Guide: Google Business Profile

For a local business, a Google Business Profile often matters more than an elaborate website: the client is searching nearby and looking at hours, reviews, photos and a way to make contact.

What you get

Categories; description; services; photos; hours; reviews; link to the website

For a local business, a Google Business Profile frequently brings in more clients than the website: someone searches nearby, looks at the listing, the photos and the reviews, and calls without ever opening the site.

Why the profile often beats the website

The profile appears in search and on maps for free and immediately, whereas a website needs months to gain any position. If a local business has to choose where to start, it should start with the profile.

What to fill in first

An accurate primary category, a list of services with descriptions, real opening hours, an address or service area, a phone number, a link to the site, and a description written for a person rather than for a robot.

What to do once it is filled in

A profile isn’t a one-off setup. Update the hours before public holidays, add fresh photos, and reply to reviews and questions. A neglected profile loses position exactly the way a neglected website does.

Category and services

The primary category has the strongest influence on which searches you appear in. Add secondary categories only for work you actually do.

Photos and opening hours

Real photos of the place, the work and the people beat stock images. Wrong opening hours are the most galling way to lose a client who had already reached your door.

Reviews and replies

Ask satisfied clients for a review right after the job, and reply to every one, including the negative ones. The reply is read by future clients, not by the person who wrote it.

A common mistake is to fill the profile in once and forget it. Another is to set the service area far too wide: that dilutes your local results instead of extending them.

Webinkub does not replace legal, tax or immigration advice. When a question goes beyond the digital side, I say so and point you to an official source or a specialist.

Get in touch

Profile set up but not working?

Write to Webinkub

Send me the link to your profile — I’ll tell you what is filled in wrong and what will make the fastest difference.