, and in Spanish Google calls it Perfil de Empresa en Google, which helps if your Google account is set to Spanish. Adding or claiming your profile costs nothing.

How does Google decide which profiles to show?

Google explains it on its page of tips to improve your local ranking. Local results depend mainly on three factors:

• Relevance: how well your profile matches what the person is searching for. This is everything you fill in: category, description, services and attributes. Google asks for complete, detailed information.
• Distance: how far your business is from the person searching. If they don't share their location, Google uses what it knows about it.
• Prominence: how well known your business is. Google mentions, for example, how many websites link to your business and how many reviews you have, and says more reviews and positive ratings can help your local ranking.

The same page makes it clear that there's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. You can't control distance: your restaurant is where it is. What you can control is relevance, with a complete and accurate profile, and, over time, prominence: real reviews, a website of your own, and other people talking about you. That's what this guide is about.

How do you claim and verify your Google Business Profile?

1. Search for your business on Google Maps with its name and town. A profile may already exist even if you never created it. If it exists and isn't verified, claim it from the profile itself; if it doesn't exist, create it at business.google.com/add.
2. Verify it. Google decides which methods you get based on your type of business, your area and your hours: phone or text, email, a recorded video, a live video call or post. If video is offered, Google recommends it. If you pick phone, make sure a person answers: automated phone menus don't get the code.
3. Use a Google account you control, not a relative's or the one belonging to whoever built your website years ago. If someone helps you, they can help with access to your profile, but the ownership should be yours.

Until the profile is verified, your photos don't show on Google. And if you later change your name, address or category, Google may ask you to verify again. That's why it pays to get those three right from the start. If you find two profiles for your business (an old one and a new one, say), sort it out: Google wants one profile per business.

The profile fields, in this order

Everything is edited from your profile in Google Search or the Google Maps app, under Edit profile. I recommend this order, from what matters most to the finishing touches. The limits are the ones Google gives in its help page on editing your Business Profile:

1. Name. Exactly as it appears on your sign, your receipts and your website. No "Tenerife", no "best seafood", no phone number or opening hours. Google's guidelines warn that adding unnecessary information to your name can get the profile suspended.
2. Primary and additional categories. The primary one should be the most specific option on the list (more on choosing it below). After that you can add up to 9 more, although Google asks you to use as few as possible: only the ones that describe what your business is.
3. Address or service area. If customers come to you, the full address and the map pin on your door, not in the middle of town. If you go to the customer (excursions with hotel pick-ups, mobile hairdressing, pool maintenance), set a service area with the towns you cover. A virtual office or a PO box doesn't qualify for a profile.
4. Hours and special hours. Your regular hours and, separately, holidays and one-off closures. If you close off-season, Google lets you mark the business as temporarily closed instead of leaving hours nobody can rely on.
5. Phone. Your main number and, if you like, up to 2 more. Make it a number someone actually answers. If your profile offers a WhatsApp chat option (Google only offers it in some regions) and you use WhatsApp with customers, switch it on; there are ideas for organising it in the WhatsApp Business guide for restaurants and hotels.
6. Website. Your site's full address, with https. Your website, not your Booking, TripAdvisor or Instagram page. Depending on the category, you can also add links for bookings, orders or your menu.
7. Description. What you offer, what makes you different, where you are and which languages you speak. 750 characters maximum, no links, and don't focus on promotions or prices: those belong in posts.
8. Attributes. Terrace, Wi-Fi, accessibility, payment methods, vegetarian options. More in section 6.
9. Services, menu or products. Food and drink businesses can use the menu editor; health and beauty businesses can add their list of services and, if their category allows it, a booking button.
10. Photos and videos. Logo, cover, exterior, interior, product and team. More in section 2.
11. Social media. Where available, one link per platform: Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and a few more.

A made-up example description, so you can see the tone: "Family-run seafood restaurant by the harbour, with fish of the day and a sea-view terrace. Open for lunch and dinner, with menus in Spanish, English and German. Book by phone or online." Short, concrete, no empty adjectives. If you have something that genuinely sets you apart, there's plenty of room for it.

