When someone nearby searches for what you do, the map results usually appear above everything else. Those listings come from Google Business Profile, it costs nothing, and it is the single most neglected piece of marketing in most local businesses. Here is what matters and what does not.
What it is and where it shows up
Your profile is the panel that appears with your business name, opening hours, reviews, photos and directions. It powers the map pack in search results, your listing in Google Maps, and the panel on the right when someone searches your business by name. For a lot of local businesses, more people see this than see the website.
The basics people skip
Pick the right primary category
Your primary category has more influence on which searches you appear in than almost anything else you control. Be specific rather than general: the closest match to what you actually do beats a broad category that technically includes you. Add secondary categories for genuine additional services, but do not stuff the list with everything you could conceivably do.
Get the name exactly right
Use your real business name, as it appears on your van, your invoices and your signage. Adding keywords to your name is against the guidelines, and competitors can and do report it. Losing the listing costs you far more than the extra words ever gained.
Decide how you serve customers
If customers come to you, publish the address. If you go to them, set up service areas instead and hide the address. Getting this wrong is the reason plenty of legitimate businesses either fail verification or show up in the wrong places.
Keep the hours honest
Wrong hours are the fastest way to annoy someone who is ready to buy. Set your regular hours, then set special hours for bank holidays and closures. If you take calls outside your opening hours, say so in the description rather than pretending you are open.
The parts that actually move the needle
Reviews, and replies to them
Reviews are the most visible thing on your profile and the most influential. You do not need a clever system: ask every satisfied customer, at the moment they are most pleased, and make it easy by sending the direct review link. Never offer anything in exchange for a review.
Reply to all of them, good and bad. A calm, specific reply to a negative review reassures the next reader far more than a perfect score would. Do not argue, do not copy and paste the same reply, and do not leave the awkward ones sitting there for months.
Photos that look like your work
Add real photos of your premises, your team, your van and your finished jobs. Stock images are obvious and they undermine you. Keep adding them over time, because a profile that has not been touched in three years looks like a business that might not exist.
Services and products
List your services individually with a short, plain description of each. It helps people work out whether you do the specific thing they need, and it gives your profile more to be matched against when someone searches.
The description
Write it for a person, not for a search engine. Say what you do, who you do it for, where you cover, and what makes dealing with you straightforward. Skip the keyword lists. They read badly and do very little.
Questions and answers
Anyone can ask a question on your profile, and anyone can answer it, which means wrong answers can sit there unchallenged. Check this section occasionally. You are also allowed to post the questions you get asked constantly, and answer them yourself.
Posts, offers and updates
You can publish short updates that appear on your profile. They are worth doing if you have something real to say: a seasonal service, a genuine offer, a note about availability. They are not worth doing weekly for the sake of it. An empty posts section is better than a stream of filler.
The mistakes that cause real damage
- Duplicate listings for the same business, usually created years apart. Find them and get them merged.
- Different phone numbers, addresses or business names on your profile, your website and directories. Pick one version of the truth and make everything match.
- A profile that has never been verified, so anyone can suggest edits and they stick.
- Fake or incentivised reviews. They get removed, and they can take the listing with them.
- Categories chosen to chase searches you cannot actually serve.
How to tell whether it is working
Inside the profile, Google shows you how people found you, what they did next, and how many called or asked for directions. Look at calls and direction requests rather than views: they are the actions that mean something. Compare month to month, expect seasonality, and note what you changed so you can connect cause to effect.
It is also worth searching for your own services on a phone, away from your premises, to see what a customer actually sees. Do it once a quarter. The results are often not what you expect.
Half an hour, twice a year
This is not a big project. Set the profile up properly once, then diary half an hour every six months to check hours, add photos, reply to anything you have missed, and confirm nothing has been edited without your knowledge. For a free listing that sits above the search results, that is a very good use of an afternoon.