The phone number and chat button on your Google Business Profile: what Google allows

Which number Google wants

Google's page "Guidelines for representing your business on Google" has a short section on phone numbers. We read it, and four lines carry the weight:

• "Provide a phone number that connects to your individual business location."
• "Use a local phone number instead of a central call center helpline number whenever possible."
• "The phone number must be under the direct control of the business."
• "Premium phone numbers are not acceptable regardless of the rate charged to the caller."

In plain words: the number a customer taps should ring you, at that location, at no special charge. If you run two locations, each profile gets the number that rings that shop. Whether that number should be local or toll-free for other purposes is a separate question, covered in toll-free or local number for business texting.

What is not allowed

The same section draws one clear line: "Do not provide phone numbers or URLs that redirect or 'refer' users to landing pages" or to numbers that are not the actual business's own. The page gives pages on social media sites as an example of where not to send people.

The practical reading for a small business:

• A marketing company's number is a risk. If an agency lists a number it owns and then passes calls on to you, the number is not "under the direct control of the business." If you part ways, the number may stay with them. Ask who owns every number on your profile.
• Forwarding your own number is a different thing. A number you own that forwards to your mobile still connects the caller to your business. How to set that up is in how to forward business calls.
• Tracking numbers: the Phone section we read does not mention them by name. We will not guess at Google's view. If you use one, the lines above are the test: does it ring you, and do you control it?

Google's guidelines page does not, in the section we read, set out a penalty for a wrong number, so we name none. The reason to follow it is simpler: a number you do not own is a customer line you can lose.

How many numbers, and what kind

Google's help page "Edit your Business Profile" answers this directly: "In addition to your primary business phone number, you can enter up to 2 more phone numbers." On the kind: "They can be mobile numbers or landline, but not fax."

So a one-person business can list its mobile. Nothing in the pages we read requires a landline. If the mobile is also your personal phone, think about how you will tell business calls apart, and what your greeting says; see what to say in a business voicemail greeting.

The guidelines add that "Additional phone numbers can be used on Google Business Profile websites and other local surfaces." Keep the primary number the one you most want customers to call, because it is the one behind the Call button.

Hiding the number

The edit page also says: "You can choose to hide your phone number on your Business Profile," through a "Don't show" choice under Advanced settings. That exists for businesses that take no calls.

If your work comes by phone, do not hide it. A profile with no Call button sends the customer to the next result. If the worry is spam calls, filter them instead of hiding from everyone: spam calls on a business line.

The Chat option today

Google's help page "Chat with customers from your Business Profile" describes what is on offer now. We quote it, because this feature has changed over the years and old advice is everywhere:

• "Businesses with a claimed and verified Business Profile can add a WhatsApp or text messaging option to their contact info."
• To set it up, next to "Chat" you select Edit, then "Select either WhatsApp or Text message."
• You then add "your WhatsApp click to chat URL or a phone number that can receive text messages."
• "If you add both options, only the text message option will be shown to customers."
• "Chat options are currently available for select regions and might not be available for your Business Profile."

Two things follow. First, this is not a chat window run by Google. It is a button that opens WhatsApp or the customer's own messaging app, addressed to a number you gave. The conversation then lives on your phone, like any other message.

Second, only add it if someone will answer. A customer who messages and hears nothing is worse off than one who never saw the button. And remember that replying to a customer who wrote to you first is one thing; sending business texts to people in bulk through software is another, with its own registration and consent rules. Those are in what is A2P 10DLC and what counts as consent to text a customer. General information, not legal advice.

If you do not see Chat

Google's page says plainly that it "might not be available for your Business Profile." If the option is missing, nothing is wrong with your profile. The page names no list of regions, so we cannot tell you whether yours is included.

What you can always do is make the other two doors work well: the Call button, and the website link. A chat box on your own website does the same job for visitors who would sooner type than call, and it does not depend on Google offering it in your area. How to add one is in how to install web chat.

Know which door a customer used

Google's chat page says you can "Check your chat performance metrics" in your profile. For the website link, you can do your own counting by adding a small tag to it, so that visits and enquiries from your profile are told apart from ordinary search. The method, with Google's own naming rules, is in how to track where your leads come from.

For phone calls, ask. "How did you find us?" takes five seconds and is the only way to know that a caller tapped the button on your profile.

A five-minute check

1. Call the number on your profile from another phone. Does it ring where you expect?
2. Ask who owns it. You, or a company you hired?
3. Check the extra numbers. Up to two; remove any that no longer ring anyone.
4. Look for Chat. If it is there and you will answer it, set it up; if not, leave it off.
5. Check the website link goes to a page with a way to reach you.
6. Check your hours match your voicemail and your site.

If the test call in step one went unanswered, you have found something more useful than a profile setting. Count how often that happens with the 20-minute missed-call audit.

Where NewFrontDesk fits

NewFrontDesk does not manage or read your Google profile. It gives your own website a chat box and a form, and puts every enquiry in one lead inbox so that the visitor who came from your profile's website link is not lost. You can try the chat from the customer's side at try the chat; nothing you type there is sent or saved.

What works today is on the status board. To talk it through, call (346) 913-7215 or request setup.

Sources

• Google Business Profile Help: guidelines for representing your business on Google (phone section)
• Google Business Profile Help: edit your Business Profile (phone numbers, hiding the number)
• Google Business Profile Help: chat with customers from your Business Profile

Sources read on October 10, 2026. Google changes its features and wording; its help pages are the final word. We are not affiliated with Google. General information, not legal advice.