In short
If your customers are local, your Google Business Profile is probably the most valuable marketing asset you own, and the one you have spent least time on. For local searches it is what appears in the map pack, in Maps and beside the results, answering what a buyer wants to know — are you open, where are you, what do people say — before they reach your website.
Most UK businesses claim the profile, add the name, address and phone number, upload three photos and stop. The parts that matter get skipped: the primary category, the services list, photos that are not three years old, and a review routine that actually runs. None of it is hard, just unglamorous and never urgent.
Google is explicit that local results depend on relevance, distance and prominence, and equally explicit that there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. What you can do is make the profile complete, accurate and alive.
Why the profile often beats your own website
Search “electrician near me” or “accountant Oldham” on a phone and the first screen is a map with three businesses on it. Websites start below that, after the ads. The profile also out-converts the website because it removes steps: a tap on the number is a phone call, a tap on directions opens Maps, and hours, rating and the latest photo appear without a page load. That is not an argument for neglecting the website, but for knowing which asset carries the local query. Our SEO work treats the two as one system.
Categories: the most under-appreciated setting in the product
Your primary category is the most consequential field on the profile, and it is usually picked in four seconds during setup and never revisited. Google describes relevance as how well a profile matches what someone searched for, and says the category should accurately reflect the business. In practice it governs which queries you are eligible for: a plumber categorised as “Contractor” competes in a different pool from one categorised as “Plumber”.
- Primary — the one thing you most want to be found for. Choose the narrowest category that genuinely describes your core trade; broad is not safer, it is vaguer.
- Secondary — genuine additional lines of business. A garage doing MOTs should list both. A garage that once sold a car should not add “Car Dealer”.
Google’s guidance on representing a business advises using as few categories as possible to describe your overall core business. Padding the list dilutes relevance rather than widening reach. To choose well, search the terms you want to win and see who holds the map pack — primary categories are often visible under the business name in Maps.
Services, attributes and the description
Services. Service businesses can list offerings directly on the profile, with descriptions and pricing, and Google supports custom services where the suggested options do not fit. Its guidance warns that custom service names containing pricing or phone numbers will be rejected, so the price goes in the detail field, not the title.
Attributes. Attributes cover wheelchair access, payment types and identity descriptors such as women-owned or veteran-owned. They act as filters, not just labels, and availability varies by country and category.
Description. You get 750 characters. Write it for a person deciding whether to call you: what you do, who for, the area you cover, anything genuinely distinguishing. Keyword lists read badly and are not what the field is weighted on. Our glossary explains the terminology.
Photos, reviews, and the awkward ones
Photos are what a customer judges you on in two seconds, and Google’s guidance notes that an exterior shot helps people recognise your business on arrival. The problem is rarely quality; it is age. When you stop uploading, customer photos become the dominant impression, and a library whose newest image is three summers old suggests nobody is minding the shop. Keep a current exterior shot, some interiors, finished work and the team, adding a few images every month or two.
Asking properly
Google states that more reviews and positive ratings can help local ranking, and its guidance on getting more reviews suggests reminding customers with a short link or QR code. Ask straight after a good outcome, from the person who did the work.
Where the hard line sits
Worth being blunt, because the market is full of people selling review packages. Google’s Maps content policy bars content not based on a real experience and reviews paid for directly or in kind. It specifically prohibits merchants from offering incentives — payment, discounts, free goods or services — in exchange for posting any review, and covers conflicts of interest including reviews from current or former employees. It permits soliciting genuine reviews provided no incentive is offered.
So ask everyone and offer nothing. Beyond Google’s rules, UK marketing must be truthful and honest under gov.uk guidance and the CAP Code.
Replying to negative reviews
A bad review answered well persuades more people than a wall of five stars. Google’s guidance suggests replies that are professional, polite, short and personalised, acknowledging mistakes where they were made and moving complex issues to a private channel. In practice: reply within a couple of days, use the reviewer’s name, do not relitigate the job in public, and give a direct route to sorting it. Readers are judging what you do when it goes wrong.
Posts, Q&A, and NAP consistency
Google Posts publish updates, offers and events onto your profile in Search and Maps. They will not transform your visibility, but they are free space your competitors have left blank. One short post a fortnight is plenty, and phone numbers in post descriptions can cause rejection.
Q&A is stranger: anyone can ask a question on your profile and anyone can answer, including people who do not work for you and are guessing. Write down the ten questions you are asked most, post and answer them yourself, and check monthly.
Your name, address and phone number should be identical everywhere — website, Companies House, directories, invoices. Not similar. Identical, down to “Street” or “St”. Google’s guidelines are specific that the business name must not include marketing taglines, phone numbers, URLs, fully capitalised words or irrelevant legal terms; “Oldham’s Best Plumber — 24hr” is a policy breach, not a clever optimisation. With citations, chase quality: a few relevant UK directories and trade bodies you belong to beat a hundred scraped listings, and your coverage details should match across them.
Storefront or service area, and getting verified
If customers come to you, your address is public. If you travel to them, you are a service-area business and can hide the street address while defining the areas you serve. Two things change: distance is still measured from your registered address even when hidden, so nearby queries stay easiest; and an enormous service area does not widen reach, it just makes the profile less accurate.
An unverified profile is barely a profile. Methods include phone or text, email, live video call and postcard, and Google decides which are available to you. Reviews take up to five business days, postcards around two weeks, codes expire after 30 days. When it stalls:
- Do not edit business details while waiting for a mailed code; changes can reset the process.
- Check the address matches Royal Mail’s format exactly, postcode included.
- For a video call, have signage, equipment and branded paperwork ready before you start.
- If a method fails, re-verify rather than creating a second profile.
- Never share a verification code, including with a caller claiming to be from Google.
Frequently asked questions
How often should I update my profile?
Monthly, at least. A pass covering new photos, review replies, Q&A and opening hours takes twenty minutes. Hours matter most around bank holidays and Christmas, when a wrong closing time sends the customer elsewhere.
Can I pay Google to rank higher in the map pack?
No. Google’s local ranking documentation states there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. You can pay for ads that appear near local results, but those are ads, separate from the organic map pack.
Is it against the rules to offer a discount for a review?
Yes. Google’s Maps content policy explicitly prohibits merchants from offering incentives such as payment, discounts or free goods and services in exchange for posting any review. Asking without offering anything is permitted — the incentive is the problem, not the asking.
My profile is complete but I still do not appear. Why?
Usually distance, category or prominence. Distance you cannot change; category you can, and should check first. Prominence builds slowly from genuine reviews, a supporting website and mentions elsewhere.
Key takeaways
- The primary category decides which searches you are eligible for at all. Review it before anything else, and pick the narrowest category that genuinely fits.
- Completeness is cumulative. Services, attributes, description, hours and photos each add a little, and the businesses winning locally finished all of them.
- A stale photo library reads as a neglected business, and a few current images every month or two fixes it.
- Ask every customer for a review and offer them nothing for it. Incentivised reviews breach Google’s Maps content policy outright.
- Replying to a bad review persuades more people than the review itself put off.
- Seeding your own Q&A stops strangers answering for you, which is what happens if you leave it empty.
If you would rather this ran as a routine than a one-off tidy-up, that is what our local search work covers, and the pricing page sets out what engagements look like. If you are nearby, the Oldham page has more.