Search for a plumber in Huntersville or a fence company in Fort Mill and the first thing on your screen is a map with three businesses pinned on it. They didn't land there by luck. Their profiles say plainly what they do, where they do it and when they're open, and their websites back that up.
Below is the Google Business Profile optimization we do, in the order it matters. It works on a brand-new profile, and on an old Google My Business listing nobody has touched in years.
1. Claim it and verify it
If your business already shows up on Google Maps, claim that listing. Don't start a second one. Two profiles for one business confuse the map and split your reviews between them.
Google usually verifies you by postcard, phone or a short video walk-through. No storefront? A service-area business can hide its address and still get verified. Google's help page, Add or claim your Business Profile, covers both.
2. Choose your primary category carefully
It's the strongest signal on the whole profile. "Fence contractor" and "General contractor" show up for different searches. Pick the one for the work you most want the phone to ring about, then add secondary categories for the rest of what you do.
Leave off anything you don't actually do. Extra categories water the profile down and bring in calls you'll turn away, and they go against Google's guidelines for representing your business.
3. List the towns you actually drive to
Your service area is a list of towns. It isn't a circle drawn around Charlotte. Add the places you'll drive to and skip the ones you won't, so the customer in Mint Hill finds you and the one two hours away doesn't eat your afternoon. Keep the list the same as the towns named on your website, because Google reads both.
Google's own help page, Tips to improve your local ranking, says local results come down mainly to relevance, distance and prominence. Your service area and your site carry most of the weight on the first two.
4. Make the hours, phone and link match your site
List the hours when someone actually picks up. Use the same phone number as your website. Point the website link at the page that fits the profile best, which for most small businesses is the homepage. If the profile and the site disagree on any of it, Google trusts both a little less.
5. Add photos of your own work
Real photos, in daylight. Finished jobs, the truck, the shop if you have one, the people customers will meet. Upload a handful when you set up and a few more every month. A profile with recent photos looks like a business that's still open. Stock photos are worse than nothing.
6. Ask for reviews and answer every one
Reviews come in one job at a time. The easiest ask is a text with your review link on the day the job wraps up, while the customer is still happy with it.
Reply to all of them. Thank people for the good ones. When a bad one comes in, answer it calmly and stick to the facts, because the person reading your reply is your next customer. Never buy reviews and never write your own. Google takes them down, and it can take the profile down with them.
7. Keep it current
Holiday hours. A new service or a new town. A price change. Each is a two-minute edit on the profile and on the site. A profile that hasn't changed in a year looks like a business that closed.
- Claim and verify
- Pick the primary category
- Service-area towns that match the site
- Hours, phone and link that match the site
- Your own photos
- Ask for reviews and answer them
- Keep it current
Every SkyBridge plan keeps your Google Business Profile current, and Grow and Lead include the full optimization. It's also the first thing we look at when an owner tells us the phone has gone quiet. If you'd rather hand it off, our local SEO page has the details.