A Google Business Profile is the single largest factor in whether a local business appears in the map results, and most of them are only a third finished. The address and phone number go in on the first day and nothing else is touched again. The parts that actually move rankings are the primary category, the services list, real photographs and a steady flow of reviews, and every one of them is free.
Get the category right before anything else
Choose the primary category deliberately. It carries more weight than anything else on the profile and you only get one.
Pick the category for the work you want, not the work you already have plenty of. A profile is a new channel, and a new channel is worth pointing at the thing that has no channel yet.
Add secondary categories for everything else you genuinely do. They help, but far less. Do not add categories for work you do not really offer; it dilutes the match and can attract enquiries you cannot serve.
Fill in the services, properly
The services section is a list most people leave empty, and it is read.
Add each service with its own short description, in the words customers use rather than internal names.
Keep it to what you actually deliver. A list of forty services on a profile for a business of three people reads exactly as thin as it is.
Photographs of real things
A profile with a logo and nothing else looks like a listing. A profile with photographs of the place, the people and the work looks like a business.
Photograph the actual premises, including the entrance, so somebody arriving can recognise it.
Photograph finished work. For a trade that is the job; for an agency it is the screens; for a clinic it is the rooms.
Keep adding them. A profile that has not had a new photograph in two years reads as dormant, to people and to Google.
The description
You get 750 characters. Use them on what you do, who for, and where, in plain sentences.
Put the important part first. The description is truncated in most views, and the second half is often unread.
Do not stuff keywords. It reads badly to the customer who does see it, and it is not the part of the profile doing the ranking work anyway.
Reviews, then keep going
Ask every client, as soon as the work is done. The request that works is short, personal, and contains a direct link.
Never pay for reviews or offer anything in exchange. It is against the policy and it is the fastest route to a suspended profile.
Reply to all of them. A specific reply, mentioning the actual work, is worth more than a template thanking them for their feedback.
A bad review answered calmly and specifically often convinces more readers than the good ones do.
The parts nobody uses
Posts. Free, visible, and almost unused by small businesses. A short post about finished work, once a week or two, shows the profile is alive.
Questions and answers. You may ask and answer your own questions, which is the intended use, and it puts the answers people need where they will see them.
Attributes and hours, including holiday hours. Small, but wrong hours are one of the few profile mistakes that directly loses a customer who is standing outside a closed door.
Questions people ask
- Can I change my primary category later?
- Yes, and it takes effect quickly. The reviews and history you build on the profile stay with it, so changing the category is far less risky than people assume. Changing it repeatedly is a different matter and worth avoiding.
- Should I add every service I offer?
- Add everything you genuinely deliver and nothing you do not. A padded list makes the profile less relevant for each individual thing on it, and it brings in enquiries you have to turn down, which wastes everyone's time.
We do this
If you would rather have it done than do it, this is the part of what we offer that covers it.