1. Choose your primary category carefully

Your category tells customers, and Google, what your business does. According to Google's help, it helps connect you with customers searching for your products or services, the categories you select affect your local ranking and, depending on your type of business, they may also be used to assign a label to it. Google gives an example: with "Pizza restaurant" as the primary category, a business might show in local results for searches like "restaurants", "Italian restaurants" or "pizza".

Before settling for a generic category like "Restaurant", "Hotel" or "Travel agency", type exactly what you are into the field and see which more specific options Google suggests. The category describes what your business is, not everything it sells: the rest goes in services, menu and attributes.

How to pick it without getting it wrong:

• Complete the sentence "this business is a...", not "this business has a...". That's the rule in Google's guidelines: a motel with a pool is a motel, not a swimming pool.
• Choose the most specific one that exists. Google's own example is picking "Nail salon" rather than a generic "Salon". When you choose a specific category, Google already understands the general ones that contain it.
• Don't invent: you can only choose from the list. If yours doesn't exist, pick the closest general one.
• Look at your direct competitors: search Google Maps the way your customer would ("seafood restaurant Los Cristianos", "physio La Laguna") and open the top profiles. The category shows under the name.

The category also unlocks features: according to Google, hotels can show their class rating and amenities; restaurants, links for orders, reservations and menus; health and beauty businesses, a booking button and their list of services. With the wrong category you can miss out on those buttons.

2. Your photos and your customers' photos

Google's documentation doesn't say customer photos carry more weight than yours. What its help page on photos and videos does say is that if the cover photo you choose is low quality, or other sources suggest it isn't the best photo to represent your business, a photo uploaded by a user may be shown instead. And customers can post photos to your profile without you being able to stop them; you can only report the ones that break the rules. So both count: yours, to control what people see first, and your customers', because they show your business the way people experience it. How do you influence your customers' photos?

• Ask for photos at the end of service — when paying the bill, at hotel check-out
• Place a discreet sign with the QR to your profile on the table, at the bar, in the room
• Upload real, current photos yourself — exterior, interior, team, product or work. Update them when something changes

Two old photos don't show customers what your business looks like today. If you renovate, change the menu or the season starts, upload new ones.

What Google asks of each photo: JPG or PNG, between 10 KB and 5 MB, recommended resolution 720 × 720 pixels (minimum 250 × 250), in focus, well lit and without heavy filters, because the image should represent reality. Videos: up to 30 seconds, up to 75 MB, 720p or higher. A photo can take 24 to 48 hours to appear.

The photos you shouldn't be missing:

• Exterior, the way someone arriving on foot or by car sees it. Google says an exterior photo helps customers recognise your business when they visit. In a shopping centre in Playa de las Américas or on a pedestrian street in La Laguna, that photo saves people walking in circles.
• Entrance and access: steps, ramp, where to park.
• Interior in natural light, at the time you open.
• Product: your dishes, your rooms, your boat, your chair, your treatment room.
• Team: real faces, with their permission.
• Logo and cover: for the cover, the photo that represents you best.

3. How do you ask for Google reviews and reply to them?

Google recommends replying to reviews: according to its help pages, replying shows customers you value their feedback, and positive reviews and helpful replies can help your business stand out. Google also counts the number of reviews and positive ratings towards prominence, one of the three local ranking factors.

Templates I recommend:

• Positive review — thank, mention a specific detail of the visit, invite back
• Neutral review — thank for the feedback, identify what can be improved
• Negative review — never argue, offer to resolve offline (email or phone)

How to ask for them without breaking the rules:

1. In a browser on your computer, open your profile and go to Read reviews → Get more reviews. Copy the link or download the QR code (for now, the QR can only be generated from a computer).
2. Send the link by WhatsApp or email after the service, and put the QR on the receipt, the table or the reception desk.
3. Ask everyone, not just the people you know left happy. Google points out that a mix of positive and negative feedback often feels more trustworthy.
4. Never give anything in return: no discount, no free drink, no gift. Google prohibits offering incentives to get, change or remove reviews, and can restrict a profile that does it. I go into more detail in the local SEO guide for Tenerife.

When you reply, remember your reply is public, the customer gets notified and can change their review after reading it. Keep it short, use the person's name, mention something specific about their visit and don't turn the reply into an ad. Never post a customer's private details; if the problem is complicated, ask them to call or email you.

