The Dance Studio Google Business Profile Guide (Get Found on Maps)

Your Google Business Profile is the free listing that puts your adult dance studio on Google Maps, with your hours, photos and reviews. It is the thing that decides whether you appear when a woman nearby searches "pole classes near me". It costs nothing, it takes about an hour to set up properly, and it will do more for your bookings than almost anything else you try this year.

If you find tech frustrating, stay with me. The good news is that the most tech-y part of this is typing your own details into boxes.

Why this matters more than your website

Picture a woman in your suburb on her couch tonight. She has been thinking about trying pole for two years and has finally decided to look.

She types "pole classes near me" into her phone.

Before a single website pops up, Google shows her a little map with three studios on it, with star ratings and photos. She will almost certainly tap one of those three.

That map is made of Google Business Profiles. If you are not there, you were never in the running, no matter how nice your website is.

Here is the encouraging part. Most studios claimed theirs years ago and have not touched it since. Keeping yours current is genuinely enough to appear above studios that have been open far longer than you.

Step 1: Claim it

First, check whether you already have one. Search your studio name in Google. If a listing appears with your name on it, it exists already (Google sometimes creates them automatically) and you need to claim it.

If you already own it and know the email address to access it, jump to Step 2.

If you already own it and do not know the email address to access it, log into every Google or Gmail account you have, one at a time, until you find the one that lets you edit the listing.

If you need to claim it, go to google.com/business and sign in with a Google account. Use one you will keep, ideally a studio email rather than a personal one, so that when you grow (because I have full faith you will) other staff or contractors can easily access it.

From there, search for your studio. If it appears, click it and follow the prompts to claim it. If nothing appears, choose the option to add your business.

Step 2: Let Google check you are real

Google will not put you on the map until it confirms you exist. This is called verifying.

Usually it means sharing a photo or video of what is at the address. Sometimes it is a phone call, and sometimes Google posts a postcard to your studio address with a code on it, which you then type in. The postcard can take up to two weeks to arrive, so do this bit early, especially if you are opening soon. It is the slowest step and everything else waits on it.

Step 3: Fill in every single box

You are finally in to your studio's Google Business Profile listing.

Google rewards listings that are complete. Empty fields are missed chances.

Your name, address and phone number. Write these exactly the same way everywhere they appear online: your listing, your website, your Instagram, any directory you are in.

This sounds fussy but it genuinely matters. If your listing says "Studio A, 12 Main St" and your website says "Studio A Fitness, 12 Main Street", Google cannot be certain those are the same business, and it quietly trusts you less. Pick one exact wording and use it everywhere. (Marketers call this NAP consistency, for name, address and phone. Explained here.)

Your category. Choose one main category that fits best, usually "Dance School" or "Fitness Centre". You do not need to agonise over which one, just pick the closest. Then add extra categories underneath for the other things you do.

Your classes. List them by name in the services section: beginner pole, aerial hoop, heels, floorwork, stretch. Add a sentence to each. This helps you come up when someone searches for a specific style rather than just "dance".

Your hours. Accurate, and updated for public holidays and term breaks. Nothing annoys a potential student like turning up to a locked door.

Your booking link. If you use booking software, connect it so people can book straight from Google.

Your description. A short, plain paragraph about who you are, where you are, and who your classes are for. Write it like you are explaining it to a friend.

Step 4: Add 10 to 20 real photos

Listings with photos get noticeably more clicks and more people asking for directions.

Use real ones:

• The room itself, so she can picture walking in.
• A class actually happening.
• Your instructors.
• The entrance and parking, which sounds silly but really helps a nervous first-timer find you.

Skip the stock photos. A woman deciding between you and another studio will choose the one where she can see what it is really like inside.

Add a few new photos every couple of months. It keeps the listing looking alive.

Step 5: Get reviews (this is your secret weapon)

Reviews do two jobs. They help you rank higher on the map, and they reassure the nervous potential student deciding whether to book.

Ask properly, and ask at the right time. The best moment is when a student is happiest, usually around their fourth or fifth class when they have just managed something they could not do before. Do not leave it to chance, make it a normal part of what you ask your new students to do.

Make it one tap. Google gives you a short review link. Send that directly by text or email. Every extra step loses people.

Reply to all of them within a couple of days, including the unkind ones. A calm, gracious reply to a bad review reassures future readers far more than the review itself puts them off. Stand by your morals and values, but see where you can de-escalate and move things to email, a phone call or in person.

Step 6: Post on it (yes, it has posts)

Almost nobody uses this feature, which is exactly why it is worth using.

Your listing lets you add short posts, a bit like a social media update. Put up something once a month: term enrolments opening, a new class, a workshop, a student milestone. You can copy and paste whatever you have put on Instagram or Facebook for the week.

It keeps your listing looking active, which Google likes, and it gives someone browsing a reason to pick you over a studio whose listing has not changed since 2021.

If you only have twenty minutes

Do this much and stop:

1. Claim and verify your Google Business Profile listing.
2. Check your address, phone, hours and main category are correct.
3. Upload three new photos.

That alone usually improves how often you show up locally within about a month. The rest can wait for another day.

When to hand it over

Keeping a listing genuinely working (fresh photos, monthly posts, a system for asking for reviews, accurate class lists) is ongoing. If that sounds like one job too many, it is exactly what the Found package manages for you.

But every step above is free and yours to do today.

Want to know whether AI tools like ChatGPT already recommend your studio? There is a free check on the Found page.