Why your Google Business Profile matters
If you’ve read our guide to local SEO, you’ll know that your Google Business Profile (GBP) is the foundation of getting found locally. It’s what powers your listing in the local map pack, those three business results that appear at the top of local searches with a map alongside them.
Here’s the thing: setting up a GBP is free, and it takes maybe 20 minutes. But the difference between a half-filled profile and a fully optimised one can be the difference between appearing in the local pack or being invisible. I’ve seen businesses jump into the map results just by completing their profile properly. No fancy tricks, just filling in the blanks.
Step-by-step: Setting up your profile
1. Claim or create your listing
Head to business.google.com and search for your business. If it already exists (Google often creates basic listings from public data), claim it. If not, create a new one.
You’ll need to verify you own the business. Google usually does this by sending a postcard with a verification code to your business address, though phone and email verification are sometimes available. This step is non-negotiable. You can’t fully manage or optimise your profile without verification.
2. Get your business name right
Use your actual business name. Not your business name stuffed with keywords. If you’re “Smith’s Plumbing,” don’t list yourself as “Smith’s Plumbing – Best Emergency Plumber in London.” Google can and does penalise businesses for keyword stuffing in their name, including suspending profiles entirely. It’s not worth the risk.
3. Choose your primary category
This is arguably the most important decision you’ll make when setting up your profile. Your primary category has a direct impact on which searches you show up for.
Be specific. If you’re a fish and chip shop, choose “Fish and Chip Shop,” not “Restaurant.” If you’re a personal injury solicitor, choose that rather than just “Solicitor.” Google’s category list is extensive, so take the time to find the most accurate one.
You can also add secondary categories to cover other services you offer. For example, we might use “SEO Agency” as a primary and “Web Designer” as a secondary.
4. Set your service area or address
If customers come to you (a shop, restaurant, dental practice), add your physical address. If you go to customers (a mobile hairdresser, a plumber), set a service area instead. You can do both if applicable.
Be honest with your service area. Setting it to the entire UK when you only serve West Sussex won’t help you rank locally and can actually dilute your relevance.
5. Add your contact details
Phone number and website URL. Simple, but make sure these match what’s on your website and other listings. NAP consistency matters hugely for local SEO, as we covered in our local SEO guide.
6. Set your opening hours
Include regular hours, special hours for bank holidays, and update them whenever they change. Nothing frustrates a potential customer more than driving to a business that Google says is open, only to find it shut. Google also shows “open now” filters in local results, so accurate hours directly affect your visibility.
Optimising your profile for maximum visibility
Write a solid business description
You get 750 characters for your business description. Use them wisely. Describe what you do, who you serve, and what makes you different. Include relevant keywords naturally, but write for humans first.
Don’t waste this space with generic waffle like “We pride ourselves on excellent customer service.” Everyone says that. Be specific about what you actually do and the areas you serve.
Add your services and products
Google lets you list your individual services (or products, if you sell them). Fill this section out completely. Each service can have its own name, description, and price. This gives Google more information about what you offer and can help you appear in more specific searches.
Photos and videos
Businesses with photos receive significantly more requests for directions and more clicks through to their website compared to those without. Add:
- Your logo and a cover photo
- Interior and exterior photos of your business
- Team photos so people can see the faces behind the business
- Photos of your work, products, or services in action
- Videos if you have them (keep them short and relevant)
Upload new photos regularly. Google likes to see that a profile is active, and fresh photos show potential customers that you’re a going concern, not a dormant listing.
A fully completed Google Business Profile with regular photos gets significantly more engagement than a bare-bones listing. The effort is minimal, the impact is real.
Use Google Posts
This is one of the most underused features of GBP. Google Posts let you publish short updates directly on your profile. Think of them like mini blog posts or social media updates that appear when someone views your business on Google.
You can use them for:
- Offers and promotions
- Events
- New products or services
- Blog post summaries with links to your full articles
- Company news
Posts expire after seven days (except event posts, which stay until the event date passes), so you need to be consistent. Even one post a week keeps your profile looking active.
Manage the Q&A section
Anyone can ask a question on your GBP listing, and anyone can answer it. That includes your competitors or random members of the public. Check this section regularly and answer questions yourself before someone else gives incorrect information.
Better yet, seed it with your own frequently asked questions. Ask common questions from a personal Google account and answer them from your business account. It’s a bit of extra effort, but it puts useful information right where potential customers are looking.
Attributes
Depending on your business category, Google offers various attributes you can add to your profile. These might include things like “wheelchair accessible,” “free Wi-Fi,” “women-owned,” or “veteran-owned.” Review what’s available for your category and add anything that’s accurate. These attributes show up on your listing and can influence someone’s decision to choose you.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Keyword stuffing your business name. I mentioned this earlier, but it’s worth repeating because it’s so common and the consequences are severe.
- Ignoring negative reviews. Not responding to a bad review looks worse than the review itself. Respond professionally, acknowledge the issue, and offer to resolve it offline.
- Setting and forgetting. Your GBP isn’t a one-time setup. Update it regularly with new photos, posts, and accurate information.
- Using a PO Box or virtual office address. Google’s terms of service require a real address where you conduct business or meet customers. Virtual addresses can get your listing suspended.
- Duplicate listings. If you’ve got multiple listings for the same business at the same location, it creates confusion and can hurt your rankings. Merge or remove duplicates.
- Inconsistent information. If your GBP says one thing and your website says another, Google doesn’t know which to trust.
Getting reviews on your profile
Reviews are a massive ranking factor for local SEO and a huge influence on whether someone contacts you. We covered review strategy in our local SEO pillar guide, but here are the GBP-specific tips:
- Create a review link shortcut. In your GBP dashboard, you can generate a short link that takes customers directly to the review form. Share this in follow-up emails, on receipts, or in thank-you messages.
- Respond to every review. Positive ones get a genuine thank you. Negative ones get a professional, empathetic response.
- Don’t offer incentives for reviews. It’s against Google’s policies and can get reviews removed.
Insights: Understanding your performance
GBP provides useful performance data showing how people find and interact with your listing. Pay attention to:
- How customers find you: Direct searches (they searched your business name) vs discovery searches (they searched for a category or service).
- What actions they take: Website visits, direction requests, phone calls.
- Photo views: How your photos compare to similar businesses.
- Search queries: What terms people used when your listing appeared.
This data helps you understand what’s working and where to focus your efforts. If you’re getting lots of views but few clicks, your profile might need better photos or a more compelling description. If you’re getting clicks but no calls, your website might need some work on its SEO or conversion elements.
Your action plan
Here’s what to do right now:
- Claim and verify your Google Business Profile if you haven’t already.
- Complete every single section. Leave nothing blank.
- Upload at least 10 photos to start with, and commit to adding more regularly.
- Write your first Google Post this week.
- Check the Q&A section and add your own FAQs.
- Send your review link to your last 5 happy customers.
- Set a monthly reminder to check and update your profile.
Your Google Business Profile is genuinely one of the highest-impact, lowest-effort things you can do for your local visibility. If you’d like help setting yours up or want someone to audit your existing profile, give us a shout.
As we covered in our SEO for dentists post, this kind of local optimisation works brilliantly for service businesses. The principles are the same for a dentist, a plumber or a web design agency, and the results speak for themselves. For more on how keyword research fits into all of this, that post is worth a read too.
