What is a Google Business Profile?

Your Google Business Profile is an incredibly powerful hyper-local marketing tool. Your should play an important role in your local business’ SEO strategy, as it’s one of the most important ways to gain the attention of new customers through Google Search and Google Maps.

How can I optimise my local business’ Google Business Profile?

Once claimed or verified, your Google Business Profile provides a number of features that you can update and maintain to ensure they are optimised both for your potential customers and for Google.

Depending on your type of local business, your customisation options may vary, but here’s an overview of the key features you’ll likely be able to use to optimise your Google Business Profile, along with some recommendations for each...

BUSINESS INFO

Local results favour the most relevant results for each search. Google Business Profiles with complete and accurate information are easier to match with the right searches, so make sure that you keep your information up to date as your business changes. This includes your NAP (name, physical address, phone number), business category and attributes. More on those below.

BUSINESS CATEGORY

Your primary business category describes your business as a whole so you should be specific, for instance 'Italian restaurant' rather than 'Restaurant'. If the category that you have in mind isn’t available, choose a more general category that still describes your business accurately. It's worth noting that Google Business Profile also offers category-specific features such as booking buttons for beauty businesses, and online orders and reservation links for food & drink businesses.

While you can select up to 10 categories for your business, your primary category is believed to have the greatest influence on your local rankings so choose your with care! If you're not sure where to start, check out how your closest competitors have categorised their businesses. When in doubt, opt for the same primary category that they've chosen as this creates a common starting point for your other local SEO efforts.

“FROM THE BUSINESS” DESCRIPTION

This is a great opportunity to introduce your business to prospective customers and include keywords that your audience may be using to find businesses like yours. This is a great opportunity to hook your customers in as well as feature some invaluable product, service and location keywords.

HOURS

Update your opening hours regularly, including when you open and close, and special hours for holidays and events. Keeping your hours info accurate and up to date lets potential customers know exactly when you’re available, and gives them confidence that you will be open when they arrive.

REVIEWS

High-quality, positive reviews from your customers can improve your business visibility and increase the likelihood that a potential customer will visit or contact your local business. When you reply to reviews (good and bad!), it shows that you value your customers and their feedback. 

PHOTOS & VIDEO

Add photos and video to your Business Profile to showcase your goods and services, and tell the story of your business, and what makes it so special. Accurate and appealing visual content also shows potential customers that your business offers what they’re searching for. 

Your 16:9 cover photo should showcase your brand’s personality, your exterior photos should help customers recognise you in person, while interior and product/service photos help customers better understand your in-store experience. Avoid using stock imagery! 

POSTS

Regularly publish offers, events, products, and services directly to Google Search and Maps through posts on Google Business Profile. Google Business Profile Posts let you engage with your audience and keep your presence fresh on Google. You can even add calls to action to your posts to encourage people to buy, sign up or learn more.

PRODUCTS & SERVICES

Most business types are eligible to showcase products, as long as they are small to medium-sized businesses within a few business verticals. This feature can also be used to showcase services, including a description and pricing information, and to provide all-important links to your website product/service pages. 

Note that, as Google can augment your Google Business Profile listings by picking up information from your website, it's worth ensuring that the products and services you highlight on your Google Business Profile are also reflected on your website. 

SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES

Your Google Business Profile now allows for a wider range of special attributes to be highlighted on your profile. Is your business accessible? Do you have outdoor seating? Will you deliver? What payment options will you accept? Is your business black-owned or woman-led? What are your COVID policies?

MESSAGES 

Let customers message your business via Google for free and respond from your Google Business Profile or using the Google Maps app on a mobile device. But only consider switching on messaging if you have someone available each day to manage and respond on behalf of this location in a timely manner!

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

Anyone can ask (and answer!) a question on your Google Business Profile, so it's worth getting in first by seeding - and then responding to - your most frequently asked questions. This is another opportunity to include your keywords, so bear that in mind. And remember to set up an alert so you can stay on top of any live Q&A.

But don’t stop there!

To really increase your local business’ online presence, your Google Business Profile will require ongoing attention and action. So in addition to the above, we also recommend that you…

• Regularly update your business information, even with anything minor as a seasonal change in opening hours;

• Publish weekly posts and upload photos each month;

• Build a steady stream of reviews (we can help you with this);

• Monitor and respond to those reviews (we can help you with this too);

• Stay on top of any new Google Business Profile features to ensure that you’re using your profile to its fullest potential.

Who are we, and what is this?

We’re LocalMark, a London UK-based local SEO service that helps connect UK trade, service & retail businesses with nearby customers. This post is one of many that’s been lovingly researched and written by our local marketing experts to help support the UK’s thousands of owners, managers and franchisees with growing their local businesses. If you found this helpful and could benefit from more of the same, be sure to share, follow us on social and sign up for our local business growth newsletter.

And, if you’d like help optimising your Google Business Profile, click below to find out more about our Google Business Profile optimisation service.