The Digital Doctor
How do I set up a Google Business Profile properly?
Claim it, verify it, then fill in every field rather than the minimum. The ones that decide whether you appear at all are your primary category, your service area, your hours and your reviews. For a local service business this profile is often worth more than the website, because on a phone the map results take up the whole first screen. Below is the full checklist, 25 items, free to work through yourself.
Why does this matter more than people expect?
Search for a plumber near you, on a phone. Count how much of that first screen is taken up by the map and the three businesses inside it. For most local searches the answer is: nearly all of it.
A business that appears there with twenty reviews will get the call ahead of a business with a better website that does not appear at all. That is uncomfortable if you have just paid for a website, but it is how local search works, and the profile is free.
The full checklist
Before anything else
- Claim the profile. Search your business name in Google and look for "Own this business?" if somebody else set it up years ago.
- Verify it. Usually a postcard, a phone call or a video. Nothing else counts until this is done.
- Check nobody else has created a duplicate listing for the same business, and ask Google to merge it if they have.
The fields that decide whether you appear
- Primary category. This one matters more than everything else combined. Pick the most specific one that describes what you actually do, not the broadest.
- Additional categories for the other things you do, but do not pad the list with things you do not.
- Service area, if you travel to customers, or a physical address if they come to you. Not both.
- Business name exactly as it appears on your signage and your website. Do not add keywords to it, which is against policy and gets listings suspended.
- Phone number that rings somewhere a person answers, matching the one on your website.
- Website address, pointing at your homepage rather than a page that may move.
The fields most people skip
- Opening hours, including whether you work Saturdays, and special hours for public holidays.
- Services or products, listed individually with prices where you can. This is where an assistant or a searcher finds out what you charge.
- A description written for a customer. Say what you do, who for, and where. Do not stuff it with search terms.
- Attributes, such as wheelchair access or whether you accept card. Small, but they answer real questions.
- The date you opened, which quietly supports how long you have been trading.
Photographs
- Real photographs of real work, taken on a phone, rather than stock images. Stock images are visibly stock and they cost you trust.
- A recognisable exterior shot if customers come to you, so they can find the door.
- Your team, or you. A face does more for a small business than another picture of a building.
- Add a few every month or two. Recency is visible and a profile with nothing new in two years reads as closed.
Reviews
- Ask at the moment the job is finished and the customer is happy, with a direct link so it takes them one tap.
- Never offer anything in exchange. It is against Google policy and reviews obtained that way can be removed.
- Reply to every review, including the good ones. The reply is read by the next person, not by the reviewer.
- Reply to bad reviews calmly, once, acknowledging the issue and offering to resolve it. Never argue the facts in public.
Keep it consistent
- Your business name, address and phone number should be identical on the profile, your website, your Facebook page and any directory you are listed in.
- Inconsistent details are the most common reason a business quietly underperforms in local search, because nobody can be certain the listings are the same business.
- Check the hours before every public holiday. Wrong hours turn a customer who wanted you into a customer who drove to a locked door.
Why am I not appearing in the map results?
Four causes account for most of it, and three are fixable.
The profile is not claimed or not verified. An unverified listing barely competes. Check this first.
The primary category is wrong. This single field does more than any other to decide which searches you show up for. A business listed as “Contractor” when it is a roofer will lose to every roofer listed as a roofer.
Your details do not match. If the phone number on your profile differs from the one on your website, or the business name has an extra word, Google cannot be confident the listings describe the same business. Consistency is unglamorous and it matters.
Distance. Somebody searching from the other side of the city will see businesses nearer to them. You cannot fix that one, and anybody promising you can is selling something.
How do I get more reviews without being pushy?
Ask at the moment the work is finished and the customer is visibly pleased. Not a week later by email, when the feeling has faded. In person or by message, with a direct link so it takes one tap.
Do not offer a discount or anything else in exchange. It is against Google policy, reviews obtained that way can be removed, and it is the kind of thing that surfaces later.
Then reply to them. All of them, including the good ones. The reply is not really for the reviewer, who has moved on. It is for the next person reading, and a profile where the owner answers is a profile belonging to a business that is still trading and still cares.
Can this be checked for me?
Not automatically, and I would rather say so than pretend. Reading a Google Business Profile properly means a person opening it and looking, which is why it is one of the five checks I do by hand rather than something the scanner claims to have done.
On a paid audit I check whether it is claimed, whether the categories are right, whether the hours and photographs are current, and then count your reviews, your rating and your reply rate against your three closest competitors. Every check in every package is listed here.
Start with your website
The free check runs ten checks on your homepage in about a minute, including whether your business details are published in a form Google can read. No sign up.
Run the free check