Google Business Profile services and products are the sections of your listing where you list what you do and what you sell, with a name, a description and a price: services are added from "Edit services", products from "Edit products", and which sections you see depends on your business category. Of 151 verified profiles we checked in Milan and Rome, 130 had filled in their services, with a median of 9 entries.
It looks like the easiest part of the profile.
It isn't, because it's the only part where you describe, in your own words, what you can do. And almost nobody comes back to it after day one.
The three mistakes we found most often:
- keeping only the generic entry Google suggests: 10 of the 18 dental practices with services listed have the same one, "Cure odontoiatriche" (dental care);
- filling the list with jobs you don't do: the profile with the most services in our sample, 154, is registered as an electrician and lists deck construction and roof repair;
- putting services in the products section, which Google keeps for physical goods and checks against its Shopping ads policies.
The UK results for "google business profile services" are mostly Google's own pages, agency pages and short how-tos that explain the steps. We wanted to know what competitors' profiles actually contain, so we read the Google Business Profile Help pages (checked on 10 November 2026) and counted the services on 151 verified profiles, the most reviewed in 8 categories in Milan and Rome. The data is Italian; the rules are the same in the UK, with one difference on products that we flag below.
Here you'll find:
- which section to use between services, products and menu, in one table;
- how many services the most reviewed profiles have, category by category;
- how to add them and how to write names Google won't reject;
- who can upload products, and why UK shops have an option Italian shops don't;
- whether they help on Maps and what they have to do with AI answers.
Let's start.
Services, products or menu: which section to use (your category decides, not you)
The profile has three separate editors for describing what you offer: services for businesses that sell work, products for shops selling physical goods, menu for food and drink. Which ones appear depends on your category: Google says businesses in certain categories, such as service businesses, may be able to show what they offer directly on the profile (Manage your services on your Business Profile).
This is what the Help Centre says about each one.
| Section | Who it's for | What goes in | The limit to know |
|---|---|---|---|
| Services | Businesses in certain categories, mainly service businesses | Suggested or custom services, grouped by category, with description and price | A custom name with prices, phone numbers or personal information is rejected automatically |
| Products (product editor) | Local shops selling physical goods with no online shop, or no barcodes, or no up-to-date stock data | Photo, name and product details | Shopping ads policies apply: one violation can get all your products removed |
| In-store products (Local Inventory app) | Shops with a POS or scanner and manufacturer barcodes (UPC/EAN) | Stock synced automatically | US, Canada, UK, Ireland and Australia only |
| Menu | Food and drink businesses | Sections, dishes, descriptions and prices, also from a photo or PDF of the menu | Changes can take 24-48 hours to show |
What if the section you need isn't there?
Check your primary category first, because it decides which editors appear. How to choose it, with data on the 57 profiles in the top three on Maps across 10 Italian sectors, is in Google Business Profile categories.
How many services the most reviewed profiles have (151 profiles in Milan and Rome)
The profiles we checked have a median of 9 services, but 41 out of 130 have three or fewer. For 8 categories we took the 10 verified profiles with the most reviews within 10 km of central Milan and central Rome (160 results, 151 distinct profiles) and counted the entries in the Services section.
| Google category | Profiles | With at least one service | Services per profile (median) | Highest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plumbers | 20 | 18 | 15.5 | 65 |
| Electricians | 16 | 12 | 14.5 | 154 |
| Hair salons | 20 | 20 | 11 | 28 |
| Beauty salons | 16 | 13 | 11 | 88 |
| Accountants | 19 | 14 | 8.5 | 47 |
| Dentists | 20 | 18 | 7 | 51 |
| Lawyers | 20 | 17 | 7 | 115 |
| Body shops | 20 | 18 | 3 | 26 |
| Total | 151 | 130 (86%) | 9 | 154 |
Three things stand out.
Trades that work at the customer's home list more. Plumbers and electricians have the longest lists, because Google suggests many precise entries, such as "Tap installation" or "Toilet repair". With no shop window to show, the list of jobs is the shop window. The rest of the profile for businesses like these is in service areas on Google Business Profile.
