How to Optimise Your Google Business Profile: The Step-by-Step Guide We Give Every Local Business

Optimising your Google Business Profile means setting up and maintaining your free Google listing so you show up when people nearby search for what you sell. Done right, it puts your reviews, photos, hours and phone number at the top of Google and Maps, often above the firms paying for ads. Here is the whole thing as a list you can action this week.

We run an SEO agency, and this is the highest-return hour of work we hand most local businesses. No invoice, no developer, no ad budget. Just a listing your competitors have half-filled and forgotten about. If you came here from one of our ads, fix this before you spend another penny on advertising.

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1. Claim and verify it

You control nothing until you do this. Search your business name, click "Claim this business", and sign in with a proper business email. Then verify the profile. Take video verification if Google offers it, it is faster than waiting on a postcard that might never turn up. Have your sign, your tools and a recent bill ready before you start filming.

2. Get the basics dead right

• Name: your real business name only. Stuffing in keywords or your town, like "Dave's Plumbing London Emergency Boiler Repair", breaks Google's rules and is a fast track to a suspension.
• Primary category: the single most powerful setting on the profile. Pick the one that finishes "this business is a...". Check what your top-ranking rivals use and match it.
• Address: drop the pin on your door if customers visit you. If you go to them, hide the address and list the towns you cover instead.
• Hours: keep them current and set special hours for bank holidays. A profile marked "open now" wins the click.

3. Write the description, then add every service

Use the 750-character description to say what you do, who for and where, up front, with one reason to trust you. Then open "Edit services" and add everything you do as its own item: fuse board upgrades, EV chargers, rewires, emergency call-outs, each with a short line of description. Every service is a phrase someone might search. Most businesses list one. You list twenty.

4. Add real photos, and keep adding them

A profile with photos gets picked over one without. Add your logo, a strong cover shot, your premises, your team, and before-and-afters of your work. Clear, well-lit phone photos are fine. The habit that beats everyone: add a few fresh photos every single month so the profile looks alive.

5. Get reviews, and reply to all of them

Ask happy customers right after the job, and make it effortless with your review link or a QR code on a card. One hard rule: you cannot pay for reviews or offer discounts in exchange for them. Google's content policy bans it and will strip them. Ask everyone, then reply to every review you get. For good ones, be short and specific. For bad ones, stay calm, apologise if it is fair, and move it offline. Future customers judge you on the reply far more than the complaint.

6. Post once a week

A profile that posts looks open. An abandoned one looks shut down. Once a week, add an update with a photo of a recent job, a seasonal offer, or an event. Leave phone numbers out of the post text, Google rejects those. Consistency beats cleverness here, so set a weekly reminder and stick to it.

7. Finish the easy extras

Quick wins most people skip: list your products or packages, seed your own questions in the Q&A and answer them, tick every attribute that genuinely applies (free quotes, women-led, wheelchair accessible), and only switch on messaging if you will actually reply quickly.

8. Match your details everywhere

Google trusts a business whose name, address and phone number match across the web. List on Bing Places, Apple Business Connect, Yell and FreeIndex, plus trade sites like Checkatrade or MyBuilder, with identical details, character for character. Then search your phone number in quotes to find and fix the old listings already out there.

9. Your website pulls the strings too

Google does not rank your profile in a vacuum, it also weighs the website you link to. A fast, clear website with matching details, your town and service in the page titles, and your reviews on show, lifts where you land on the map. If you cover several towns, build a genuine page for each one, with real local detail, not the same paragraph with the town swapped, and you start ranking in all of them rather than just the one your base sits in.

10. Backlinks decide the close calls

Links from other websites are the biggest lever on how prominent Google thinks you are, and prominence is how an established firm outranks a rival who is physically closer. Get listed by suppliers and manufacturers whose kit you fit, your trade body, your local paper, and anything you sponsor. Chase relevant, quality links, not big numbers or vanity scores. It is slow, fiddly outreach, which is exactly why it sits at the core of our link building.

Then keep the habit

This is the part almost nobody does, and it is the whole secret.

• Every week (10 minutes): reply to new reviews, post one update, ask that week's happy customers for a review.
• Every month (30 minutes): add fresh photos, check the Performance tab for what is getting calls, answer new questions and check next month's hours.

That is the whole job. Ten minutes a week and half an hour a month, and you climb while your competitors sit still.

Frequently asked questions

Is Google Business Profile the same as Google My Business?

Yes, it was just renamed. You now manage it through Google Search and Maps rather than a separate dashboard.

How long until I see results?

Category fixes and adding services can move things within days to a few weeks. Reviews and regular posting build over months. It is faster than ranking a website from scratch.

Do I need a website as well?

You can get calls from the profile alone, but a website lets you rank for more and gives the profile somewhere to send people. They work best together.

How many reviews do I need?

There is no magic number. Aim for more, and fresher, reviews than the competitors ranking above you. Recent reviews count for more than an old pile.

Why is my competitor ranking above me?

Usually a fuller profile, more recent reviews, the right primary category, consistent details across the web, and being closer to the searcher. The first four you can fix.

Can I do all of this myself?

Yes, every step is doable without any technical skill. We do it for clients who would rather be out working, and run it alongside their wider marketing.

Want it done for you?

If you would rather hand it over, that is what we do: profile, website, reviews and links, run month to month. See how the 30-Day Lead Engine works, or book a free search audit and we will show you exactly where you are leaving leads on the table. And grab the free checklist (PDF) to start today.