Google Business Profile: the settings that matter

The profile, before the website

The Google profile appears in search results and on Maps, with the address, opening hours, phone number, photos and reviews. Visitors can call you, get directions or read what others say about you without ever opening your website. For a business that receives the public or travels to its customers, it comes before everything else.

First step: check that the profile exists and that it is yours. Google sometimes creates one automatically; you have to claim it, prove the business is really yours, and take back control of what is displayed there.

The settings that matter

• The primary category. It is the most important setting: it decides which searches you show up for. Choose the most precise one, not the broadest, and add secondary categories only if you really do what they describe.
• The name: the real name of the business, as it is on the shopfront. Nothing else.
• The address or the service area: the address if people come to you, the area if you go to customers. Both if it is both.
• The opening hours, including public holidays and holidays. A profile saying « open » in front of a closed door costs a customer and a review.
• The phone number and the website: the number that gets answered, the address of the page that matches what the person is looking for.
• The description: what you do, for whom, where, in a few sentences written for a human.
• Services and attributes: what can be booked, paid for, what is accessible. Google displays them and takes them into account.

Photos and posts

A profile without photos is like a shop without a window. Add the shopfront, the interior, the team, the work, regularly: recent photos say the business is alive. Customers add some too, and you do not choose which; yours need to be numerous enough to set the tone.

Profile posts, short and dated, are for announcing something new, a closure, an offer. They disappear quickly, which is precisely the sign that you need to make more.

Reviews: asking for them, answering them

Reviews weigh in the ranking and, even more, in the decision of the person reading. Two simple things to do, always:

• Ask for them, at the right moment: when the work is done and the customer is happy, with the direct link to the profile. Most satisfied people do not leave a review unless asked.
• Answer them, all of them, including the bad ones, briefly and calmly. The reply is read by the next people, not by the person who wrote.

What not to do: buy reviews, write them yourself, or offer something in exchange. Google is getting better at detecting them, and the penalty hits the whole profile.

The mistakes that cost you the profile

• A name stuffed with keywords (« Smith Plumbing heating emergency repairs 24h »). It is against Google’s rules and ends in a suspension.
• An address that is not a real place of business: a PO box, a home where nobody is received without declaring it as a service area.
• Two profiles for the same business. They split the reviews and harm each other; they need merging.
• Opening hours never updated, a number nobody answers any more, a website that no longer exists.
• A profile created and then abandoned. Google sees it, and so do customers.

Conclusion

Claim the profile, choose the right category, keep the opening hours up to date, add recent photos, ask for reviews and answer them. One hour to set it up, ten minutes a month to keep it up, and it is probably the best investment in your local visibility.