Your Google Business Profile usually shows up within 3 to 7 days after you complete verification, though Google's systems can take up to 14 days to fully index and display your listing across all surfaces. The profile becomes technically live as soon as verification finishes, but you might not see it appear in searches right away because Google needs time to crawl, validate, and integrate your business data into Maps and local search results. Verification method affects timing slightly. Postcard verification typically adds 5 to 14 days just for the card to arrive, then another few days after you enter the code. Video verification or instant verification through Search Console can cut that wait dramatically, making your profile visible within 24 to 72 hours in many cases. Even after your profile appears, it won't necessarily rank well immediately. New profiles often sit in what we call a "probation period" where Google validates legitimacy through user signals, review accumulation, and category consistency. We typically see profiles gain meaningful visibility in local pack results 2 to 4 weeks after launch, assuming you're actively managing the listing with posts, photos, and review responses. A few factors can delay visibility: conflicting business information elsewhere online, operating in a highly competitive category in major cities like Toronto or Vancouver, or triggering Google's spam filters with keyword-stuffed business names. If your profile isn't showing after 2 weeks, check that your business name exactly matches your actual signage and legal name, verify your category selection is specific rather than generic, and ensure your address is formatted correctly according to Canada Post standards. At Ottawa SEO, we never consider a GBP truly "live" until it ranks in the top 3 local pack results for the primary service plus city query. That outcome depends less on technical indexing time and more on optimization quality, review velocity, and how well your NAP data matches across directories. The listing appearing is just step one.