Own it
Your Google Business Profile should be owned by an email address your business controls, not a former employee's or a past supplier's. If you are not sure who owns yours, find out first. Everything else depends on it.
Fill in everything
- Primary category: the single best description of what you do. It matters more than almost anything else on the profile. Add secondary categories only where they are true.
- Services: list them in the words customers use.
- Opening hours, including holiday hours. Wrong hours cost you visits and earn you bad reviews.
- Service area, if you travel to customers, kept to the area you really cover.
- Website link to the most relevant page, and a booking link if you take bookings.
Photos and posts
Add real photos of your premises, your team and your work, and keep adding them. Posts about offers, events or recent jobs show that the business is active. Neither needs to be polished, just real.
Reviews
Ask happy customers for a review, at the moment they are happy. Reply to every review, good or bad, briefly and politely. Never buy reviews, write your own or offer rewards for good ones: fake reviews are banned in the UK under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024.
Make your website agree
Google compares your profile with your website. Your business name, address, phone number and opening hours should be identical on both, and your website should have a page for each main service listed on the profile. That consistency is a large part of local SEO.