Setting up a Google Business Profile that actually gets calls

When someone searches for a service near them, Google shows a map with a short list of businesses above the ordinary results. That block is drawn from Google Business Profiles. If you do not have one, you are not in the running for it.

Create it in your own name

Use an email address you control and will still have in five years. Plenty of owners let a web designer, a former manager or a cousin create the profile, and then spend months trying to recover access. Google's ownership transfer process exists, and it is slow.

The order that matters

1. 01Primary category firstGoogle weighs the primary category heavily. Pick the one that names what you mostly do, not the broadest one available. Add secondary categories for the rest.
2. 02VerificationGoogle will verify by video, phone, postcard or email depending on the business type. Have signage, tools and the storefront visible if you get the video option.
3. 03Services and pricesList each service separately with a short description. This is the text that answers a specific search rather than a generic one.
4. 04Hours, including holiday hoursWrong hours are the single most common complaint in local reviews. Set special hours before the holiday, not after someone arrives at a locked door.
5. 05Photos, then more photosExterior so people recognise the building, interior so they know what they are walking into, and real work. Replace them a few times a year.
6. 06A booking link that points at your own siteThe profile lets you add a link for appointments. Point it at a page you own so the booking, and the client record, land with you.

The maintenance nobody does

• Reply to every review, good and bad, in a sentence or two. Reviews with a reply read very differently to a stranger.
• Update services when prices change, not once a year.
• Answer the questions section yourself before a random person answers it for you.
• Add new photos after a refit, a new chair, a new member of staff.

None of this guarantees a position on the map. Google does not sell or promise placement, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. What a complete, current profile does is give the system accurate information to work with, and give the person reading it a reason to call.