Setting up your Google Business Profile properly
Your Google Business Profile is the free listing that appears in Google Maps and local search results, and for most local businesses it produces more calls than any other free channel. Set it up at google.com/business: claim or create the listing, verify it, complete every field with the exact same name, address and phone as your website, add real photos, choose precise categories, and collect reviews steadily.
Claim and verify, carefully
Search your business name on Google Maps first: profiles often already exist, created from directory data. Claim the existing one rather than creating a duplicate, because duplicates confuse Google and split your reviews. Verification is usually by video these days for service businesses, sometimes postcard or phone. Do it once, properly, from the account you will keep forever, not an employee's personal Gmail.
The fields that actually matter
- Name: your real trading name, exactly as it appears on your website and invoices. Stuffing keywords into the name ("Smith Plumbing Best Boiler Repair Chester") violates the rules and gets suspensions.
- Categories: the primary category is the strongest ranking signal you control. Pick the most specific one that fits, then add secondaries for other services.
- Service area: for businesses that travel to customers, list the towns you genuinely cover rather than one giant radius.
- Hours: keep them true, including holidays. "Permanently closed" reports from wrong hours are painful to reverse.
- Website and phone: must match your website exactly. Consistency between profile and site is a trust signal Google checks.
- Photos: real ones of you, your work, your van, your premises. Profiles with genuine photos get measurably more calls and direction requests than those with logos alone.
The weekly habit that compounds
A profile is not a set-and-forget listing; Google favours active ones. The routine takes ten minutes a week: add one photo of recent work, answer any questions, reply to every review (the good ones briefly, the bad ones calmly and factually), and post an update if you have one. Businesses that do this consistently sit above identical competitors who claimed their profile and walked away.
Pair the profile with a proper website and each strengthens the other: the profile catches map searches, the site converts the click, and the matching details between them reassure both Google and the customer.
Frequently asked questions
Is a Google Business Profile free?
Yes, completely. Anyone who phones offering to "activate" or "manage" your Google listing for a fee is selling you something you can do yourself in half an hour. Setup is at google.com/business.
How long until my profile shows up in searches?
Typically within days of verification. Ranking well in the map results takes longer and depends on reviews, proximity to the searcher, category choice and how complete and active the profile is.
Do I need a website if I have a Google Business Profile?
The two do different jobs. The profile gets you found on Maps; the website persuades. Profiles that link to a real website earn more clicks and give customers somewhere to check prices, galleries and detail the profile cannot hold. Together they are the strongest free-plus-affordable combination in local marketing.
Can I stop a competitor editing my profile?
Anyone can suggest edits, and Google sometimes applies them, so the defence is activity: owners who log in regularly, keep information current and respond to changes quickly rarely have problems persist. Turn on email notifications so you hear about edits.
The short version
- Claim the existing listing rather than creating a duplicate, and verify from an account you control forever.
- Primary category, real photos, true hours, and details that exactly match your website.
- Never keyword-stuff the business name; suspensions are common and slow to appeal.
- Ten minutes a week of photos, replies and updates beats a perfect profile left dormant.
Rather skip all this?
Every website we build is set up to match and reinforce your Google Business Profile: same details, town-by-town service pages, and the speed Google rewards. £50 a month, everything included.
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