Customers already use your Google Business Profile to find you, choose you and call. If the name, hours or category is off, the photos are thin, the reviews sit unanswered, or the posts have gone quiet, they can pick another business on the map, and you may never hear about it.
You’re great at the work. A complete profile should show that, in plain terms, without making you guess what “complete” actually covers.
Use this checklist to cover the basics. It is not a promise of rankings or a place on the map. Walk through the basics, categories and services, photos, reviews and posts. Then, if you want a closer look, request a Google Business Profile audit that is complimentary based on fit, take the Complimentary Website Health Check, or Get a Quote.
GBPOnly is a digital marketing agency specializing in Google Business Profile management for local businesses, from home services to shops, clinics and offices. If something won’t move the needle, we’ll tell you.
For short definitions of terms used here, see the local marketing glossary. This checklist is one of the guides on Local Marketing Resources.
Basics
Start with the facts customers use to tell your business apart from the next one.
Google’s guidelines for representing your business ask you to represent the business as it’s consistently represented in the real world, to keep the address accurate, and to choose the fewest categories that describe the core business. There should be one profile per business.
Use this as a plain check, not a score:
- The business name on the profile matches the name on the door, the site and the paperwork customers already see. Don’t add extra keywords to the name.
- The address is accurate if customers visit you. If you go to the customer, the service area is accurate, and you don’t show a visit address that isn’t a real location customers can use.
- If the business publishes a phone number, that number is current and is the number you actually answer. Your profile should show the contact details your customers need.
- The hours match the door, including holidays and days you close early. Wrong hours are one of the fastest ways to lose a visit or a call.
- The primary category describes the core business, not every service you sometimes offer.
- The website link, appointment or menu link, if you use one, goes to the right place and still works.
- There is one profile for the business, not a second half-finished listing competing with the first.
Google also says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and popularity. Prominence means how well-known a business is, and that can draw on information such as how many websites link to the business and how many reviews it has. More reviews and positive ratings can help local ranking. Google decides placement. This checklist is about the parts you can control. It is not a ranking plan.
If you want help getting these basics accurate, see Google Business Profile optimization and Google Business Profile management.
Categories and Services
Categories and services should match the work you actually do.
- Choose a primary category that names the core business.
- Add additional categories only when they describe real work you do, not as a way to cover every possible search.
- List the services you actually offer, in language a customer would use, and keep them current when the work changes.
- Keep the service area in line with where you really work.
- Don’t stuff extra keywords into category or service names.
Google’s representation guidelines say to choose the fewest categories that describe the core business. The test is simple: would a customer who reads the profile recognize the business they actually get?
When categories or services are wrong, the profile can look like a different kind of business, or it can look like it does work you don’t do. Both waste the customer’s time.
Photos
Current photos help a customer see the real work, the place and the team.
Google’s help says you can add photos and videos of the storefront, products and services, and that an exterior photo helps customers recognize the business when they visit. Pending media does not show up on Search or Maps to customers, including when the profile is not verified.
Use this as a check:
- The profile is verified, so photos can actually appear.
- There is a clear exterior or storefront photo, if you have a location customers visit, so they can recognize the place.
- There are current photos of the work, the interior, the products or the services, as they really look today.
- Team or owner photos are used only where that is accurate, not as a stand-in for someone who isn’t part of the business.
- Old photos that no longer match the space, the menu, the vehicles or the crew have been replaced.
- If you add photos of products you sell or use in the work, they are photos. They do not mean the Google Business Profile lists your inventory.
Photos do not promise a ranking change, a full dining room, or a booked calendar. They help a customer see what they would walk into or hire. Keep them current.
Reviews
Reviews show next to your Business Profile in Maps and Search. Google recommends reminding customers to leave reviews and replying to the ones you get. Google also prohibits offering incentives in exchange for reviews, for changes to reviews, or for the removal of negative reviews.
Check the following:
- You have a simple, honest way to remind customers that they can leave a review, without paying for reviews or offering a discount, gift or other incentive for a review, a change to a review, or the removal of a negative review.
- You reply to reviews, including the hard ones, in a plain, professional way.
- You don’t gate reviews. Google’s content policy prohibits discouraging negative reviews or asking only happy customers for reviews.
- Ownership or response access is in place, so replies don’t sit unsent.
A complete profile is not a pile of five-star quotes. It is a listing where the public conversation is tended. If you want help with that work, see review management.
Posts
Posts are how the profile stays current between the bigger updates. Regular posts can share an offer, a project, a new hour, a hiring note, or a simple update about the work you do.
Check the following:
- Someone is responsible for posting, so the profile doesn’t go quiet for months.
- Posts match the business as it actually operates. Don’t promote a service, area or offer the business can’t fulfill.
- Photos in posts are current and accurate, the same way profile photos should be.
- If social posting is part of the plan, it is Facebook and Google Business Profile only. GBPOnly does not post to Instagram or TikTok for clients.
There is no required posting cadence, and posts are not a promise of results. The point is that a quiet profile looks abandoned, and a current one gives a customer something recent to see. For the paid work that keeps posts going, see Google Business Profile posts.
Get a Closer Look
You can use this checklist on your own. If you want someone to look with you, there are two next steps, and neither is automatic.
A Google Business Profile audit is complimentary based on fit. We look at the listing you already have and tell you what is in good shape and what isn’t. It is not a promise that you will rank, and it is not the start of paid work unless you later ask for a quote and we agree on a plan.
The Complimentary Website Health Check is a separate offer for the site that should back the profile up. The form asks for your contact information and the site URL. It is not a profile audit, and it is not a website rebuild.
Get a Quote if you already know you want help. Tell us about the business. We learn how customers find you, then build a clear plan that starts with the Google Business Profile. We do the agreed work, and you see what’s moving in your Measures Sheet.
If we don’t think we’re the right fit, we’ll say so and recommend someone who is.