How to set up a Google Business Profile properly

Why the profile matters more than the website

When someone searches for a tire shop, a dentist or an electrician near them, Google shows a map with three businesses before any website. Those three get most of the calls. Your Google Business Profile is what decides whether you are one of them, and for most local businesses it is worth more than the website.

The good news is that most competitors have a half-finished profile: wrong category, no services listed, four photos from 2019, hours that have not been updated since a renovation. Finishing yours properly is often enough to move into the map results. That is where I start with every local client, and it is what turned an empty tire shop into the top local result.

Claim it, and make sure you own it

First, find out whether a profile already exists. Search your business name and address; if a listing appears, someone may already have claimed it, sometimes a former employee, a previous owner or an agency you no longer work with. Get ownership transferred to a Google account the business controls before doing anything else. A profile you cannot access is a liability.

If no listing exists, create one and verify it. Google may ask for a video walkthrough, a phone or email verification, or a mailed code, depending on the business type. Do not use a P.O. box or a virtual office; Google's guidelines require a real location or an honest service area, and profiles that bend that rule get suspended.

Fill in every field, in this order

Primary category first. It is the strongest ranking signal on the profile, so pick the most specific one that describes what you mostly do: "Tire shop", not "Auto repair shop", if tires are the business. Add secondary categories for the rest. Then the service area if you travel to customers, and the address if they come to you.

Next, hours, including holiday hours, and the phone number and website exactly as they appear on your site. Consistency matters; mismatched details across the web weaken the profile. Then the services list: every service you sell, each with a short description, because Google matches searches against these. Then products, if you sell any. Then the business description, written for a person, mentioning the towns you serve.

Finally, photos. Real ones: the storefront, the team, the work, the inside. Add a dozen to start and a few more every month. Profiles with recent photos get more calls and direction requests, and a photo of your actual shop front helps people recognize it when they arrive.

Reviews: build the habit, not the campaign

Reviews decide who gets the call once you are in the map results. The businesses that win here do not run a one-time push; they ask every happy customer, every time, with as little friction as possible. Google gives every profile a short review link. Put it on a QR code at the counter, in the text you send after a job, and on the invoice.

Reply to every review, including the bad ones, briefly and politely. Replies show Google and future customers that the business is active and listening. Never buy reviews or ask staff to write them; Google removes them and can suspend the profile.

Once the profile is complete, the upkeep is small: a post or two a month, new photos, answers to questions people leave, and replies to reviews. That is the part I handle monthly for clients, and it is what keeps a profile in the top three once it gets there.