A Google Business Profile is what shows in the map results when someone searches “fee-only financial planner near me”. It’s free, and Google says there’s no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. Results are ranked mainly on three things: how well your profile matches the search (relevance), how far you are from the searcher (distance), and how well known your business is, including how many reviews you have (prominence). Setup is straightforward. For an advisor, the parts that need thought are eligibility if you work virtually, and what to do with reviews under the SEC marketing rule.
First, check you’re eligible
Google’s guidelines are written for businesses that meet customers in person. You qualify if you either:
- Have an office clients can visit during the hours you list, with someone there to meet them, or
- Travel to clients in a defined area, as a service-area business. In that case Google says to hide your address.
Three situations trip advisors up:
- Virtual-only firms. If every meeting is on video, you don’t fit either category. A profile is the wrong tool; put the effort into your website and the directories where virtual clients look instead.
- Virtual offices and mail drops. Google says a rented address where you don’t actually operate isn’t eligible for a profile.
- Co-working spaces. Allowed only if your office there has clear signage, receives clients during business hours and is staffed by your firm.
If you work from home and travel to meet clients, list as a service-area business with the address hidden. XY Planning Network’s guide suggests the same “hide my address” setting for advisors who don’t want a home address on Google. If clients come to your home office instead, it’s a location customers visit, and Google’s rules for offices apply.
Firm profile or advisor profile
Google treats financial planners as “individual practitioners”, public-facing professionals with their own clients, alongside doctors and lawyers. The rules depend on the shape of your firm:
- Solo advisor with a firm brand. Google says it’s best to share one profile with the firm, named in the format “Firm name: Your name”.
- Several advisors at one office. The firm gets one profile for the location, and each client-facing advisor can have their own, named with just their name. Support staff shouldn’t have profiles.
- One profile per person. An advisor shouldn’t create several profiles to cover different specialties.
Set it up, step by step
- Name. Use your firm’s real-world name exactly as it appears on your door, website and SEC record. Google doesn’t allow unnecessary information in the name. “[Firm name]” is right; “[Firm name] Fee-Only Fiduciary Financial Advisor Denver” breaks the rules.
- Primary category. The single category that best describes what the firm is (more below).
- Address or service area. Your office, or the cities and counties you travel to.
- Hours. The hours you actually meet clients. Google expects you to be reachable during them.
- Phone and website. Link to a page that matches the profile, ideally your homepage or a page for that office.
- Services. List what you sell in plain words, such as “One-time financial plan”, “Ongoing financial planning”, “Retirement income planning”. If you list prices, match your Form ADV Part 2A exactly.
- Description. Two or three sentences: fee-only, who you serve, where. “Fee-only financial planning for teachers and school administrators in the Denver area. Flat annual fee, no asset minimum.”
- Photos. Your office, your team and a headshot. Real photos beat stock.
- Appointment link. Point it at your scheduling page.
- Verify. Google asks you to verify the business. Follow its prompts.
Choosing categories
Google offers a fixed list, and the primary category matters most. For fee-only firms the usual choices are:
- Financial planner, the best fit for most planning-led firms. XY Planning Network’s 2026 guide points to it.
- Financial consultant, sometimes used for advice-only or hourly practices.
- Investment service, for firms whose core offer is managing portfolios.
Google’s own guidance is to “choose the fewest number of categories it takes to describe your overall core business”, to pick the most specific ones, and not to use categories as keywords. Some advisor marketing guides advise adding every category that might apply. Google’s rules are the safer guide. Put your specialties in the description and services list instead. Check the live category picker when you set up, since Google changes the list.
Reviews under the SEC marketing rule
Reviews are the part advisors worry about most, and the part that matters most for ranking. Google says more reviews and positive ratings can help a local ranking. Kitces’ 2026 study found only 13% of firms used third-party review sites, but firms that showed reviews on their own websites spent $0.13 per $1 of new revenue, against $0.86 for firms doing the bare minimum.
Here is how the rule applies, step by step.
Reviews left on Google. When the SEC adopted the marketing rule, it said that letting anyone post public comments doesn’t, by itself, make those comments your advertisement, as long as you don’t selectively delete or alter them, don’t sort them to favor good ones, and aren’t involved in writing them. If you suppress negative reviews or promote positive ones, they become your statements.
Asking for reviews. You can ask clients. Ask all of them, or a neutral group such as everyone who finished a plan this quarter. Google’s policy separately bans selectively soliciting positive reviews and bans incentives of any kind. Don’t pay or reward reviews: in December 2025, SEC examiners flagged advisers who gave clients gift cards to write reviews on third-party sites.
Putting reviews on your website. Once you show a Google review on your own site, it’s a testimonial in your advertisement. The rule requires clear and prominent disclosure, within the testimonial itself, of whether the reviewer is a current client, whether they were compensated, and any material conflicts. A hyperlink to a disclosure page doesn’t meet that standard. The same December 2025 alert flagged advisers who copied third-party reviews onto their websites without those disclosures.
Replying to reviews. Google says replies show you value feedback. Keep replies general: thank the person, and don’t confirm details of their account or discuss their situation in public.
State-registered firms. If you’re registered with a state rather than the SEC, check your state’s rules before using testimonials. XY Planning Network’s guide notes that some states don’t always allow them.
If reviews are central to your marketing, a service built for marketing-rule reviews can handle the disclosures. See Wellspent vs Wealthtender for one option.
What it does for local search, and what it doesn’t
A good profile does three things well. It puts you in the map results for nearby searches. It gives people who already know your name a quick way to call, get directions or book. And it adds one more source that should agree with your website on your name, address and services.
It does much less for clients who search by problem rather than place, such as “fee-only planner for physicians” or “advice-only planner for a pension decision”. Those searches, and the AI assistants many people now ask instead, lean on your website, directories and independent mentions. See SEO for fee-only advisors and How to get your firm recommended by AI assistants.
Mistakes to avoid
- Keywords in the business name. It’s against Google’s rules, and a profile that breaks them is at risk.
- A virtual office address. Not eligible.
- Duplicate profiles for one advisor or one office. Merge or remove them.
- Facts that don’t match. A different phone, suite number or firm name than your website and SEC record confuses Google and prospects alike.
- Deleting bad reviews. Under the marketing rule, selective deletion makes the remaining reviews your advertisement. Report reviews that break Google’s policies instead.
Where Wellspent fits
A Google profile covers the searches near your office. A Wellspent record covers the rest: a verified record in the public graph that states your fees, specialties, credentials and the clients you serve, checked against SEC data, in a form search engines and AI assistants read. Membership is $89 a month and includes introductions from prospects with no lead fees, a monthly report on who AI assistants recommend, and quarterly press placement with media partners. See How it works.