Professionals stop earlier. Dentists and lawyers have a median of 7, often category labels rather than treatments: "Cure odontoiatriche" (dental care) instead of "Dental implant" or "Hygiene and whitening".
Body shops barely use them. Median 3. And among the profiles returned for this category there are car dealers whose services are "Financing" and "Car leasing", not repairs.
One more figure that says a lot about how profiles get filled in: 10 of the 130 profiles list the same service twice, under the same name. It's the sign of a list written once and never read again.
How to add services to Google Business Profile (four steps from the Help Centre)
Services are added from your Business Profile with the "Edit services" button: you pick from Google's suggestions or create a custom service. The steps come from Manage your services on your Business Profile.
1. Open your profile and select Edit services
Sign in with the owner or manager account, go to your Business Profile (from Google Search or Maps) and select "Edit services".
2. Tick the suggested services
Google suggests entries based on your category. For a plumber, Google's own example is installing taps or repairing toilets. Tick only what you actually do, even if the list is long.
3. Add custom services
If a job isn't listed, select "Add more services" and then "Add custom service". This is where you stand out: in our sample 92 of 130 profiles have at least one entry no other profile in the same category uses.
4. Group by category and add a description and price
Each service can have a description and a price. If you have secondary categories, "Add another business category" creates a group for each one: a beauty salon that is also a hair salon keeps facials apart from haircuts.
How to write your services (the rules that get an entry rejected)
A custom service is rejected automatically if its name contains profanity, gibberish, personal information, prices or phone numbers. That's in the Help Centre, and it's the only explicit rule Google gives on names.
Within that, we work with three rules.
The name is the job, in the customer's words. "Boiler replacement", not "Thermal comfort solutions". You'll find the right words in the enquiries you already get.
The price goes in the price field, not the name. "Dental hygiene £70" as a name is rejected; "Dental hygiene" with the price in its own field is not.
The description explains, it doesn't repeat the town. Google's guidelines ask for clear, trustworthy information and ban links, promotions and sale prices from the business description (Guidelines for representing your business on Google). The same spirit works for service descriptions: what's included, how long it takes, who it's for.
An example for a plumber.
- Bad: "Emergency plumber London 24h call 07..." (rejected: phone number in the name).
- Weak: "Plumbing services" (accepted, but says nothing the category doesn't).
- Good: "Leak detection without lifting the floor", with the description "We find the leak with a thermal camera and tracer gas, then tell you where to open up" and a "from" price.
What about jobs that other trades do?
Leave them out. The 154-entry profile mixes wiring, roofing and renovation under the electrician category. The guidelines ask for information that describes the real business, and anyone searching for an electrician who finds "deck construction" knows something is off.
Does your profile say everything you do, or only what Google suggested?
You've just seen that one profile in three stops at three services, and that generic entries add nothing the category doesn't already say. We review your category, services and products with you, match them to the pages on your site and to the enquiries you really get, and check what competitors show in your area.
Book a strategy callProducts on Google Business Profile: who can upload them (and the UK option Italy lacks)
Products are uploaded with the product editor, from "Edit products", but Google aims it at local shops selling physical goods that meet at least one condition: no website where customers can buy online, products without barcodes, or no up-to-date stock data (About product editor).
Three details most guides leave out.
Shopping ads policies apply. If you submit products that break them, Google may remove every product you uploaded, not just the wrong one.
If Merchant Center is already linked, the editor sends you there. "Edit products" takes you to manage products in the linked Merchant Center account, and if you don't have access you have to request it. How Merchant Center works, and where products appear (19 of 24 Italian searches in our test), is in Google Merchant Center.
UK shops can sync stock from the till. The Local Inventory app, which brings products scanned in store onto Google, is available in the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland and Australia (Showcase in-store products on Google Search and Maps). It needs a compatible POS or a wired barcode scanner and manufacturer barcodes. Italian shops don't have this option and upload by hand or through Merchant Center.
