How to set up and optimise your Google Business Profile
Your Google Business Profile, formerly known as Google My Business, is the free listing that appears when someone searches for your business name or a local service you offer. It is the single most effective way to show up in Google Maps and the local pack the three businesses Google highlights at the top of local search results.
Setting yours up properly takes less than an hour and costs nothing. Optimising it takes a bit more time, but the return a better position in local results, more calls and more visits makes it worth doing right.
What is a Google Business Profile?
A Google Business Profile is the panel Google shows in search results and Maps when it knows about your business. It displays your address, phone number, opening hours, website link, photos, reviews and a short description of what you do.
Google pulls this information from your profile. If you have not claimed yours yet, the information Google shows may be incomplete, outdated or simply wrong. Claiming it gives you control over what potential customers see.
How to claim or create your profile
Go to google.com/business and sign in with a Google account (a Gmail address works). Search for your business to see if a listing already exists. If it does, click the request access button and follow the verification steps. Google will send a postcard, phone call or email with a verification code.
If your business does not have a listing yet, click Add Your Business and fill in your name, category, address and contact details. You can verify immediately by phone or email for most businesses, or by postcard if Google needs additional confirmation.
What to fill in after verification
Once you are verified, complete every section Google offers. Partial profiles rank lower and look less trustworthy.
Business name. Use your exact legal business name. Do not add keywords or location names to it, even though it is tempting. Google may suspend profiles that break this rule.
Category. Pick the most specific primary category that describes what you do. A plumber should pick Plumber, not Home Services. You can add secondary categories too, but the primary one matters most for local rankings.
Address and service area. If customers visit you, show your full address. If you visit customers instead, hide your address and set a service area instead such as a 20-mile radius around your town.
Phone number and website. Use a local phone number with the correct area code. Link to your website homepage or a relevant landing page.
Opening hours. Set your regular hours and update them for bank holidays and special closures. Nothing frustrates a potential customer more than turning up to find you closed.
Description. Write 750 characters that explain who you serve, what makes you different and what customers should expect. Include a few relevant keywords naturally, but write for humans first.
Photos. Add at least five high-quality photos of your premises, team, work and products. Businesses with photos get more clicks and direction requests than those without.
How to keep your profile working for you
Setting up the profile is the first step. Keeping it active is what makes it earn its place in local search.
Ask for reviews. Send a short link to customers after you have served them. A simple text or email request with a direct link works better than a general ask on social media. Respond to every review, positive or negative, within a few days. Google sees active profiles as more relevant.
Post updates. Google Business Profiles let you publish short posts about offers, events and news. Posting once a week signals to Google that your business is active. Keep posts short, include a photo and add a button such as Learn More or Call Now.
Answer questions. Customers can ask questions on your profile. Answer them promptly and thoroughly. Google sometimes shows Q&A in search results directly, so these answers can attract new customers before they even visit your site.
Check your insights. The profile dashboard shows how customers found you, what they searched for and what actions they took. Check this monthly to see what is working.
Does a Google Business Profile help local SEO?
Yes, directly and measurably. A well-optimised profile is one of the strongest signals Google uses to decide local pack rankings. Reviews, categories, proximity and completeness all feed into where you appear in the local three-pack.
For one of our clients, Home Instead, a combination of local SEO including GBP optimisation and content marketing improved organic traffic by over 250 per cent and increased ad conversion rates by more than 3,400 per cent. Google reviews were a significant part of that local SEO foundation.
If you are not sure whether your current profile is working as hard as it could, run our free SEO report to see how your local presence looks. It checks your online visibility and highlights issues that may be holding your local rankings back.
Free SEO report https://victory.digital/run-a-seo-report
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