Last Tuesday, I ran a webinar on how to get more local visibility through your Google Business Profile.
One of the main things I wanted people to take away from it was this:
Having a Google Business Profile isn’t the same as having an *optimised* Google Business Profile.
For a lot of local businesses, their profile was created years ago, a few details were added and then it was largely forgotten about.
But your Google Business Profile can be one of the most important pieces of online real estate you have.
So, if you’ve got 20 minutes today, here are 6 things you can do straight away.
1. Check your primary business category
This is a big one.
Your primary category helps Google understand exactly what your business does and which searches you should potentially appear for.
Log into your profile and check it. Is it genuinely the best description of your main service?
You can also add relevant secondary categories.
2. Make sure your services are actually listed
Don’t assume Google understands everything you offer because it’s mentioned somewhere on your website.
Go into the Services section and make sure your core services are listed individually and accurately.
Think about the things people actually search for when they need a business like yours.
3. Ask a happy customer for a Google review
Reviews aren’t just there to make you look good.
They help build trust, improve conversion and send useful signals about your business.
Google makes this incredibly easy — you can generate a direct review request link from your Business Profile and send it to customers.
If you’ve got a happy customer you’ve been meaning to ask, ask them today.
4. Upload some new photos
When was the last time you added a photo to your profile?
Add some recent, genuine images of your team, premises, products or work.
They don’t need to be professional photographs. In many cases, authentic photos taken on your phone are actually more useful.
5. Check your basic information
It sounds obvious, but you’d be amazed how many profiles contain outdated information.
Check your:
Opening hours
Phone number
Website address
Business address/service area
Business description
And don’t forget special or holiday opening hours when they’re relevant.
6. Post something
Google Business Profiles allow you to publish updates, offers, events and other content.
Use them.
You could share a recent blog post, a new service, an offer, a case study or simply something useful for your customers.
Your profile shouldn’t look like it was set up three years ago and abandoned.
The bigger point I made during the webinar was that local SEO isn’t one magic trick.
Google is looking at a combination of relevance, prominence and proximity, alongside the quality and consistency of the information it can find about your business online.
Your Google Business Profile is a huge part of that – but so are your website, reviews, local landing pages, citations and the overall authority of your business online.
We’ve put together more information about how we approach this on our Local SEO page:
And if you’re not sure how well your business is performing locally, then get in touch with us and we’d be happy to take a look with no obligation of course 😊
