Optimising Your Google Business Profile: A Checklist

Checklist

Primary category: The category that describes your business most precisely.
Further categories and services: Everything you genuinely offer.
Business name: Your actual name, without added search terms (this breaches the guidelines).
Address and service area: Correct and, for on-site services, with a service area.
Opening hours: Up to date, including public holidays and special days.
Photos: Exterior, interior, team, work, products. Current and genuine.
Description: Clear and factual, without promotional exaggeration.
Posts: News, offers and notices at regular intervals.
Reviews: Ask for them, reply to them, stay honest.
Website and contact: A link to the relevant page, a current telephone number.

How to choose the primary category

The primary category is one of the strongest signals in the profile. Proceed like this: search Google for your most important service and look at which category your competitors list first. Choose the category that describes your business most precisely, not the most general one. A kitchen-fitting business is usually better classified with a specific category than with “construction company”. Only add further categories if you provide the service regularly.

Photos: what works and what does not

Genuine photos of your premises, your team and your work come across as more credible than stock images.
Logo and cover photo should not be cropped in the preview; check how they look on a mobile phone.
Add to them regularly: A profile with photos that are several years old looks abandoned.

Describing services and products sensibly

Create each service with a short, factual sentence saying what customers get. Avoid giving prices you cannot keep to. If you only state “from” prices, add what the price depends on. This saves unnecessary follow-up questions and prevents disappointed callers.

Questions and answers in the profile

Customers can ask questions publicly. Answer them yourself, ideally before someone else gets in first with an inaccurate answer. Post the questions you hear most often, for example about parking, booking appointments or your service area.

Verification and access

Verify the profile using the method Google offers (postcard, telephone, email or video, depending on the case). Add at least two people as managers so that the profile does not depend on one employee who may leave the company. This is a frequently overlooked point.

What you should not do in your profile

Buy reviews or exchange them for discounts
Extend the business name with search terms or place names
Give the address of a serviced office as your location if you cannot be reached there

Responding to reviews properly shows how to react to feedback.

Practical example: checking a profile in 30 minutes

Open your profile in search, not in the management view, because that is how customers see it. Check in turn: Are the name, address and telephone number correct? Is the primary category suitable? Are the opening hours correct, including for the next public holiday? Does the website link lead to the right page? Are there reviews without a reply? Write the shortcomings down in a list and fix first those that mislead callers, such as wrong hours or numbers.

How often should you maintain the profile?

A fixed routine helps more than occasional big pushes: opening hours whenever they change, posts at a rhythm you can keep up, replies to reviews as promptly as possible, and a review of photos and services once a quarter.

Common mistakes

The wrong primary category, outdated details and unanswered reviews cost you enquiries. A verified, well-kept profile stands out from the competition.