How to add social and booking links to your Google Business Profile

Someone hears about your salon from a friend and types the name into Google. A panel comes up with your hours, your phone number and a few reviews. There is no website button, no way to book, and no sign of the Instagram account where you have posted your work for six years.

That panel is your Google Business Profile, and it holds more links than most owners fill in. It also has rules about them that a social bio does not. Here is where each link goes and which ones Google will take down.

Which links can a Google Business Profile hold?

Three kinds, and each has its own field.

• A website. One URL, shown as the Website button.
• Social profiles. Up to seven, one per platform.
• Action links. Buttons for booking, food ordering, or pickup and delivery, depending on your business category.

You edit all three from the same place. Google's guide to editing your profile says to open your profile at business.google.com and select Edit profile. In the Google Maps app, tap Business, then Edit profile. Google reviews changes before they go live, so a new link can take a while to appear.

One thing to check first: a Business Profile is for businesses that customers visit, or that travel to their customers. Google's guidelines for representing your business cover businesses with a location people can visit and service-area businesses, the kind that go to the customer, like a mobile dog groomer. The eligibility rules say nothing about businesses that sell only online, so if that is you, check them before you spend time on the rest of this.

How do you add your social profiles?

Open Edit profile, then Contact, then select Edit next to Social profiles. Pick a platform from the dropdown, paste your profile address and save. Use Add social profile for each extra one. Those are the steps in Google's social media links help page.

The same page lists what Google accepts:

• Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, X and YouTube. Nothing else. There is no slot for Threads, Bluesky or a link in bio page.
• One link per platform. You can add a Facebook page and a YouTube channel, but not two YouTube channels.
• The address has to match the platform's profile format, such as instagram.com/yourname. The format list still shows a twitter.com address for X.

If a link will not save, Google says to check that it is not broken, duplicated or for a platform outside the seven.

A few details catch people out. Social links are only available in select regions, so the option may be missing from your profile. Google may add social links to your profile on its own if it finds them. You can replace one of those with the right address, but to remove it without a replacement you have to contact Google support. And Google gives you no click numbers for social links, so you will not see how many people tapped through.

Linking an account can also put your posts on the profile. Google says updates about events, deals or offers from linked accounts may show up there in some regions and languages, and you do not choose which ones. If your Instagram is half business and half holiday photos, think about that before you add it.

What can you put in the website field?

A page about your business that you control. Google's guidelines say not to provide URLs that redirect or refer people to landing pages other than those of the actual business, "including pages created on social media sites". So your Instagram profile does not belong in the website field. It belongs in the social profiles section above.

That leaves a common question for small businesses with no website. Can a link in bio page go there?

Google's rules do not mention link in bio pages by name, so there is no official yes. What the rules ask for is a page that belongs to your business and does not bounce the visitor somewhere else first. A bio page with your name, your hours, a map and your links is closer to that than a social profile is. If you use one, make it work as a small website:

• Put the business name and what you do in the header. A visitor from Google has never seen your feed.
• Add your address. On Linky, the Map block shows where you are.
• Keep the page public. A private or login-only page is no use to someone arriving from search.
• Skip the link shortener. Use the page's full address.

Treat this as a stopgap that Google could reject. If the edit does not go live, the answer is a simple site of your own. The learn page on whether you need a website if you have a link in bio covers that decision in more detail.

How do booking and ordering links work?

They are separate buttons, and the rules are tighter. Per Google's instructions for managing these links, open your profile and select Booking, Food ordering or Pickup and delivery. Then select Add link, paste the URL and save. Which of the three you see depends on your category. Google's example is a hair salon, which can have a booking link but not an ordering one.

Google rewrote its business links policy in September 2025, and Search Engine Roundtable covered the changes on September 3. Four rules matter here.

The link has to finish the job. A booking link must open a page where the customer can book. A link to your homepage, or to a bio page with a booking button on it, does not qualify. Paste the address of the booking page itself, the one your booking software gives you.

No social, messaging, app store or shortened links. The policy lists all four as not allowed. That rules out an Instagram profile, a WhatsApp chat link or a shortened address.

Google checks the link, up to once a day. Its crawler visits the page and ignores robots.txt, the file a site uses to tell crawlers what to skip. If the page asks for a login, shows a CAPTCHA or returns an error, Google may remove the link. The policy says removal is automatic, so open your own profile once a month and tap every button.

Each location needs its own link. If you have two shops, each profile's booking link has to lead to that shop's page.

You may also find a booking link you never added. Google lets third-party booking providers attach links to profiles, and you cannot delete those from your settings. You ask the provider to remove it, and Google's page says providers must handle that within five business days. If you have several links, Set preferred link puts yours first, labelled "Business preferred".

How do you send followers to your Google reviews?

Every link so far points away from Google. One link should point back at it, from your social accounts to your reviews. In BrightLocal's Local Consumer Review Survey, published in February 2026 from a panel of 1,002 US adults, 71% said they use Google to read reviews of local businesses. That was down from 83% the year before, and it is still most of the people who might look you up.

Google gives every profile a review link. Its help page on review links has the steps: open your profile, select Read reviews, then Get more reviews, and copy the link. The same screen has a QR code, which you can only create in a computer browser.

Put that link where your regulars already are:

• On your link in bio page, as a button labelled "Leave us a Google review".
• In the message that confirms a booking or follows up on an order.
• Printed at the till. The guide to QR codes for flyers and market stalls covers sizes and placement that scan.

Do not offer anything in return. Google's help page says free or discounted goods in exchange for reviews are prohibited, and it treats those reviews as fake engagement.

What to do this afternoon

Set aside twenty minutes. Add your social profiles, paste your real booking page into the Booking button, and copy your review link somewhere you will find it again. Then check the website field. If it is empty or points at Instagram, fix that first.

If the page you want behind that Website button does not exist yet, you can build one on Linky with a header, a Map block and your main links. The Free plan covers one page with up to five blocks, which is enough for a small local business. The hairstylist guide shows how to order a page like that around a booking link.