A well-kept Google Business Profile in Corfu is often the first thing a guest sees of your business, before your website. It is the free listing that appears on Google Maps and in the local results when someone searches for you, or for what you do nearby, so it deserves an afternoon of proper attention and a few minutes every month after that.

One note before we start: Google changes the interface often. Buttons move and menus get renamed, sometimes between one season and the next. The steps below describe what to do rather than exactly where to click, and those principles have stayed the same for years.

Setting up your Google Business Profile in Corfu

Claim and verify your profile

Search for your business on Google Maps first. It may already exist, created by Google or suggested by a guest. If it does, claim it; if not, create it. Use a Google account that the business owns, not a former employee's or your web designer's personal account, and add other people as managers rather than sharing the password.

Google then asks you to verify that the business is yours. It decides which methods to offer: often a short video showing your signage, your premises and something only the owner can access, sometimes a phone or email code, occasionally a postcard. Follow what Google shows you. Use the address where customers actually come. If you visit customers instead, Google lets you hide the address and show a service area.

Choose the primary and secondary categories

The primary category is the single most important choice in the profile. Pick the most specific one that describes your main business: "Seafood restaurant" says more than "Restaurant". Then add secondary categories only for things you genuinely offer, such as a hotel whose restaurant is open to non-residents. Categories for services you don't provide confuse Google and disappoint people.

Add real photos and video

People decide with their eyes, so show them what they will find. Start with the front of the building and the sign, so guests recognise you from the road. Then the inside, the rooms or tables, the food, the view and the people who work there. Add short videos too: a slow walk through the terrace says more than ten words about it.

Keep the photos honest and current, without text, logos or filters stamped on top. Guests' photos also appear on your profile, so yours should be the best ones there. Add fresh images at the start of each season, when the place looks its best.

The kind of photo a guest wants to see before driving over.

Post updates

Updates (Google has called them posts and updates over the years) are short announcements on your profile: the opening date of the season, a new menu, a live music night, a wedding open day. They show the profile is alive. A few a month in season is plenty, and the first one of the year should say clearly that you are open.

Ask for reviews, and reply to all of them

Ask happy guests for a review while they are still with you, with a short link or a QR code. Reply to every review in the language it was written in. Thank people for good ones in a sentence that sounds human. Answer bad ones calmly, once, with facts and an offer to talk, because the next guest reads your reply more carefully than the complaint.

Never offer discounts or gifts in exchange for reviews, and don't ask staff or family to write them. Google's policies forbid both. You can't remove a review just because it is negative, but you can report one that breaks Google's rules.

A calm reply is read by every guest who comes after.

Write a description in Greek and English

The profile has one description field, with room for about 750 characters, and Google asks you not to put links or promotions in it. In Corfu, where your customers speak both languages, write a short paragraph in Greek and one in English. Put first the language most of your customers search in. Say what you are, where you are (the village or area, not just "Corfu"), what makes you different, and when you are open.

Set seasonal hours for summer businesses

Many Corfu businesses close for part of the year, and the profile needs to say so clearly. Set your regular hours for the season, and use special hours for holidays such as Easter or 15 August. For an off-season closure, Google's own help pages say to mark the business as temporarily closed rather than leaving old hours in place. Never choose permanently closed for a seasonal break. When you reopen, set the new hours, mark the business as open again and post an update that says so.

Link to your website

Add your website address, and where Google offers them, links for bookings or menus. Send people to the right page: the English page for English searchers, the booking page for bookings. You can add a small tracking tag (a UTM parameter) to the link to see in your analytics how many visits come from the profile. Make sure the website shows exactly the same name, address and phone number.

Keep it alive

A profile is never finished. Once a month, add a photo, check the hours and reply to new reviews. That small habit does more than any trick.

Your profile is one part of a bigger picture. My guide to local SEO in Corfu explains how it works together with your website, and what a Corfu business website needs covers the site itself. If you would rather have someone build it with you, see my web design service in Corfu.

Updated: 8 November 2026

How to set up your Google Business Profile in Corfu