Can I list services as products so they get a photo?
Some people do. We don't: the product editor is built for physical goods, follows Shopping policies, and the risk is losing every product you uploaded. For a shop, the right products are the ones customers come in to buy. How to work a shop's profile is in SEO for retailers.
Restaurants: the menu has its own editor (and can be built from a photo)
For food and drink the right section is the menu, not services: sections, dishes, descriptions and prices, managed from "Edit menu" (About the menu editor). Changes can take 24-48 hours to show on Maps and Search.
Two useful features from the Help Centre: Google can build the menu from a photo or PDF with AI (experimental, and the menu has to fit on one page), and it can transcribe the menu from your website. If it finds several sources, you pick the preferred one under "Full menu".
An HTML menu on your own site, not a PDF, is still the foundation: we explain why, with data from Italian results pages, in restaurant SEO.
Do services and products help you rank on Google Maps? (relevance yes, on their own no)
Google doesn't list services among its ranking factors, but it says that businesses with complete and accurate information are more likely to show up in local results, and that a complete profile helps customers learn about the products or services you offer (Tips to improve your local ranking on Google). The services page adds that when local customers search for something you offer, that service may be highlighted on your profile.
So they help relevance. Not distance, not prominence.
Our sample shows it from the other side: 21 of the 151 most reviewed profiles have no services at all, including two dental practices in Milan with more than 1,000 reviews each. They're at the top for other reasons. Services mostly help businesses that are already visible, by showing at a glance whether they do that job.
What actually moves Maps rankings, in order, is in how to rank higher on Google Maps. To see whether the Services section brings clicks, tag your website link with UTM parameters: we cover it in Google Business Profile insights.
Services, products and AI answers (what ChatGPT cited)
We asked ChatGPT, with web search on and location set to Italy, how to add services and products to a profile and whether they help on Maps (10 November 2026). Its main cited source was Google's Help Centre page on services, followed by the guidelines and the local ranking page; no Italian blog was cited.
For "how do I do it", AI tools go to the official source. For "who does it near me" they read business data, and a clearly named service is one more fact a system can read and repeat: "leak detection with a thermal camera" can be quoted, "plumbing services" can't. It's no guarantee of a citation, and we don't promise one. How profiles feed ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overview answers on local searches is in our local AI visibility test.
The rule that follows is simple: every service on the profile should have its own page on your site, in the same words. A profile and a site that say the same thing are easier to read, for Google and for a language model. The other sections of the profile, from photos to posts, are in our Google Business Profile optimisation guide.
Google Business Profile services and products: FAQs
Yes. In the Google Maps app customers can see the full list in the "Services" section, and when they search for something you offer, that service may be highlighted on your profile, according to Google Business Profile Help.
Yes, in each service's price field. Not in the name: a custom service with a price or a phone number in its name is rejected automatically.
No, under Google's rules. The product editor is built for physical goods and follows Shopping ads policies: if you upload products that break them, Google may remove every product you uploaded.
It depends: your primary category decides. Services are available for certain categories, products for shops selling physical goods and the menu for food and drink businesses. If a section is missing, check your category first.
It depends: every service you actually provide, and nothing more. Across the 151 most reviewed profiles we checked in Milan and Rome the median is 9, but the profile with the most entries, 154, includes other trades' work and isn't a model to copy.
In short
Services for work, products for physical goods, menu for restaurants.
The most reviewed profiles in Milan and Rome have a median of 9 services.
No prices or phone numbers in names: the entry gets rejected.
No services as products: you risk losing every product.
They help relevance; they don't replace reviews and distance.
One last idea we didn't find in the guides we read: name your custom services with the words from the last three months of enquiries. Open your emails and messages, note how customers describe the job ("my bathroom's leaking", "I need a socket moved") and use those names. They're the same words people type into Google. If you'd like to set up your profile and site pages this way, alongside the rest of your local SEO, we can talk it through as part of our SEO consulting.
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