4. Posts: updates, offers and events

You can publish a "post" on your profile every week (offer, event, news, photo). It shows on your profile in Search and Maps, and according to Google's help page on posts, posts older than six months are archived unless a date range is set. Google describes their job as helping customers decide to visit you. Writing one takes a few minutes.

There are three types:

• Update: text, a photo or video and a button with a link (book, order online, learn more). The button should take people to a website where they can actually do that.
• Offer: needs a title, dates and times, and adds a "View offer" button automatically. It can include a coupon code and terms.
• Event: a title plus start and end dates and times. If you leave out the times, it shows as lasting 24 hours on the event dates.

You create them from your profile under Posts → Add post. You can schedule them for later or make them repeat weekly, monthly or on a custom schedule. Google reviews every post before showing it, and two details avoid rejections: don't put a phone number in the text if Google can't verify it belongs to your business, and if you sell regulated products such as alcohol or health products, you can post, but don't write about those products.

Ideas for a Tenerife business (examples to adapt, not recipes):

• Restaurant: the seasonal dish with a photo and a button to the menu, or a live music night as an event.
• Hotel or apartments: a winter long-stay offer, with its dates.
• Excursions: this week's departures or a change of meeting point.
• Clinic or physio: summer opening hours, or a new practitioner who speaks English or German.

5. Connect the profile to your site (and vice versa)

Your profile should link to your site. Your site should have:

• LocalBusiness schema markup with the same address, phone and hours as the profile (consistent NAP)
• Embedded Google Map on the contact page
• "Book" or "Call" button that matches the action promoted on the profile

The key is consistency: the same name, address and phone number on your profile, your website, your social media and any directory you appear in. If you change your hours or your number, change them everywhere at once.

And a good profile doesn't replace a website. Santos Barbertop, my first client, already had 116+ reviews and 4.9★ on Google, but with his template website the search "santos barber" had been stuck on page 2 for 7 months. With the new site it was on page 1 in September, and in its first three months the site has been in Google's top 3 for "peluquería san isidro". The data is in the Santos Barbertop case study.

6. Attributes and services

Attributes tell customers details about your business, such as whether you have outdoor seating or Wi-Fi, and they show on your profile in Search, Maps and other Google platforms. According to Google's help on attributes, if you add certain attributes, your business might show up in searches for places with those attributes. Some you edit yourself under Edit profile (terrace, Wi-Fi, accessibility, payment methods, vegetarian options); others, more subjective, depend on the opinions of people who have visited. Filling them in takes a few minutes. Only tick what's true: a "wheelchair-accessible entrance" with a step in it is a bad review waiting to happen.

Before moving on to upkeep, here's the whole setup in one table, with the Google rules I've cited along the way:

Maintenance routine

• Every week: reply to new reviews, check the photos customers have uploaded (in the Google Maps app) and post something if there's news.
• Every month: check special hours for upcoming holidays, upload new photos if something has changed and look at your profile's performance. Among other things, Google shows you the searches people used to find you, calls and clicks to your website.
• Every season: adjust your hours, refresh the cover photo and, if you close, mark the profile as temporarily closed. Someone who turns up on your winter hours in midsummer and finds you closed may leave you a bad review.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a Google Business Profile cost? Nothing: Google lets you add or claim your business at no charge. And since you can't pay for a better local ranking, the only cost is the time it takes to keep it complete and up to date.

Can I put "Tenerife" or "Costa Adeje" in the name? Only if it's part of your real name, the one on your sign. Otherwise the area goes in the address, the service area and the description.

Can I delete a negative review? No. You can reply to it and, if it breaks Google's rules (spam, insults, or someone who was never a customer, for example), report it. Your reply will also be read by your next customers, so write it with them in mind.

How often should I post? Google doesn't set a frequency. Post when there's something useful for customers: a change in hours, an offer with dates, an event. If you struggle to remember, schedule repeating posts.

Conclusion

A complete, up-to-date Google Business profile is the foundation of local SEO in Tenerife. Keeping it that way costs no money, just consistency.

The profile is one piece; the other is your website. I explain why in why your Tenerife business needs a professional website, and if you're curious about how ChatGPT or Perplexity mention businesses, in how to show up in AI answers.

At Teide Digital, when I deliver your site, I also audit and optimise your Google Business Profile as part of the package. If you want to know how yours stands today, I'll send you a free video audit.