What It Is
When someone searches your business by name, the panel on the right (or at the top, on a phone) with your hours, photos, reviews, and a Call button is your Business Profile. So is your pin on Google Maps. You may know it by its former name, Google My Business. It is free, it belongs to you once you claim and verify it, and it is the single most important thing Google knows about a local business.
How It Works
You claim the profile, prove to Google that you run the business, and then fill it in: your name as customers know it, a primary category and any secondary ones, your address or the area you serve, phone, website, hours, services, and photos. Customers add to it too, with reviews and photos. Google also accepts suggested edits from the public, which is one reason to check it regularly.
Google's guidelines ask that the profile represent the business the way it appears in the real world, on your sign, your stationery, and your website. Adding extra keywords to the business name is against those guidelines and can get a profile suspended.
Why It Matters for Being Found
Your profile is what Google judges when it decides who appears in local results, and Google says the categories you choose affect your local ranking. A profile with the wrong category, old hours, or no photos is competing with one hand tied. It is also where many customers make up their minds. They read the reviews, check the hours, and tap Call, all without leaving Google. When the profile is complete and current, that moment works in your favor.