If you run a local business, your Google Business Profile is probably doing more work than your website. When somebody searches "plumber near me" or "bakery Chatham", the first thing on the screen is a map with three businesses on it. Those three get the majority of the clicks and calls. That box is built almost entirely from Business Profile data.
It is free, it takes about two hours to set up properly, and most local competitors have completed maybe a third of it. That gap is the cheapest advantage available in local marketing.
Step 1: claim and verify
- 01Check whether a profile already existsSearch your business name and town on Google Maps. Profiles are often auto-created from public data, and a second profile for the same business splits your reviews and confuses ranking. If one exists, claim it rather than creating a new one.
- 02Claim itOpen the existing listing and choose 'Claim this business' or 'Own this business?'. If somebody else has claimed it — a former marketing company, a previous owner — request access. Google notifies the current owner and gives them seven days to respond before you can escalate.
- 03VerifyVerification is usually by video now: a short recording showing your premises or vehicle, your equipment or signage, and you accessing something that proves you manage the business. Have branded workwear, a signed vehicle, or business paperwork ready before you start the recording.
- 04Wait it outVerification can take a few days to a couple of weeks. Do not create a second profile because the first is slow — duplicates are the hardest local SEO problem to unwind.
Step 2: the fields that decide your ranking
Business name
Your real-world business name, exactly as it appears on your signage, van and paperwork. Not 'Dave's Plumbing | Emergency Plumber Chatham 24/7'. Keyword stuffing the name is against Google's guidelines, it is trivially reported by competitors, and suspension costs you far more than the temporary boost was ever worth.
Primary category
The most influential single field on the profile. It determines which searches you are even eligible to appear for. Be as specific as accuracy allows — 'Roofing Contractor' rather than 'Contractor'.
To choose well, look at what the businesses currently ranking in the map pack for your target search use. There is no penalty for changing yours later, so treat it as testable rather than permanent.
Secondary categories
Add every category that genuinely describes work you do, and no more. Each one extends your eligibility, but adding categories you do not serve produces enquiries you cannot fulfil and reviews that suffer for it.
Address and service area
| Your situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| Customers come to you (shop, clinic, salon) | Publish the full address and set your hours accurately |
| You travel to customers (trades, mobile services) | Hide the address and set a service area of towns or regions |
| Both | Publish the address and add a service area as well |
| You work from home and customers do not visit | Hide the address. Do not publish your home address |
Service area
Add the towns and regions you genuinely serve, up to twenty. Do not add everywhere within three hours in the hope of wider reach — service area is not a ranking multiplier, and Google's local results are driven far more by proximity to the searcher than by how many places you list.
Hours
Accurate hours, plus special hours for holidays. 'Open 24 hours' when you do not answer at 3am generates a bad review from someone whose emergency you did not take, and Google shows a 'hours may differ' warning when reports disagree with your listing.
Step 3: the sections most people skip
- Services. List every service individually with a description of at least a couple of sentences. This is prime, underused space and it matches directly against what people search.
- Products. Even for a service business, products can showcase packages with prices and photos. They appear in a carousel on your profile.
- Business description (750 characters). Write it for a human, mention your main service and area naturally once, and lead with what you actually do rather than how passionate you are.
- Attributes. Wheelchair accessible, women-owned, LGBTQ+ friendly, free estimates, online appointments. Some become search filters, which is free eligibility.
- Opening date. Establishes longevity.
- Booking or quote link. Sends profile traffic directly to your conversion page.
- Messaging. Only enable it if you will genuinely answer within a day. Slow replies are visible and count against you.
Step 4: photos, done properly
Profiles with a steady supply of photographs get materially more views and clicks. It is one of the few areas where consistent small effort produces reliable results.
- Logo and cover photo. Set both; they control how you appear across Google surfaces.
- Exterior shots from the direction customers approach, so people can recognise the building.
- Interior shots if customers come to you.
- At-work photos — the single most persuasive category for trades.
- Team photos. Faces build trust faster than anything else on a profile.
- Before-and-after pairs, shot from matching positions.
Step 5: keep it alive
| Task | How often | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Add photos | Monthly | 5 minutes |
| Publish an update post | Every 2–4 weeks | 10 minutes |
| Reply to every review | Within 48 hours | 5 minutes each |
| Answer questions in Q&A | Weekly check | 5 minutes |
| Seed your own FAQs in Q&A | Once, then as needed | 20 minutes |
| Review the Performance report | Monthly | 10 minutes |
| Check hours before holidays | Quarterly | 5 minutes |
The Q&A section deserves a note: anyone can ask a question and anyone can answer, including a competitor or a confused stranger. Post your own most common questions and answer them yourself. That is explicitly allowed, and it stops the section filling with wrong answers.
Reading the Performance report
The profile's own analytics answer a question most website analytics cannot: how people found you.
- Searches breakdown — how many found you by name versus by category. A high proportion of discovery searches means your categories and services are working.
- The search terms list — the actual phrases people used. This is free keyword research with proven local demand, and it should feed your service pages.
- Calls, direction requests, website clicks, bookings — the real conversion actions. Track the monthly trend, not the daily number.
Common mistakes
- Keyword-stuffing the business name — the fastest route to a suspension.
- Duplicate profiles for the same location, splitting reviews and signals.
- Using a call-tracking number that appears nowhere else, breaking your name-address-phone consistency. If you use one, keep the real number visible on your site too.
- Leaving the website field pointing at a dead or redirecting URL.
- Ignoring negative reviews, which is far more damaging than the review itself.
- Setting up once and never touching it again.
Common questions
- How long does it take for a Google Business Profile to rank?
- A newly verified profile usually starts appearing within days for brand searches, and takes a few weeks to a few months to compete for competitive category searches. Proximity to the searcher, review volume and category accuracy move it fastest.
- Can I have a Google Business Profile without a physical address?
- Yes. Service-area businesses hide the address and define a service area instead. You still enter an address during setup for verification, but you can choose not to display it — and you must not invent one.
- Does posting on Google Business Profile help ranking?
- Posts have little direct ranking effect, but they occupy space on your profile, show recent activity, and convert people who are already looking at you. Treat them as conversion assets rather than ranking levers.
- What is the difference between Google Business Profile and Google Maps?
- The Business Profile is the record you manage; Maps and Search are two of the places that record is displayed. Editing the profile changes what appears in both.
- Why did my Google Business Profile get suspended?
- Most commonly: keywords in the business name, an address that cannot be verified, a virtual office, or a category that does not match the actual business. Fix the underlying issue before appealing — appealing without changing anything almost always fails.