Google Business Profile Optimisation: A Half-Day Job That Pays All Year
For local firms, the profile that appears beside the map often matters more than the website. Here is how to set it up properly and keep it honest.
Google Business Profile optimisation is one of the cheapest things a local firm can do, yet most profiles we look at were set up in a hurry, years ago, and never touched again. When someone searches for a service near them, the panel with the map, phone number and reviews is frequently what they act on, sometimes before they reach any website. Treat the profile as a front window of your business and give it a half-day of proper attention.
Claim it and verify it
If your business is not yet listed, create the profile; if it is, claim it using an account the company controls rather than one belonging to an employee who may leave. Complete the verification Google asks for, which may be a postcard, a phone call or a video. Add a second owner or manager so access is never held by one person alone. This sounds trivial and is the cause of many stuck listings.
Get the facts exactly right
Use your real trading name, without adding keywords, which Google's guidelines discourage and which can lead to a suspension. Check the address, the service area if you travel to customers, and the opening hours, including special hours for bank holidays. Choose a primary category with care, because it is among the strongest signals of what you are, and add secondary categories only where they are true. Google describes local ranking as depending on relevance, distance and prominence, so accurate details help on the first and third.
Describe services in the customer's words
The services and description fields let you list what you do. Write them as a customer would say them: "boiler servicing", "emergency leak repair", "commercial kitchen fit-out". Keep the description factual and free of capital letters and promotional claims, and avoid stuffing it with place names. If you offer products, add them with photographs and prices only where you can keep them up to date.
Photographs do real work
Profiles with genuine photographs of the premises, the team, vehicles and finished work build confidence. Use your own images, taken in daylight, and replace anything out of date. A photo of the shopfront from the street helps visitors recognise it when they arrive. Avoid stock pictures, which people spot immediately, and respect the privacy of customers who appear in shots.
Reviews: ask, answer, never fake
Reviews influence both rankings and decisions. Ask satisfied customers after a job is done, by sending a direct link to the review form through a message or a card. Never offer payment or discounts in return for reviews, never write your own and never filter who you ask, because Google's policies prohibit these practices and the Competition and Markets Authority treats fake reviews as a serious consumer protection matter. Reply to every review, thanking people briefly and responding to complaints calmly with an offer to put things right offline.
Keep it alive
Posts about offers, events or recent work show activity, and you can answer questions that appear on the profile. Check once a month for suggested edits from the public, because sometimes a stranger's change alters your phone number or hours. Look at the insights panel to see how many people called, requested directions or visited the website.
Connect it to the site
Common mistakes we see
The most frequent problems are simple. Several profiles for one business, created over the years by different people, compete with each other and confuse the data. Opening hours are left unchanged through the Christmas period, so customers arrive to a closed door. A mobile number is listed instead of the main line, which then goes unanswered while the owner is on a roof. Or the business has moved and the old address lingers on the map. Search for your own firm in a private window every month, from a phone, and see exactly what a customer sees.
Treat messages and calls as a service
If you enable messaging, you are committing to reply promptly. Set up notifications and assign somebody to respond, or turn the feature off. A prompt, friendly answer to a question about availability wins jobs that a slow reply loses to the next result down the page.
Link the profile to a landing page for your main location, ideally one with the same name, address and phone number in the same format, and a short embedded map. Consistent details across sites, directories and social profiles help systems trust that you are one real business. If you want a profile health check or help with a website that backs it up, we are glad to do both for firms across Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire.