Google Business Profile
Last updated
Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is the free listing that powers your business’s presence in Google Search and Google Maps. It is the single most important asset in local SEO, with more influence on local pack rankings than your website’s on-page optimisation or backlink profile.1
What does Google Business Profile control?
When someone searches for your business by name, your GBP listing is what appears in the knowledge panel on the right side of the desktop SERP. When someone searches for a category or service near them, your GBP listing competes for one of the three spots in the local pack.
The information on that listing (category, description, photos, reviews, posts) is managed through Google Business Profile. Google has no other equivalent input from you. If the listing is incomplete, inaccurate, or inactive, it performs accordingly.
How do you set up your Google Business Profile?
If your business doesn’t already have a GBP listing:
- Go to business.google.com and sign in with a Google account
- Search for your business to confirm it doesn’t already exist (many are auto-generated by Google from web data)
- Enter your business name, category, and address or service area
- Verify your listing. Google determines which verification methods are available to you. Video recording is now the most common default and Google’s recommended method. You may also be offered phone/SMS, email, or in some cases postcard. The options presented depend on your business type, region, and other factors and cannot be selected manually.
If a listing already exists but is unclaimed, claim it through the same process and verify ownership.
What should you optimise on your Google Business Profile?
Business name
Use your exact trading name, nothing more. Adding keywords to your business name (for example, “Smith Plumbers Emergency Plumber London”) violates Google’s guidelines and risks suspension. Keyword stuffing in the business name is one of the most commonly exploited tactics in competitive local markets, and Google enforces against it actively.
Don't add keywords to your Google Business Profile name
The GBP name field should contain only the actual trading name of the business, exactly as it would appear on a sign or letterhead. Adding keywords to rank for those terms is against Google's guidelines and can lead to profile suspension, which removes you from local results entirely. Services, locations, and descriptive terms belong in the dedicated fields: categories, service areas, and the business description. Profiles with keyword-stuffed names are commonly reported by competitors and are an active enforcement target.
Primary category
The primary category is the most significant optimisation lever in your GBP listing. Google uses it to determine which searches your listing is eligible to appear for. Choose the most specific category that accurately describes your core business. If you are a solicitor specialising in family law, “Family Law Attorney” will outperform “Lawyer”.
Secondary categories can be added for additional services but should remain accurate. Over-categorisation reduces relevance rather than increasing it.
Business description
Up to 750 characters. Write a clear, natural description of what your business does, who it serves, and what distinguishes it. Include relevant terms naturally. This is not a meta description, but it contributes to the keyword signals Google uses when matching your listing to queries.
Service areas and address
Businesses that serve customers at the customer’s location (tradespeople, delivery services, consultants) should set a service area rather than (or in addition to) a physical address. For businesses with a physical premises that customers visit, a verified address is required to appear in local pack results.
Photos
Listings with photos receive significantly higher click-through rates than those without. Upload:
- Logo (for brand recognition in the knowledge panel)
- Cover photo (the primary image displayed)
- Interior and exterior photos
- Team photos (contributes to trust signals)
- Product or work photos (relevant for tradespeople, restaurants, retail)
Keep photos current. Google may also auto-populate photos from Google Maps contributors. Monitor these and flag any that misrepresent the business.
Services and products
Use the Services section to list specific offerings with descriptions. For service businesses, this is an opportunity to appear for more specific queries beyond your primary category. A plumber who lists “boiler installation”, “leak repair”, and “bathroom fitting” as services gives Google more signals to match the listing against relevant local queries.
Reviews: the most significant ongoing activity
Reviews are one of Google’s confirmed local ranking factors. The signals Google measures include:
- Volume. More reviews, all else equal, improves rankings
- Recency. Fresh reviews signal an active, currently operating business
- Sentiment. Star rating directly influences both rankings and click-through rate
- Owner responses. Responding to reviews (positive and negative) is a signal of engagement that Google factors into prominence
Generating reviews should be an active, systematic process. Asking satisfied customers directly (in person, by email, or via a direct review link) is the most effective approach. Incentivising reviews violates Google’s guidelines, as does asking in bulk via third-party review services.
Responding to negative reviews professionally and promptly mitigates their impact on both prospective customers and ranking signals. A thoughtful response to a 1-star review often matters more to future customers than the review itself.
Google Posts
GBP Posts allow you to publish updates (offers, events, news, new services) directly to your listing. They appear in the knowledge panel for branded searches and can appear in local pack results.
Update posts remain visible for six months before being archived. Event posts and Offer posts expire on their set end date. Regular posting is still worthwhile: Google surfaces recent posts more prominently, so cadence matters more than volume. Two to four posts per month is a reasonable target.
Common GBP mistakes
| Mistake | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Keyword-stuffed business name | Guidelines violation, risks suspension |
| Wrong or overly broad primary category | Reduces relevance matching |
| Incomplete address or service area | Limits pack eligibility |
| No response to reviews | Negative engagement signal |
| Outdated hours | Misleads users; damages trust signals |
| Duplicate listings | Dilutes signals; confuses Google’s entity understanding |
LocalBusiness schema
LocalBusiness structured data is JSON-LD markup added to your website’s HTML. It is separate from your GBP listing but reinforces the same entity signals Google uses for local ranking and knowledge panel display. Where GBP tells Google about your business through the listing interface, schema markup tells it through the page itself.
Add a JSON-LD block to your homepage or, for multi-location businesses, each location’s dedicated page:
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Plumber",
"name": "Smith Plumbers",
"url": "https://smithplumbers.co.uk",
"telephone": "+44-20-1234-5678",
"address": {
"@type": "PostalAddress",
"streetAddress": "12 Example Street",
"addressLocality": "London",
"postalCode": "EC1A 1BB",
"addressCountry": "GB"
},
"geo": {
"@type": "GeoCoordinates",
"latitude": 51.5172,
"longitude": -0.1062
},
"openingHoursSpecification": [
{
"@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification",
"dayOfWeek": ["Monday","Tuesday","Wednesday","Thursday","Friday"],
"opens": "08:00",
"closes": "18:00"
}
]
}Use the most specific @type available. Schema.org provides hundreds of LocalBusiness subtypes: Restaurant, Plumber, DentalClinic, LegalService, Florist. A specific subtype gives Google stronger classification signals than the generic LocalBusiness. If no subtype fits, LocalBusiness is correct.
The most commonly missing properties are geo (latitude and longitude) and openingHoursSpecification. Include both. Validate with Google’s Rich Results Test, which checks for errors but will not flag absent recommended properties, so cross-reference against the Google LocalBusiness documentation for the full recommended property list.
Monitoring and maintenance
GBP listings require ongoing attention. They are not set-and-forget assets. Google allows third parties (and sometimes auto-populates changes from user suggestions) to edit your listing. Review your listing for accuracy at least monthly, and set up notifications in the GBP dashboard to be alerted when suggestions or changes are submitted.
Enable listing change alerts
Unreviewed suggestions from third parties can be auto-applied to your listing. In your GBP dashboard, go to Settings > Notifications and enable email alerts for every listing change. Without this, a category change, address edit, or closure suggestion can go live before you notice.
Use the Performance tab in your GBP dashboard to track how users find and interact with your listing: search queries, views, direction requests, calls, and website clicks. This data does not appear in Google Search Console and provides unique visibility into local search performance.