Optimise your Google Business Profile: a step-by-step guide

Short answer: to optimise your Google Business Profile, claim and verify it, choose the right main category, fill in every field completely and accurately, add real photos, collect and answer reviews, and keep everything up to date. Google says local results are based on relevance, distance and prominence, and that complete, accurate and verified profiles are more likely to show up.

For businesses with customers in a city or region, such as tradespeople, doctors, agents or restaurants, the profile is often the first thing a customer sees in Google, before your website. It shows opening hours, reviews, directions and a call button. It is free and takes a few hours to set up properly. The guidance below follows Google’s own help pages.

How local ranking works

Claim and verify

Search for your business, or create the profile, and complete the verification Google offers (for example by phone, e-mail, postcard or video, depending on your business). Google states that verification tells it you are authorised to represent the business, so the profile is more likely to show up. Keep the account in the name of the business, not of one team member, and add a second owner or manager.

Fill in the basics completely

• Name: exactly as on your signage, website and invoices. Do not add keywords or locations, as this breaks Google’s guidelines and can lead to suspension.
• Address and service area: accurate; if you serve customers at their location, set a service area.
• Phone and website: the same details as on your website, see imprint requirements.
• Opening hours: including holidays and special hours.
• Categories: one precise main category and a few fitting secondary ones.
• Attributes: such as wheelchair access or languages spoken.

Describe services and products

Add every service you offer, with a short factual description in the words customers use. Write in clear sentences, not keyword lists. The description of your business should say what you do, for whom and where, in the first lines.

Photos and videos

Real photos of your premises, team, work and products help people decide. Google lists photos and videos among the ways to improve engagement. Avoid stock images, add new photos regularly and make sure the cover image shows what a customer will actually find.

Reviews: collect and answer

Review quantity and rating feed into prominence. Ask satisfied customers after a completed job, ask everyone the same way and never offer incentives for good ratings or write reviews yourself. Reply to every review, including negative ones, politely and factually. Google notes that replying shows you value feedback.

Updates and offers

Use posts for news, offers or events, and keep information current. Outdated opening hours or a closed branch still listed as open lose trust quickly.

Connect the profile with your website

Your website is the destination of the profile’s link. Make the landing page match the profile: same name, address and phone, clear services and a visible call to action. Mark up your business with structured data so search engines and AI systems read the same facts everywhere. If your site brings few enquiries, see 10 reasons and fixes and run the free website check.

Checklist

1. Profile claimed and verified, two people with access.
2. Name, address, phone and hours identical to the website.
3. Main category chosen, secondary categories fitting.
4. All services described in plain words.
5. At least a set of current, real photos.
6. A routine for asking for reviews and replying to them.
7. Posts or updates when something changes.

Written byPatryk WisniewskiLead developer

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