For a business with a physical location or a service area, the Google Business Profile is often worth more than the website. It is what puts you in the map results, it is where the reviews live, and it is free.
It is also usually half-finished. Here is how to do it properly.
Before you start
Have these ready:
- The exact business name as it appears on your signage
- Your address, written the way you want it to appear everywhere
- A phone number that someone answers
- Your opening hours
- Ten or so photos, taken on a decent phone in daylight
That address and phone number matter more than they look. Google cross-checks them against your website and anywhere else you are listed. Inconsistency between those sources is one of the most common reasons a legitimate local business ranks below a competitor.
1. Claim or create the profile
Search your business name on Google Maps. If a listing already exists, someone may have created it automatically, or a previous employee may hold it. Claim it rather than creating a duplicate. Duplicates split your reviews and confuse the ranking.
2. Verification
Verification is usually by video, phone or postcard depending on the category and location. Video verification is the most common now: you will be asked to record a continuous clip showing your signage, the surrounding street, your equipment or stock, and finally proof you manage the place.
Record it in daylight, do not stop and restart, and show the street outside so the location is unambiguous.
3. Categories
Pick the most specific primary category that describes what you do, then add secondary categories for genuine additional services.
The primary category carries the most weight. A business that is primarily one thing but lists something broader as primary will rank for neither properly.
4. Hours, including the awkward ones
Fill in real hours, add special hours for Poya days and public holidays, and update them when they change. Google demotes profiles that show as open when users find them closed, and it is one of the most common complaints in reviews.
5. Photos
Profiles with real photos get more interaction than profiles without them. Not stock images, not your logo eleven times. The storefront, the inside, the team, the product, the street view a customer needs to recognise.
Add new ones periodically rather than uploading forty on day one and never returning.
6. NAP consistency
Name, address and phone should appear identically on:
- The profile
- Your website footer
- Your website's structured data
- Any directory you are listed in
Identically means character for character. "No. 113/7, Airport Road" and "113/7 Airport Rd" are different strings to a machine trying to decide whether two listings are the same business.
7. Reviews
Ask, in person, at the moment someone is happy. Do not buy them, do not offer a discount for them, and do not write them yourself. Google is better at detecting all three than people assume, and the penalty is worse than having fewer reviews.
Reply to every review, including the bad ones, briefly and without arguing. The reply is not for the reviewer. It is for the next person reading.
What this will not do
A Business Profile will not rank you nationally, and it will not fix a slow or missing website. It gets you into the local pack for searches near you, which for most small businesses is where the customers actually are.
If you want this set up properly along with the on-page work behind it, that is service 3.05.