A Google Business Profile checklist for local businesses
When someone nearby searches for what you do, your profile is often the first thing they see. Twelve checks to run this week.
If you serve customers in one area, your Google Business Profile matters as much as your website. It's what appears in Maps and in the panel beside search results, with your hours, your phone number, your reviews and a button to call you.
Many profiles are half finished. Hours are wrong, the category is too broad, and the last photo is from opening week. Each gap gives a customer a reason to tap the next business instead.
Work through this list with your profile open. Most of it takes a few minutes.
The basics
- Name. Use your real business name, exactly as it appears on your signage and invoices. Adding keywords to the name ("Paws on Wheels Best Dog Grooming Cape Town") breaks Google's guidelines and can get the profile suspended.
- Primary category. Choose the most specific category that fits. "Pet groomer" beats "Pet store" if grooming is what you do. The primary category has a big effect on which searches you appear in.
- Secondary categories. Add the others that genuinely apply, and no more.
- Phone and website. Check both work. Use a number someone answers during your listed hours.
Hours
- Regular hours. Match what you actually do. If you work Saturdays, say so.
- Special hours. Set public holidays and closures ahead of time. Few things lose a customer faster than arriving at a closed door the profile said was open.
Where you work
- Address or service area. If customers come to you, show your address. If you go to them, as a mobile groomer or plumber does, hide the address and list the suburbs or towns you cover.
What you offer
- Services or products. Add each one with a short description and a price or starting price where you can. People compare before they call.
- Description. Write a plain paragraph: what you do, for whom, and where. Leave out links and sales language.
Proof
- Photos. Add recent photos of your work, your team, your vehicle or your premises. Photos taken by you, of the real thing, beat stock images.
- Reviews. Ask happy customers for a review, with a direct link. Reply to every review, good or bad, briefly and politely. A calm reply to a bad review reads better to the next customer than silence.
Keep it alive
- Updates. Post an update when something changes: a new service, holiday hours, a seasonal offer. A profile that changes looks like a business that's open.
How often to check
Look at your profile once a month and after any change to your hours, prices or services. Customers and Google can suggest edits to your profile, so check that nobody has changed something without you noticing.
Where MARKA fits
Leila, MARKA's SEO agent, starts with your Business Profile before your website, because that's where local customers look first. Tell her what you do and where, and she'll point out what is missing and write the description and service text in your voice. You make the changes in Google yourself.