How to add multiple locations to Google Business Profile (step by step)

If you've added a single Google Business Profile listing through the standard signup flow, you already know it's slow. Postcard verification. One profile. One address. Twenty minutes of clicking.

Now multiply that by 30 locations.

This guide is the multi-location version of that flow — the right way to add multiple locations at once, whether you're a service business adding five new markets, a franchise corporate office onboarding 40 stores, or an agency standing up a client's portfolio.

We'll cover three paths: adding locations one at a time (when you have fewer than 10), bulk-uploading via spreadsheet (when you have 10+), and bulk verification (when you want them all live without postcards). And we'll flag the mistakes that cost teams a week of cleanup later.

Before you start: location groups

Don't add a single new location before you've created — or confirmed you're working inside — a location group.

A location group is Google's container for managing multiple Business Profile listings under one account. It's the unit that gets bulk verification, bulk edits, and (when you eventually need them) API access. Adding locations outside of a group means you'll be migrating them later, which is annoying and unnecessary.

To create one:

Go to business.google.com.
Sign in with the Google account that should own the brand's listings (not a personal account, not an agency account, not a contractor's account).
In the left rail, click Businesses.
Click Create group and name it (e.g., "SERVPRO of Southwest Florida" or "Joe's Pizza — Texas Region").

You can have multiple groups under one account if you operate distinct brands or want to delegate regional management to different teams. Otherwise, one group per brand.

If a group already exists, just make sure you have Owner or Manager access on it. (Site Manager doesn't have permission to add locations — see our manager permissions guide for the differences.)

Path 1: Adding locations one at a time (under 10 locations)

For small portfolios, the manual flow is faster than setting up bulk upload.

Inside your location group:

Click Add location in the top right.
Enter the business name. Important: use the exact, legal-storefront name. Not "SERVPRO Phoenix" if your signage just says "SERVPRO." Google enforces this in Trust & Safety reviews.
Choose a primary category. This is the single most important ranking lever on the listing — pick the one that best matches what the location actually does, not what you wish it did.
Enter the address. If you're a service-area business (plumber, restoration, locksmith), tick the "I deliver goods and services to my customers" box and define your service radius instead of showing a storefront.
Add a phone number — unique to this location, not the brand HQ number, not shared with another location. Use a local area code that matches the address.
Add your website URL. Use the per-location page if you have one (e.g., recenzi.com/locations/phoenix), not the brand homepage.
Click Continue and choose a verification method: postcard, phone, email, or video.

Repeat for each location. Verification typically takes 3–5 business days for postcards; a few minutes for phone or email if available.

Path 2: Bulk upload via spreadsheet (10+ locations)

This is the path that saves teams a week of clicking, and it's underused because the documentation is buried.

Step 1: Download the Google template

Inside your location group, click Add location → Import locations. Google gives you a CSV template with every column it accepts. Download it.

The template includes:

Required fields: store code, business name, address (line 1, city, state, postal code, country), primary category, primary phone, website URL, business hours.
Recommended fields: latitude/longitude, secondary categories, attributes (free Wi-Fi, wheelchair accessible, etc.), descriptions, services, photos.
Optional fields: special hours, more phones, additional URLs.

Step 2: Fill it in carefully

A few rules that save pain:

Store code is your internal ID for the location. It has to be unique across the group. Use something stable — store number, franchise ID, internal location ID — not "phoenix-1" if you might rename it later.
Address format has to match the country exactly. US addresses use the "1234 Main St" format with state as a two-letter abbreviation and a 5-digit postal code. Don't get cute with formatting.
Hours use a 24-hour format separated by commas: Mon: 09:00-17:00, Tue: 09:00-17:00. Closed days get Closed.
Categories must match Google's exact category names. Don't guess. Pull them from the dropdown in any existing listing and copy them literally.
Phone numbers in E.164 format: +15555550199.

If a row has a malformed field, Google rejects the whole row — not the whole upload. So most batch uploads are 90% successful with a handful of fixable rejections.

Step 3: Upload and resolve errors

Click Apply to upload the CSV. Google validates the file and shows you any errors per row. Common ones:

Address can't be matched on the map (usually a typo or a recently created address — fix the typo or add lat/long).
Phone number conflicts with another listing (use a unique number).
Business name violates guidelines (you added a keyword to the name — remove it).
Category not recognized (copy the exact category name from the dropdown).

Fix in your spreadsheet and re-upload only the corrected rows.

Step 4: Verify

After upload, each location enters an unverified state. You have two options:

Verify individually. Click each one, pick a verification method. Slow but works.
Bulk verification. If you have 10+ locations and you own the brand, this is the path.

Path 3: Bulk verification (the big one)

Bulk verification lets you verify every location in your group as a single batch, with one approval from Google instead of dozens of postcards. It's the difference between a one-week launch and a six-week launch.

Eligibility:

10 or more locations in the group.
You own or are authorized by the legal business entity (not an agency or contractor).
The business is not in a category Google flags as high-risk (some financial services, some healthcare verticals).

To apply:

Inside your location group, click Verification in the left rail.
Click Get verified at the group level (not on individual locations).
Submit a form with: business name as it's incorporated, a contact email at the brand's domain (don't use a Gmail), the country, and a few details about your portfolio.
Google sends a confirmation email with next steps — usually a follow-up where they verify domain ownership or ask for additional documentation.

Review time: typically 1–2 weeks. We've seen it run as fast as 4 days when the documentation is clean and as slow as 5 weeks when the brand name doesn't match the domain.

While you wait, you can keep adding locations to the group. New locations added during the review will often be auto-verified when the approval lands.

After upload: the work that matters most

Once your locations are live and verified, three things separate the portfolios that perform from the ones that drift:

1. Fill the long-tail fields

Most teams stop at name, address, phone, category, hours. That's the floor, not the ceiling. The fields that move ranking and conversion:

Services with descriptions (each one is its own crawlable entity).
Attributes (wheelchair accessible, free Wi-Fi, accepts new patients — anything Google offers for your category).
Business description (up to 750 characters; use 700 of them).
Photos — at minimum, exterior, interior, team, and one of each service or product. Stock photos hurt; real ones help.
Q&A — pre-seed the FAQ section with the actual questions customers ask, and answer them as the owner.

2. Set up posting and review-response cadence

Posting weekly across every location forever is a treadmill. Posting differentially — heavier for new openings, lighter for mature locations — works better. We cover the playbook in the multi-location operator's guide.

Review response: aim for a 24-hour SLA on negative reviews, 72 hours on positive. Slower response correlates with slipping ranking, which most operators don't notice until it's been happening for months.

3. Set up monitoring across locations

The reason multi-location operators struggle isn't that any one listing is hard. It's that drift across many listings is invisible without monitoring. A category mismatch on one of forty listings won't show up in a dashboard. A duplicate listing in one zip code won't either. You'll find both eventually — usually when corporate asks why a region is down.

Recenzi is built specifically for this. We watch every signal at every location and surface the locations that diverge — before corporate notices. Start a free trial and connect your location group in 90 seconds.

Mistakes that cost a week

The five most common multi-location setup mistakes, and how to dodge them:

Adding locations outside a location group. Migration later is possible but tedious. Always group-first.
Using a shared phone number across locations. Causes merges and SERP de-duplication. Unique number per location.
Keyword-stuffing the business name. "SERVPRO Phoenix Water Damage" instead of "SERVPRO." Google flags this in audits. Use the description and categories instead.
Mismatched NAP between GBP and your website's location pages. Easy to miss; deadly for ranking. Audit before you launch.
Picking the wrong primary category once and never auditing. Categories drift in their meaning over time and Google adds new ones every quarter. Review yearly.

FAQ

Can I add multiple locations to Google Business Profile if I have only two or three stores? Yes — you don't need 10. Bulk verification requires 10, but a location group can have any number, and you can add locations one at a time inside it. Set up the group anyway; you'll be glad you did when you open the third store.

How long does verification take for multiple locations? Postcards: 5–14 business days each. Bulk verification (10+ locations): 1–2 weeks for the batch.

Can I add a location that's still under construction or hasn't opened yet? No. Google's policy requires the location to be open to the public. Listings created before opening can be suspended.

Can I claim a location someone else has already created? Yes — search for it in Business Profile Manager and click Request access. The current owner gets seven days to respond before Google considers transferring it.

Do I need separate Google accounts for each franchise location? No. One account, organized via location groups. Franchisees get Manager access on their own location only.

Can I add locations in multiple countries to the same group? Yes, but verification requirements vary by country. US bulk verification doesn't automatically cover Canadian or UK locations.

The bulk-upload path is the difference between a six-week launch and a one-week launch. Most teams don't know it exists. Now you do.

If you want to skip the spreadsheet hassle of monitoring multi-location performance after launch, start a Recenzi trial — connect your group, see every signal across every location in one place.

— Team Recenzi