The Google Business Profile checklist we use for local clients
How Google ranks local results, and the Business Profile checks we run for every local client: categories, service areas, reviews, citations and reporting.
For a local business, the Google Business Profile is often the first thing a customer sees, before the website and sometimes instead of it. Many profiles we audit are half finished: a vague category, no services, unanswered reviews. This is the checklist we work through for every local client, starting with how Google decides who appears.
How Google ranks local results
Google names three factors for local results: relevance, distance and prominence. Every item on this checklist feeds one of them.
Google’s three local ranking factors
Short of opening another branch, you can’t change distance. Relevance comes from a complete, accurate profile backed by a website that says the same thing. Prominence comes from reviews, mentions and links across the web, which is why local SEO never stops at the profile itself.
Setup and verification
Get the foundations right before you add a single photo.
- Business name: your real-world name, exactly as it appears on your signage and stationery. No keywords, locations or taglines. Keyword-stuffed names break Google’s guidelines and can get a profile suspended. If competitors do it, suggest an edit on Maps rather than copying them.
- Primary category: Google asks for the category that describes the business as a whole, as specifically as possible: “Italian restaurant” rather than “Restaurant”. We treat it as the most important choice on the profile, so check which categories the profiles that already rank are using before you decide.
- Additional categories: only for what the business is, not what it has. Keep the list short.
- Address or service area: depends on how you serve customers (see the table below).
- Hours and special hours: regular hours customers can rely on, plus special hours for bank holidays and temporary closures. Wrong hours are an easy way to earn a one-star review.
- Phone: a local number that rings at that location rather than a central call centre, wherever possible.
- Website: link to the page that matches the profile: the homepage for a single site, the branch page for a multi-location business. UTM parameters are fine, and without them, profile visits blend into ordinary organic traffic in GA4.
Google decides which verification methods you’re offered: a video recording, a live video call, a code by phone, text or email, or a postcard. For video, have your signage, your premises and proof that you run the business ready before you start recording.
Address or service area: which setting fits
| How you serve customers | What to set | Setting |
|---|---|---|
| Customers come to you (shop, clinic, restaurant) | Show the full address; no service area needed | Storefront |
| You go to customers and don’t receive them at your premises | Hide the address and set service areas within about two hours’ drive of your base | Service area |
| Both, such as a garage that also does call-outs | Show the address and add service areas; the premises must be staffed during your stated hours | Hybrid |
| You work from home and customers never visit | Treat it as a service-area business and hide the home address | Service area |
| Virtual office, PO box or mail-forwarding address | Not eligible for a profile; use a real, staffed location | Not allowed |
Content: what customers compare
With the basics in place, fill in everything people use to choose between you and the business down the road.
- Services and products: list each service with a short, plain description. Products suit retailers and fixed-price services.
- Description: what you do, for whom, and what sets you apart. Google doesn’t allow links, prices or promotions here.
- Photos: real photos of the exterior (so people recognise it when they arrive), the interior, the team and the work. Stock images tell customers nothing.
- Attributes: set the ones you control, such as accessibility, payment options and amenities. Some others are filled in from what customers report.
Reviews: a habit, not a campaign
Google says more reviews and positive ratings can help local ranking, and reviews do most of the persuading once someone has found you.
- Ask every customer. Build the request into the process: a link in the follow-up email, a QR code at the till, a prompt from staff.
- Reply to every review. Thank people for good ones; answer criticism calmly, factually and without personal details.
- Never incentivise or gate. Discounts or gifts in return for reviews, and asking only happy customers (“review gating”), both break Google’s policies. Google can remove the reviews and restrict the profile.
- Flag fake reviews. Report reviews that break Google’s policies from the profile, then track them, and appeal once if needed, in the Reviews Management Tool. Don’t report a review simply because it’s negative.
Posts and updates
Posts come in three types: updates, offers and events. They give people a reason to act now: a new service, a seasonal offer, an open day. We treat them as a conversion aid rather than a ranking lever, and post when there’s something real to say. Add a real photo and a button that leads to the matching page.
NAP consistency across citations
Your name, address and phone number (NAP) should match exactly on your website, your profile and the directories that matter in each market: Yell and Thomson Local in the UK, Yelp and the BBB in the US, plus Apple Business Connect and Bing Places. Mismatches confuse customers and muddy the evidence that these listings describe one business. In audits, we often find old addresses on directories nobody remembers joining. When you move or change number, update the profile first, then the website, then every citation.
Watch for edits you didn’t make
Anyone can suggest an edit to your business on Google Maps, and Google also updates profiles using information from users and other sources. When that happens, you’re notified and the changed fields are highlighted in the profile editor. Check at least once a month: a wrong phone number or opening time that nobody spots can quietly cost you calls.
Read the Performance report
The Performance report shows how many people viewed the profile, the searches it appeared for and what they did next: calls, direction requests, website clicks and, where set up, bookings. Search terms update monthly, so use them to check that your categories and services match the way people actually search. Pair the report with GA4: tagged profile clicks show what visitors did on the site, including key events such as enquiries.
Our Business Profile checklist
- Real-world name with no added keywords
- Specific primary category; extra categories only for what you are
- Address or service area set by how you serve customers
- Regular and special hours kept up to date
- Local phone number and a UTM-tagged link to the matching page
- Services, products, description, real photos and attributes complete
- A review request for every customer and a reply to every review
- Monthly check of Google’s edits and the Performance report
A profile is never finished, so we run this list monthly for every location. If you manage several sites, each needs its own profile and its own page: our multi-location playbook shows how we roll that out, and our local SEO service covers citations, reviews and reporting. For how local work fits into a wider plan, see where we’re focusing in 2025.
Not sure where your local visibility stands? Request a free SEO audit and a senior strategist will send you the fixes we’d make first, within 48 hours.