Google Business Profile, the fixes most listings miss

Your Google Business Profile is the box with your name, map pin, photos and reviews. For a local business it is often seen more than the website. Here is what I check first, in the order that usually matters most.

01 · The primary category

The primary category tells Google what your business is. Google asks you to pick the most specific category that describes the core of the business, and as few as you need (guidelines). “Physiotherapist” beats “Health”. “Interior designer” beats “Consultant”. If the main category is wrong, nothing else on the profile can make up for it.

02 · The business name, exactly as it is

Use the name customers see on your signboard, invoices and website. Google’s guidelines don’t allow extra keywords, locations, phone numbers or taglines in the name. “Smile Dental Clinic” is fine. “Smile Dental Clinic – Best Dentist Whitefield Bangalore” breaks the rules and can get the listing suspended. It isn’t worth it.

03 · Address or service area

If customers come to you, show the address. If you go to them (a plumber, a home tutor, a photographer), set a service area and hide the address. Google expects service areas to stay within a reasonable distance of your base, roughly a two-hour drive. Virtual offices and P.O. boxes aren’t allowed.

04 · Hours you actually keep

List the hours you really answer the phone or open the door, and add special hours for festivals and holidays. Nothing loses a customer faster than turning up to a closed shutter that Google said was open.

05 · Services, products and a real description

List each service you offer, in the words customers use. Write a short description of what you do and who you do it for. Leave out claims like “No. 1” or “best”: they don’t help, and customers have learned to ignore them.

06 · Photos of the real place and the real work

Add photos of the outside (so people recognise you on arrival), the inside, your team and your work. Google lists photos and videos among its own tips for local ranking (Google Help). Phone photos taken in good light are fine. Stock photos aren’t.

07 · Reviews, and replies to them

Ask every happy customer, every time, with a short link. Reply to every review, good or bad, briefly and politely. Google lists responding to reviews among its tips, and a calm reply to a bad review often tells the next customer more than the review itself.

08 · Check what it brings

The profile’s performance view shows calls, direction requests, website clicks and the searches you appeared for. Look at it monthly. If calls and direction requests are rising, the profile is doing its job.

Most profiles I check are half-done: a vague category, no services listed, three-year-old photos and unanswered reviews. Each of those is fixable in an afternoon.