The profile is often the first thing a local customer reads
For many local searches the customer never reaches the website. They see the business name, the rating, a few photos and the opening hours, and they call, ask for directions or move on to the next listing. The profile is doing the job a shopfront does on a street.
That changes what a good profile is for. It has two readers. One is the system that decides whether to show the business for a given search, which is covered in our piece on how local search chooses businesses. The other is a person with a need and little patience. Every field should serve both.
The features on offer change regularly, and they differ between business types and countries. What follows is written in general terms on purpose. Check the platform's current help pages and guidelines for what is available to you and what is allowed.
Choose the category that describes the main thing you do
The primary category tells the platform what kind of business this is. It should describe the business as a whole, in the most specific accurate term available. A practice that mainly does orthodontics is better described that way than as a general clinic, if the option exists.
Additional categories are for other things the business really does, at that location, as a regular part of its trade. They are not a place to list everything loosely related. A long list of weak matches blurs the picture.
Look at how established competitors in your area are categorised before deciding. This is a check on your own judgement, not an instruction to copy them. If every comparable business uses a term you had not considered, find out why.
Describe services in the words your customers use
Where the profile lets you list services or products, list all of them, each with a short plain description. This is the clearest way to tell the system what you should be matched to, and it saves the customer a phone call to ask whether you do a particular job.
Use customer vocabulary. A homeowner in Leeds searches for a blocked drain. A family in Pune looks for a paediatrician near a named locality. A tenant in Dubai looks for AC servicing in their community. A driver in Texas looks for a smog check or an oil change. Write the service names the way those people would say them.
The business description should say what you do, for whom and in which areas, in a few sentences. Avoid lists of keywords and avoid claims you could not support if asked.
Photos answer questions people do not type
People use photos to judge things they would never search for: whether the premises look clean, whether there is parking, what the entrance looks like from the road, who they will meet. Real photographs of the real place answer those doubts. Stock images do the opposite.
Cover the outside from the direction most people arrive, the inside, the team at work and examples of finished jobs where that is appropriate and where the customer has agreed. Add new ones through the year so the set does not show a shop front you repainted long ago.
- The exterior, including signage and the nearest landmark.
- The interior or the vehicles, tools and workspace customers will see.
- The people who answer the phone and do the work.
- Finished work, with permission where a customer or their property is identifiable.
Questions, messages and posts show the business is attended to
Where a profile lets customers ask questions or send messages, someone must be responsible for answering them promptly. An unanswered question is visible to everyone who looks afterwards. So is an answer supplied by a stranger who guessed.
Keep a note of the questions that recur and answer them in the profile itself and on the website: parking, payment methods, whether you take walk-ins, whether you serve a particular area. If the platform offers updates or posts, use them for things a customer would act on, such as a change to holiday hours, a new service or a seasonal offer. A short true update is worth more than a regular schedule of filler.
Keep the name, address, phone number and hours identical everywhere
The business name on the profile should be the name on the sign and the paperwork. Adding a city or a service to it may look like a shortcut. It usually conflicts with platform guidelines and it puts the profile at risk.
The same details should appear in the same form on your website, in directories, on social profiles and on any trade listings. Differences confuse customers first and matching systems second. Addresses need particular care in places where they are written several ways, such as an Indian address that might lead with a plot number, a sector or a landmark, or a UAE address given as a building and community.
Hours are the detail most often wrong. Update them for public holidays, festivals and seasonal changes in each country you operate in. A customer who arrives at a locked door tends to say so in a review.
A routine that keeps the profile accurate
A profile decays if nobody owns it. Give one named person the job and a short recurring checklist. The first setup takes an afternoon. The upkeep takes minutes, provided it happens.
Make sure the business itself holds the account. Profiles created by a former employee, a web designer or a previous agency under their own login are a frequent source of trouble, and regaining control can be slow. Add other people as managers and keep ownership with the company.
Measure the profile by what it produces: calls, direction requests, messages and website visits, alongside how many of those became customers. If the profile reports plenty of views and few actions, the listing is being seen and not chosen, and the photos, reviews and service list are the places to look. This upkeep is a core part of our Google Maps SEO and wider local SEO services.
- Weekly: answer new reviews, questions and messages.
- Monthly: check hours, services and photos against reality.
- Each quarter: search for the business by name and correct any stray listings.
- On any change of address, phone or name: update every listing in the same week.
