When someone searches for a local business, the first thing they often see isn’t a website at all. It’s a box on the right, or a map with three businesses listed underneath. That’s Google Business Profile.
For a lot of customers, that listing is their first impression of you. They’ll check your hours, look at your photos, read a couple of reviews and call you, sometimes without ever visiting your website. So it’s worth getting right.
Why your Google Business Profile matters more than you think
Many business owners set up their Google Business Profile years ago, or Google created a basic one automatically, and it hasn’t been touched since. Old hours, a missing website link, one blurry photo of the shopfront.
An incomplete profile doesn’t just look a bit tired. It gives Google less information to work with when deciding which businesses to show for local searches. And it gives customers fewer reasons to choose you over the business listed next to you.
The good news is that most improvements are free and only take a little time. Google’s own Business Profile help centre explains each setting if you’d like to go step by step.
Get your categories and service areas right
Choose the right categories
Your primary category is one of the most important settings in your profile. It tells Google what kind of business you are.
- Be specific. “Electrician” is better than “Contractor”. “Physiotherapist” is better than “Health”.
- Pick the one that matches your main work. This should be what you most want to be found for.
- Add secondary categories carefully. Only add ones that genuinely describe services you offer.
It’s tempting to tick every box. Resist it. A focused, accurate set of categories is more useful than a long list of loosely related ones.
Set your service areas clearly
If customers come to you, show your address. If you go to them, like most tradies, mobile groomers or cleaners, you can hide your address and set service areas instead.
List the towns and suburbs you genuinely cover. For a Northern Rivers business that might be Lismore, Ballina, Alstonville and Lennox Head. Keep it realistic. Listing places you rarely travel to can lead to enquiries you’ll end up turning down.
Add real photos, and keep adding them
Photos help people decide whether to contact you. A profile with clear, recent pictures feels active and trustworthy. One with no photos, or only stock images, feels like nobody’s home.
Good photos to add include:
- Your shopfront or signage, so people recognise you when they arrive.
- You and your team at work.
- Your products, finished jobs or the inside of your space.
- Your logo and a cover image that matches your branding.
Adding a few new photos every so often also shows that the business is active. If you’d like professional photos that work across your profile, website and socials, our brand photography with Bella is made for exactly that.
Ask for reviews, and reply to them
Reviews matter to customers, and they’re one of the things people look at first. The best way to get them is simply to ask happy customers. Most are glad to help but won’t think of it unless you mention it.
- Get your review link from your profile and save it on your phone.
- Send it by text or email after a job goes well.
- Reply to every review, good or bad, politely and briefly.
- Never buy reviews or write your own. It’s against Google’s rules and it isn’t worth the risk.
A calm, helpful reply to a negative review often says more about your business than the review itself.
Link to your website, and keep details consistent
Make sure your profile links to your website, ideally to the most relevant page. If you have separate pages for different services or locations, you can point people to the one that fits.
Then check that your business name, address and phone number are exactly the same everywhere they appear: your website, your profile, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and any directories you’re listed in. Small differences, like “St” in one place and “Street” in another, or an old mobile number on an old listing, can cause confusion for customers and for Google.
A few more quick wins:
- Keep your opening hours current, including public holidays.
- Write a clear, honest business description in plain language.
- List your main services or products.
- Check your profile every few months for suggested edits from the public.
How we handle it as part of your digital setup
If all this sounds like one more job on an already long list, we can take care of it. Our digital setup and integration service covers setting up and connecting your Google Business Profile, Google Analytics, Search Console, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn so they work together with your website.
That means your categories, service areas, website link and business details are set up properly and match across every platform. It’s quoted to suit what you need, whether that’s a full setup or tidying up what you already have.
Because we also build websites, your profile and your site can support each other from the start. You can see more about that on our web design page. We can’t promise where you’ll appear in local results, as nobody honestly can, but we can make sure everything is in good order.
Want a hand with your Google listing?
If you’re not sure whether your profile and website are working together, we’ll take a look. Ask for a free website health check or a free consultation and we’ll give you practical, plain-English advice. Call us on 02 6610 9202, Monday to Friday, 9:30am to 4:30pm.
