Your Google Business Profile lives at business.google.com. Sign in with the Google account tied to your listing (often the owner's personal Gmail or a shared company account). If you've never claimed your profile, search your exact business name plus city on Google—if a knowledge panel or map pin appears on the right side of desktop results, that's your auto-generated profile and you can claim it by clicking "Own this business?" or "Claim this business." Many Canadian businesses discover Google created a profile automatically by scraping citations from directories, government registries like the Canada Business Registries, or even customer edits. You don't need to create one from scratch in most cases—you claim and verify what already exists. Verification typically happens by postcard with a PIN mailed to your physical address, though some categories allow phone or email verification. Once inside the dashboard at business.google.com, you'll see insights (search and map views, clicks, calls), the ability to post updates, upload photos, respond to reviews, and edit your NAP (name, address, phone), hours, categories, and attributes. The interface replaced the old "Google My Business" brand in 2021 but the URL and core function remain identical. If you operate multiple locations—common for Ottawa businesses with branches in Kanata, Barrhaven, or Gatineau—you'll manage them all from the same dashboard or migrate to a bulk management account once you hit 10+ locations. For service-area businesses (plumbers, lawn care, mobile detailers), you hide your address and define service radiuses instead, which changes how the profile appears in local pack results. At Ottawa SEO we treat the GBP as the highest-leverage local asset. A verified, optimized profile with 15+ recent reviews and weekly posts consistently outranks better websites in map pack results for commercial-intent queries. If you can't find your profile at all after searching your business name and city, you likely need to create one manually—just go to business.google.com, click "Add your business to Google," and follow the prompts. Verification still applies.