The three things that move a Google Business Profile are your primary category, your review count and recency, and how complete the profile is. Everything else is smaller. Choose the category precisely, ask for reviews consistently, and fill in every field including the ones that feel pointless.
Nothing here will overcome distance. A searcher standing next to a competitor will usually see them first, and no optimisation changes that.
Category is the single most important field
Your primary category has more influence on which searches you appear in than anything else you control. It is also the field most often set once, carelessly, at signup.
Pick the most specific category that genuinely describes your main business, not the broadest one. Specific categories appear in more relevant searches and face less competition inside them.
Add secondary categories only where they are accurate. Adding categories you do not serve dilutes relevance and invites edits from the public.
Reviews: the pattern that matters
Volume, average and recency all count, and recency is the one people forget. Forty reviews from two years ago reads as a business that used to be busy.
Ask in person, at the point where the customer is visibly happy, then send the link. A steady few per month beats a burst. Reply to every review, including the good ones, and especially the bad ones, because those replies are read by everyone deciding whether to call you.
Do not filter who you ask based on how they will rate you, and never buy reviews. Both are detectable and the second is unrecoverable.
The fields most profiles leave empty
These are free, indexed, and skipped by most competitors.
- Services and products, named the way customers say them rather than the way you invoice them
- Attributes: accessibility, payment methods, languages, whichever apply honestly
- Opening hours including holidays, which is the single most common cause of an avoidable one star review
- The description, which should say what you do and for whom rather than list adjectives
- Photos, added regularly, of the actual place and actual work
Posts and questions
Profile posts have a short shelf life and modest reach, and they are still worth a few minutes a week because they occupy space on your own result and show the business is active.
The questions section is more valuable and almost entirely ignored. Anyone can answer, including people who do not work there. Seed it yourself with the questions you actually get asked, answer them properly, and check it periodically for wrong answers left by strangers.
What gets profiles suspended
Suspension is common, sudden and painful to reverse, and it is almost always caused by one of a short list of shortcuts.
A virtual office or a mailbox used as an address. Keywords stuffed into the business name, which is against the rules and widely reported by competitors. An address you do not staff. Multiple profiles for one location. Categories unrelated to what you do.
The business name field is the most tempting and the most dangerous. Use your real registered name, exactly, and win the search on category and reviews instead.
What to check monthly
Fifteen minutes, once a month. Confirm hours are still right and holiday hours are set. Read new reviews and reply. Check the questions section for wrong answers. Add two photos. Look at the profile insights to see which searches brought you up and whether they match what you sell.
That is the entire ongoing job, and doing it consistently beats any one-off optimisation.
Common questions
- What matters most in a Google Business Profile?
- Your primary category, your review count and recency, and how complete the profile is. Category has more influence on which searches you appear in than anything else you control and is usually set once, carelessly, at signup.
- Can I put keywords in my business name?
- No. It violates the guidelines, it is widely reported by competitors, and it is a common cause of suspension. Use your real registered name and win on category and reviews instead.
- How often should I update my profile?
- Fifteen minutes a month. Confirm hours including holidays, reply to new reviews, check the questions section for wrong answers left by strangers, and add two photos.
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