Google Business Profile setup and management

When someone searches for a local service, Google usually shows a map with a handful of businesses before any ordinary results. Those listings come from Business Profiles, and customers use them to check your opening hours, read reviews, get directions and call you without ever visiting your website.

Google says local results are based mainly on relevance, distance and prominence. You cannot change how far a searcher is from you, but you can make your profile as relevant and complete as possible, and you can build prominence through reviews, consistent information across the web and a well optimised website. Managing Google Business Profile well means doing those things steadily, month after month.

Your primary category has more influence on which searches you appear for than almost anything else on the profile, so it is worth getting exactly right. We pick the most specific category that genuinely describes your main service and add secondary categories only for work you actually do.

Services are then listed in plain language, using the words customers search for, with short descriptions where helpful. If you travel to customers rather than having them visit you, your profile should be set up as a service area business: you can add up to 20 service areas by town, city or postcode, and Google asks that you remove your address from the profile if you do not serve customers there. Google's guidance also says service areas should generally stay within about two hours' drive of your base.

Reviews are one of the clearest signals of prominence and one of the first things customers read. The simplest way to earn more is to ask every customer after a job is done and send them a direct link, so leaving a review takes seconds. Google's policies do not allow you to offer incentives for reviews, to ask only happy customers, or to post reviews on your own behalf, so we help you build a fair, consistent habit of asking instead.

Responding matters as much as collecting. Thanking customers for positive reviews shows you are paying attention, and a calm, professional reply to a negative review often reassures future customers more than the review itself worries them. Our guide on how to get more Google reviews has more practical advice.

Google is strict about what a profile can contain, and some common shortcuts put the whole listing at risk. Adding keywords or town names to your business name when they are not part of your real trading name is not permitted and can lead to suspension. A rented mailing address or virtual office where you do not actually work is not eligible, and P.O. boxes are not accepted.

If your Google Business Profile is suspended, the first step is to understand the reason Google gives and fix the underlying problem before appealing. Appeals go through Google's appeals tool, can usually be submitted only once for each decision, and are far stronger with evidence such as business registration documents or utility bills showing the same name and address as the profile. Creating a new profile to replace a suspended one usually makes matters worse. We help with suspended profiles by reviewing what has gone wrong, correcting it and preparing a clear appeal, although the final decision always rests with Google. Our article on a suspended Google Business Profile explains the process in more detail.