Your Google Business Profile is the single most powerful free tool you have for getting found by local customers. It is the listing that shows up on the right of Google with your map pin, opening hours, photos and reviews, and it is what puts you in the running for the Google Maps results. Most local businesses set theirs up once, half fill it in, and never touch it again. That is a wide open opportunity, because the businesses that use it properly get found first.
Here is how to set yours up and optimise it, step by step. (It used to be called Google My Business, so you will still see that older name floating around.)
What a Google Business Profile actually is
When someone searches for a service near them, Google often shows a box of three businesses with a map, star ratings and phone numbers. That box is called the map pack, and it takes the lion’s share of local clicks. Your Google Business Profile is what decides whether you appear in it. It is free, it is run by you, and for a local business it is often more important than your website for getting that first enquiry.
Set it up properly
If you have not claimed your profile yet, that is step one. Search your business name on Google and either claim the listing that already appears or create a new one at google.com/business. You will then need to verify it, usually by phone, text, or a postcard to your address.
Then get the basics exactly right, because Google trusts a profile that is consistent and complete:
- Name: your real business name, nothing stuffed with keywords. (More on why that matters below.)
- Address or service area: if customers come to you, use your address. If you travel to them, set a service area instead.
- Phone and website: the same number and web address you use everywhere else online.
- Hours: accurate, including bank holidays. Wrong hours cost you trust and send people on wasted journeys.
Optimise the bits most people skip
This is where the difference is made, and where most profiles fall short.
- Primary category: choose the most specific, accurate category you can. This is one of the strongest signals Google uses to decide what you show up for. Add secondary categories for your other services.
- Services and products: list them out with short descriptions. It is free space to tell Google exactly what you do.
- Description: a clear, plain summary of your business and the areas you serve. Write it for a customer, not a search engine.
- Photos: real photos of your work, your team and your premises. Profiles with good photos get noticeably more clicks and calls than bare ones.
- Attributes: the little tick boxes like wheelchair access, free parking, or women led. Fill in the ones that genuinely apply.
Most profiles are not beaten by better businesses. They are beaten by more complete ones.
Keep it active
A profile that looks current earns more trust, from Google and from customers. You do not need to post every day, but do not let it go stale either:
- Posts: share an offer, a recent job, or a quick update every week or two.
- Q&A: add the questions customers always ask, and answer them yourself.
- Photos: add new ones regularly, rather than once at setup and never again.
Reviews are the multiplier
Reviews influence both how you rank and whether people choose you. Volume matters, recency matters, and replying to them matters too. The trick is to make asking part of how you finish a job, rather than something you remember once a year. Reply to every review, good or bad, in a calm and human way. A steady trickle of genuine reviews beats a sudden burst, which can look engineered to Google.
How this gets you into the map pack
Google decides the local map pack mainly on three things: relevance (does your profile match the search), distance (how close you are to the searcher), and prominence (how established and well reviewed you look). You cannot move your business closer to people, but you control relevance and prominence almost entirely through the steps above: the right category, complete information, fresh activity, and a healthy stream of reviews. That is the whole game.
Do not get your profile suspended
This catches a lot of well meaning businesses out. Google can suspend a profile that breaks its rules, and getting it reinstated is a slow, painful process. The common causes:
- Stuffing keywords into your business name. Use your real name only.
- Using a fake or virtual address, or a PO box, for a business that does not really operate there.
- Setting up several listings for the same business.
- Making big, sudden changes to your core details all at once.
Keep it honest and accurate and you will almost certainly be fine.
A realistic timeline
Optimising your profile is not an overnight switch. Early movement usually shows within a few weeks, with a stronger, steadier position building over two to three months as your reviews and activity grow. Anyone promising the top of the map pack by next week is overselling.
If you would rather not wade through all of this yourself, it is exactly the kind of thing I sort out for local businesses. The free website review includes a look at your Google Business Profile and what is holding it back, with no pitch at the end.