Google Business Profile, formerly Google My Business, is the information about a business that Google shows in Maps and next to search results. For local service businesses, it’s often the most important source of calls and inquiries. Here are ten things worth checking in your profile.
1. Whether the business qualifies at all
The profile is meant for businesses that make in-person contact with customers during their stated hours: at their premises or at the customer’s. A business that operates only online doesn’t meet the guidelines. If you travel to customers and don’t receive them on site, set the profile up as a service-area business.
2. The name, without extras
The name in the profile should be exactly the one you use every day: on your sign, invoices and website. Adding keywords and a city, such as “Smith Plumbing Chicago 24/7”, goes against Google’s guidelines and can get the profile suspended.
3. Primary and additional categories
The primary category has the biggest influence on which searches the profile appears for. Choose the most specific one, not the most general. Add additional categories only for services you actually provide.
4. Address or service area
If customers come to you, give the address and make sure the pin in Maps is in the right place. If you go to them, hide the address and set a service area: the cities or regions where you really work.
5. Hours, including the unusual ones
Outdated hours are one of the most common causes of bad reviews. Fill in special hours for holidays and days off before customers find a closed door.
6. Phone and a website link with a source tag
Give a number someone actually answers. Add UTM parameters to the website link so that analytics can tell traffic from the profile apart from the rest of search. Without that, you don’t know how many inquiries the profile brings.
7. A description that says something specific
The description can be up to 750 characters. Instead of “professional, top-quality service”, write what you do, for whom, in what area and how you differ from others. The first sentence matters most, because often only its beginning is visible.
8. Services and, if you can, prices
Add a list of services with short descriptions. If you have fixed prices, or at least starting prices, include them. A customer who knows the range calls with a specific question, not just to ask about cost.
9. Real photos
Logo, cover photo, team, workplace, results. Stock photos don’t help, because the customer is looking for proof that the business exists and looks the way it promises. Add new ones from time to time instead of uploading everything in one day.
10. Reviews: ask, reply, never buy
- Ask every customer, not only the happy ones. Asking selectively goes against Google’s guidelines.
- Don’t reward reviews with a discount or a gift.
- Reply to all of them, including the negative ones. A calm, factual reply to criticism often makes a better impression than a positive review alone, because future customers read it.
- Never buy reviews. Fake reviews break Google’s rules, and in the European Union they are also banned under consumer law.
Finally: consistent details
The name, address and phone number should be identical in the profile, on the website, in email signatures and in business directories. Inconsistencies make it harder for search engines, and increasingly for AI assistants, to work out that it’s the same business.
Reviews and full company details are the same trust signals we wrote about in E-E-A-T in practice. If you’d like us to sort out your company’s search visibility, see how we approach marketing.
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