How to get your workshop on Google Maps

When someone searches pottery class near me or candle making workshop in Indiranagar, the first thing Google usually shows isn’t a website. It’s a map with three businesses on it, each with a star rating, photos and a button to visit their site. Those listings come from Google Business Profile, and having one is free.

For a workshop with a studio or a regular space, it’s one of the cheapest ways to get found by people who have never seen your Instagram. This guide covers setting one up, linking it to your booking website so people can book straight from Maps, and getting the reviews that make people choose you.

Can you have a profile?

Google Business Profile is for businesses that meet their customers in person. For workshop hosts, that usually means:

• You have a studio or a regular space where guests come for sessions. You can list it with its address, and it appears on Maps as a pin.
• You run sessions at different places, such as pop-ups at cafés or classes at clients’ offices. You may be able to list as a service-area business, which shows the areas you serve instead of an address. Check Google’s guidelines for your situation before you set one up.

If you only run online sessions, a profile isn’t for you; put your effort into your booking website and Instagram instead.

Set up your profile

1. Start at Google Business Profile (google.com/business) and sign in with the Google account you want to manage it from. Search for your business name first, in case a listing already exists, and claim it if it does.
2. Use your real business name, exactly as it appears on your signage and your website. Don’t add keywords such as Best Pottery Classes Bandra to the name. Google’s guidelines don’t allow it, and it can get your profile suspended.
3. Choose your category. Pick the closest match, such as Art school, Cooking school, Yoga studio, Dance school or Music school. Type a few words and Google suggests categories. You can add more categories later for other things you offer.
4. Add your address, or your service areas, and a phone number guests can call or WhatsApp.
5. Verify. Google decides how you verify. It’s often a short video showing your signage, the space and something that proves you run it, such as tools or equipment. Follow the instructions it gives you.

Verification can take from a few days to a couple of weeks. You can fill in the rest of the profile while you wait.

Fill in the details that sell

A complete profile is shown more often and gets more clicks.

• Description. Up to 750 characters on what you teach, who it’s for and what guests take home. Write it the way you’d explain it to a friend, and mention your area naturally.
• Hours. Set the hours your space is actually open for sessions. If you only open when a session runs, keep the hours honest and let the booking website show the exact dates.
• Photos. Your space, sessions in progress and finished work. Real photos of real guests (with their permission) beat polished stock images. Add new ones every few weeks.
• Services. List your workshops as services, such as Wheel throwing for beginners or Kids’ clay sessions, with a short description each.

Link it to your booking website

This is the step that turns a Maps listing into bookings. Put your booking website in the profile’s Website field. If Google shows a booking or appointment link option for your category, add your booking website there too.

Use a campaign link rather than your plain website address, so you can see the bookings Maps brings you. In your Zittle dashboard, go to Products, select Campaign Link on your main event, choose Google under Where will you share it?, and enter a campaign name such as maps. Bookings from that link then show their Booking Source as google · maps. See Track where bookings come from.

If your website links to a single event, pick the one most people book first, usually your beginner session. Guests can see your other events from there.

Two more ways to connect the two:

• Use your profile’s Maps link on your Zittle venue. Open your listing in Google Maps, copy the share link, and paste it into your venue’s Venue Location. Guests then find your profile, with its reviews and directions, from their booking confirmation. See Add a venue.
• Record phone bookings from Maps. If someone finds you on Maps and books by phone or walks in, add them as an offline ticket with the source Google Maps. Then your bookings show every guest Maps brought, not just the ones who booked online.

Get Google reviews

Reviews decide which of the three businesses on the map gets the click. Google ranks profiles partly on how many reviews they have and how good they are.

• Ask at the end of the session, when guests are happiest. Your profile has an option to share a short review link. Put it on a QR code at the door and in your WhatsApp thank-you.
• Ask everyone, not only happy guests. Google’s rules don’t allow selecting who you ask, or offering anything in return for a review, such as a discount or a free session.
• Reply to every review, good and bad. A calm, helpful reply to a complaint often impresses future guests more than the five-star ones.

Zittle asks every guest for feedback on WhatsApp after their session, and the reviews you choose to show appear on your event pages. A Google review is a separate thing guests leave on your profile. Ask for both: the website reviews help guests who’ve found your events decide to book, and Google reviews help new people find you on Maps. How to get more reviews for your workshops has more on asking well.

Keep the profile active

Profiles that look active get shown more. A few minutes a week is enough:

• Post updates. Share new dates, a festive workshop or an early-bird offer as an update on your profile, with your booking link.
• Add photos from recent sessions.
• Keep your details right. Update hours for holidays, and your phone number and address if they change.

Measure what Maps brings you

After a month, check two places:

• Your profile’s performance: how many people found you, and how many tapped through to your website or called.
• Your Zittle bookings: how many show google · maps as their source, plus offline tickets with the source Google Maps.

If Maps brings a steady stream of first-time guests, keep investing in photos and reviews. Those guests are local, they searched for exactly what you teach, and they book on your own website, with no commission.

For more on getting found on Google and owning your bookings, read Marketplace listing vs your own booking website.