Connect your Google Business Profile
Connecting via OAuth, the import wizard, and the first sync.
Connecting your Google Business Profile is the starting point for everything you do in Localghost. Before you connect, there is no profile to optimize: reviews, posts, photos, performance metrics, and keywords only flow into the panel once the connection is made.
Prerequisites
- An active Localghost account (the free trial is enough).
- A Google account that is a manager of the business you want to connect.
Step 1 — Connect your Google account
- Open Businesses → Add business in the panel (
/dashboard/businesses/add). - Click Connect with Google. You are redirected to Google's consent screen.
- Approve Localghost's permission to read and manage your business profiles.
You can have more than one Google account. Localghost supports connecting multiple accounts; each business syncs through the connection it was imported with. Removing a connection does not delete the businesses you imported with it.
If you decline or close the consent screen, the flow cancels safely and the panel shows a message explaining why.
Step 2 — Select businesses to import
Once connected, Localghost lists the businesses on your Google account that are not yet imported. The number you can select is capped by your plan's maximum locations — you can pick as many as your remaining quota allows.
A business on a PERSONAL Google account is silently upgraded to a Location Group for API access. This happens automatically; you don't have to do anything. Localghost also imports only the businesses that actually appear under your Google authorization (account-hijack protection).
Step 3 — Import and wait for the sync
Import is two-phased:
- Immediate (blocking): profile info + reviews are fetched right away, so you don't see an empty panel.
- Background: posts, photos, daily performance metrics, keywords, services, and the first citation scan complete in the background.
As the import starts, we send you to a short onboarding survey (/dashboard/onboarding/survey) — country, industry, company size, primary goal, and how you heard about us. The survey is filled while the sync runs in the background, so the wait is productive and we can personalize guidance for you.
What gets synced
| Data | Source | Where it shows |
|---|---|---|
| Profile info | GBP profile | Profile, Overview |
| Reviews + ratings | GBP reviews | Reviews |
| Posts | GBP local posts | Posts |
| Photos & video | GBP media | Photos |
| Performance metrics | GBP Performance API | Statistics |
| Keywords | GBP search terms | Statistics |
| Directory listings | First automatic scan | Citations |
Why verification matters
If the business you import is not verified by Google, photos you upload and some profile edits will not publish to Google. The panel shows the verification status on the Overview and relevant screens. Verification is Google's own process.
Troubleshooting
- "This business does not appear on the Google account" (NOT_FOUND): the Google connection may have been refreshed with a different account, your management access may have been removed, or the business may have been merged/deleted on Google's side. "Try again" won't fix it; reconnect Google with the correct account or re-add the business.
- Sync error: the "Try again" button on the Reviews screen queues a full sync (~30-60s). The error text in the banner shows which module got stuck.
- Limit exceeded: if your plan's location quota is full, you can't add a new business; delete an existing one (subject to a deletion quota) or upgrade your plan.
What's next
Now that your business is connected, put the profile on a solid foundation: choose the right category and get NAP consistency right.