When someone searches for a local service, such as “plumber near me” or “accountant in Stroud”, Google usually shows a map with three businesses underneath it before any ordinary search results. Getting into those three spots can bring more calls and visits than anything else on your website.
What decides who appears there is mostly your Google Business Profile, the free listing that powers your business on Google Search and Maps. Here’s how to set it up properly and keep it working for you.
How Google decides who to show
Google says local results are based on three things:
- Relevance: how well your profile matches what the person searched for
- Distance: how far your business is from the searcher, or from the place they named
- Prominence: how well known and well regarded your business is, judged from reviews, links, articles and your website
You can’t change your distance from a searcher. But you have a lot of control over relevance and prominence, and that’s where the work goes.
Claim and verify your profile
Search for your business name on Google Maps. If a listing already exists, which it often does even if you never created one, claim it. If not, create a new profile.
Google will ask you to verify that you run the business. Depending on your type of business, this might be by video, phone, email or postcard. Verification can take a few days, so start it early. Until you’re verified, many of your changes won’t appear.
If your business serves customers at their address and you don’t want your home address shown, set it up as a service-area business. You list the towns or areas you cover, and your address stays private.
Choose the right primary category
Your primary category is one of the strongest signals in your whole profile. Pick the one that most closely describes your core business, such as “Electrician” rather than “Contractor”, or “Web designer” rather than “Marketing agency”.
You can add secondary categories for other things you do, but don’t add categories just to appear for more searches. An unfocused profile is less relevant for everything.
Tip: search for your main service in your area and look at the categories the top three businesses use. That shows you what Google associates with those searches.
Fill in everything
Complete profiles rank better and get more clicks. Work through every section:
- Business name: use your real business name. Adding keywords or locations that aren’t part of your actual name breaks Google’s guidelines and can get your profile suspended.
- Address and service area: accurate and consistent with your website.
- Phone number and website: use a local number if you have one, and link to the most relevant page of your website.
- Opening hours: including holiday hours. Nothing loses a customer faster than turning up to find you closed.
- Services or products: list each one with a short description. These help Google understand what you do.
- Description: explain what you do, who for and where, in plain language. You have 750 characters.
- Photos: your premises, your team, your work and your vehicles. Profiles with photos get noticeably more requests for directions and website clicks. Add new ones regularly.
Keep your details consistent everywhere
Google cross-checks your business name, address and phone number across the web: your website, directories, social media and industry sites. If they differ, for example an old address on one site or a different phone number on another, it’s less confident your details are right.
Search for your business name and check the first few pages of results. Update any listings that are out of date. Make sure the details on your website match your profile exactly.
Ask for reviews, consistently
Reviews are one of the strongest local ranking signals, and they’re what most people read before deciding who to call. Both the number and how recent they are matter.
- Ask every happy customer. The best time is just after you’ve finished a job and they’ve said thank you.
- Make it easy. Your profile gives you a direct link to leave a review. Put it in your follow-up email, on your invoices or on a card.
- Reply to every review, good or bad. A thank-you shows you’re active. A calm, helpful reply to a bad review often reassures future customers more than the review itself worries them.
- Never buy reviews, offer incentives for them, or write them yourself. Google removes fake reviews and can suspend your profile.
Post updates
You can publish updates, offers and events directly on your profile. They don’t have a huge direct effect on rankings, but they show Google and customers that the business is active, and they give people another reason to get in touch. A short post with a photo every couple of weeks is plenty.
Back it up with your website
Your profile and your website work together. Google looks at your site to understand what you do and where you do it. To support your local results:
- Give each main service its own page
- Mention the towns and areas you serve naturally in your content, and consider a dedicated page for each main area
- Include your address and phone number on every page, usually in the footer
- Make sure the site is fast and works well on mobile
How long does it take?
Changes to your profile can show up within days. Moving up the rankings usually takes longer, often a few months, as reviews build up and Google gains confidence in your business. It’s steady work rather than a quick fix, but it compounds over time.
If you’d like help, our SEO service covers Google Business Profile set-up, local pages and review strategy. To see what focused SEO work can achieve, read our case study on taking a retailer from page three to page one.
