The free listing that decides the map results
For a local business this listing often produces more enquiries than the website does. It is free, it takes an afternoon to set up properly, and most are half finished.
Learn
Short answer
A business profile is the free listing that appears in map results and beside branded searches. It carries your categories, hours, service area, photographs and reviews. Completing it properly is usually the highest return hour a local business can spend on search.
Why it matters so much
For many local searches the map block sits above every ordinary result, and it is the first thing on the screen.
People also call and get directions directly from it, without ever visiting your website. Those enquiries are invisible in your site analytics.
It is free, and the businesses that treat it seriously are consistently ahead of those that claimed it once and forgot.
The gap is widest in trades where most competitors have never opened theirs since the day it was verified.
People call and get directions straight from it, never visiting your website. Those enquiries never show up in your site analytics.
Categories
The primary category carries the most weight, so choose the one that describes your main business rather than the broadest available.
Add secondary categories for genuine additional services, and resist adding every plausible one. Irrelevant categories dilute rather than expand.
Look at what well ranked competitors use. It is public, and it is the fastest way to learn which category a platform actually associates with your trade.
Revisit the choice once a year. Platforms add and drop categories, and a better fit may have appeared since you set yours.
Revisit the choice once a year. Platforms add and drop categories, and a better fit may have appeared since you set yours.
Address or service area
If customers come to you, show the address. If you travel to them, set a service area and hide the address, which is what the platform intends.
Do not list premises you do not occupy. Virtual offices and a relative's address are against the rules, are reported by competitors, and cost you the listing.
Set the service area to where you genuinely work rather than to the widest region you might conceivably drive to.
The details people skip
Hours, including holidays. Nothing costs more goodwill than a customer arriving at a closed business the listing said was open.
The description, which should say what you do and who for rather than repeating your categories.
Attributes, services and products, which take a while and are read by people deciding between you and the business above you.
- Hours, including holidays
- The description, saying what you do and for whom
- Services and products, listed individually
- Attributes a customer might filter on
- The service area, set honestly
- A link to the page that fits, not always the homepage
- Photographs added regularly rather than once
Photographs
Real photographs of your premises, your team and your work. These are among the most viewed things in the whole listing.
Add them regularly rather than once. A listing with recent photographs reads as an active business.
Avoid stock imagery entirely here. People are checking whether you are real, and a stock photograph answers that question badly.
Photographs taken on a phone are fine. Honest and slightly rough beats polished and generic for this particular purpose.
Photographs taken on a phone are fine. Honest and slightly rough beats polished and generic for this particular purpose.
Reviews
Ask every satisfied customer, routinely, without offering anything in exchange. Slow and steady beats a sudden burst, which looks exactly like what it usually is.
Reply to all of them, briefly. Replying to negative ones calmly and without disclosing details persuades future readers more than the review harmed you.
Never buy them. Platforms detect patterns, and customers spot invented reviews faster than platforms do.
Slow and steady beats a sudden burst, which looks exactly like what it usually is — see testimonials and reviews.
How the website fits
Point the listing at the most relevant page rather than always at the homepage. A service listing should link to that service.
Keep the details on your site identical to the listing, because inconsistency between them is a signal nobody benefits from.
Sites built here carry structured data describing the business and its area, which gives machines the same facts your listing states.
Questions people ask
Do I need a physical address?
No. If you travel to customers, set a service area and hide the address. That is the supported arrangement and it does not disadvantage you.
How often should I post updates?
Regularly enough that the listing looks active. Photographs of recent work are usually more effective than written posts and take less time.
Can I use a keyword in my business name?
Not unless it is genuinely part of your registered name. It is against the rules, competitors report it, and suspension costs far more than the benefit.
Should the listing link to my homepage?
Link to the most relevant page. A specific service page converts better than a homepage for somebody who searched for that service.
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