Google Business Profile: The Complete Guide

Google Business Profile — still called Google My Business by most people — is the listing that appears on Maps and in the local pack. It is the entity Google ranks. This chapter goes through every part of it that affects ranking or conversion, in the order we work through it with clients.

Eligibility first

Before optimising anything, make sure the profile is allowed to exist. Google's guidelines require that you make in-person contact with customers during stated hours, at the address given (for storefronts) or in the areas served (for service-area businesses). Not eligible: virtual offices with no staff, PO boxes, rented mailboxes, and businesses that only operate online. Businesses that break this are the ones that get hard-suspended, usually months later when a competitor reports them.

Verification

Video verification is now the default in the UK. Google asks for a continuous recording showing the exterior with signage, the interior, proof of business operation (tools, stock, a till) and, for service-area businesses, a branded vehicle or equipment. Prepare it before you request verification. A failed verification is a slow thing to recover from.

Business name

Your name as it appears on signage, stationery and Companies House. Not "Smith Plumbing – Emergency Plumber Manchester". Google's policy is explicit, competitors report violations, and suspension for naming is common. If your trading name genuinely includes a descriptor, it is allowed — but only if it is really your name.

Categories

The primary category is the strongest relevance signal on the profile. Choose it by evidence: search your five most important terms, note the primary category of each pack member (visible on the profile as the first category), and choose the one that recurs. It is usually more specific than the one you would pick from instinct.

Add secondary categories for every distinct thing you do — an accountant might be "Accountant", "Tax preparation service", "Bookkeeping service", "Certified public accountant". Do not add categories you do not genuinely operate in; relevance dilutes and eligibility questions follow.

Google adds and renames categories regularly. Review yours quarterly.

Address, pin and service area

Storefronts: the address as it appears on your website and citations, and a pin that sits on the building, not the road. Service-area businesses: hide the address, set service areas by town or postcode district (up to 20), and keep them realistic — a two-hour radius does not rank you across it, it just dilutes the centre.

Hours

Accurate opening hours, special hours for bank holidays set in advance, and "More hours" for things like delivery or senior hours. Profiles that show "Closed" at the moment of the search lose the click regardless of ranking, and there is evidence Google demotes profiles while they are closed.

Phone and website

A local number matching your citations as the primary. Tracking numbers only as an additional number. The website link should go to the most relevant page — a location page for multi-location businesses, the homepage for single-location ones — with UTM parameters so Profile traffic shows separately in analytics.

Services and products

Services: add every one, grouped by category, each with a description of a sentence or two. This is where long-tail relevance comes from and it is the field most often left empty. Products: for retailers, restaurants and anyone with priced items, add them with photos — they appear on the profile and in Maps search.

Description

750 characters. What you do, who you do it for, what makes you different, where you are. Written for a person reading it on a phone. The description is a weak ranking signal and a strong conversion one, so do not waste it on keyword lists.

Attributes

Everything that applies: accessibility, payment methods, amenities, service options (online appointments, on-site services), identity attributes if you want them shown. Attributes surface as filters in Maps and increasingly in AI-generated summaries of "the best X near me".

Photos and video

Cover photo, logo, exterior from the street, interior, team, work in progress, finished work, products. Real photos, not stock. Add a few every month; profiles with recent photos get more calls and direction requests. Name the files sensibly before upload. Short videos (under 30 seconds) of the premises or work are now well supported and rarely used by competitors.

Posts

Updates, offers and events. They are visible on the profile for a limited time and have a small ranking effect at best, but they signal activity and give searchers a reason to choose you. Fortnightly is enough. Link each post to a relevant page on your site.

Q&A

Anyone can ask and anyone can answer, so if you do not seed it, customers or competitors will. Add the ten questions you get most, answer them from the business account, and keep an eye on new ones.

Reviews

Covered in depth in the reviews chapter. On the profile side: respond to every one, from the business account, within a couple of days.

Messaging and bookings

Turn on messaging only if someone will answer within hours; Google shows response times and switches it off if you don't. Booking integrations (Reserve with Google) add a button to the profile for restaurants, salons and clinics and are worth setting up if your booking system supports them.

Maintenance

Google, users and competitors can suggest edits to your profile and Google applies many of them automatically. Check the profile monthly for unexpected changes to name, categories, hours or pin. Watch for duplicate profiles appearing. Check the "Insights" (Performance) data for drops in calls or views that indicate a problem.

Part of the complete UK local SEO guide.