Google Business Profile: How to Rank Higher in Local Search

Short answer: according to Google itself, three things decide whether your business shows up in local results and on Google Maps: relevance, distance and prominence. You can’t influence distance, but you can influence the other two: through a complete, guideline-compliant Google Business Profile (the right category, your real name, up-to-date hours, photos, services) and through genuine reviews and your business’s presence on the web. You can’t buy a higher position in local results – Google says so plainly.

Why a Google Business Profile is a must-have for a local business

Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is no longer an optional extra in your marketing. It’s a local business’s digital ID card. Once, to find a plumber or the best pizza in town, we reached for the phone book or asked the neighbours. Today we type a query into our phone – and if your business doesn’t appear in the so-called ‘Local Pack’, the highlighted section with a map above the regular search results, you’re handing the win to your competitors by default.

Local searches are high-intent queries. Someone typing ‘coffee shop near me’ or ‘tyre shop open now’ is usually already on their way or planning to visit soon. Your Google Business Profile cuts their path to the bare minimum – often a single tap on ‘Call’ or ‘Directions’ separates intent from action.

This is a good moment to mention ‘zero-click searches’. More and more often, users find what they need – phone number, opening hours, address – right on the search results page, without visiting the business’s website. To many business owners that sounds like a paradox: ‘I’m supposed to look after my profile so that people don’t visit my website?’ The answer is simple: your goal isn’t website traffic as such, but a customer through the door or a phone call to your office. Your profile is the first point of contact, a virtual reception desk that works 24 hours a day.

Trust is another pillar. A verified profile with current photos and genuine reviews works like a certificate of credibility – social proof in its purest form. When customers see plenty of honest reviews, they assume the risk of a bad experience is low.

How Google ranks local results: relevance, distance, prominence

Before we get to optimisation, it’s worth knowing what Google officially says about local ranking. In the Business Profile Help it lists three main factors:

Factor	What it means according to Google	What you can do
Relevance	How well a profile matches what someone is searching for.	Fill in your profile completely and precisely: categories, description, services, attributes.
Distance	How far the business is from the place someone is searching from (or from the location named in the query).	Practically nothing – give your real address or service area and don’t play games with fake locations.
Prominence	How well known the business is, based among other things on information from the web (links, articles, directories) and on the number of reviews and ratings.	Collect genuine reviews, look after your brand’s presence on the web and your website’s rankings.

Google also makes it clear: you can’t request or pay for a better local ranking. Everything below is about strengthening relevance and prominence – within the guidelines. For a broader look at the topic, see my post on Google ranking factors.

The optimisation process: from business name to choosing categories

Optimising your Google Business Profile is like tuning an instrument before a concert. Every detail matters, and one wrong note can ruin the whole performance. Google consistently enforces its guidelines for representing your business, and violations can end in a suspended profile. Let’s start at the beginning – with verification.

Verifying your profile (including video verification)

Only a verified profile can be fully edited and managed in Search and Maps. Google decides which verification methods are available to you – they depend on the type of business, the country and the profile’s history. More and more often it’s a video recording. According to Google’s help pages, the recording:

• must be continuous, unedited and at least 30 seconds long,
• is recorded live on your phone from within Business Profile – you can’t upload a pre-recorded video,
• for a physical premises, must show the location: e.g. street signs, the building number, neighbouring businesses or landmarks nearby,
• must not include sensitive information (e.g. account numbers, documents) or other people’s faces.

Before you start recording, check the current requirements in your dashboard – Google tells you exactly what needs to be in shot for your type of business.

Business name – the temptation and the trap

Many business owners give in to the temptation of stuffing keywords into their business name (keyword stuffing). Instead of ‘Anna’s Hair Salon’ they enter ‘Best Cheap Hairdresser London Haircut Colouring’. Google’s guidelines are clear: the name on your profile must match the name you use in the real world – on your signage, documents and website – with no slogans, keywords, phone numbers, URLs or all caps. Practices like these are a fast track to suspension, and competitors can report them (more on that below). It’s not just about complying with the rules – it’s about building a brand.

The alchemy of categories

Choosing your primary category is a strategic decision. The category tells Google what your business is, and it directly affects relevance. We often face a dilemma: am I a ‘Restaurant’, a ‘Pizza restaurant’ or an ‘Italian restaurant’? The rule is simple: be as specific as possible. Google advises choosing categories that complete the sentence ‘This business IS a…’, not ‘this business HAS’ or ‘OFFERS’. If pizza is your speciality, choose ‘Pizza restaurant’.

Additional categories let you fine-tune your profile. If you run a pet shop, your primary category will be ‘Pet store’, and an additional one could be ‘Pet groomer’ – if you actually offer that service on site. Note that Google recommends choosing as few categories as possible to describe your core business. Don’t force them in: if you sell candles once a year for a holiday, a ‘Religious goods store’ category will mislead both the algorithm and your customers.

Attributes and description – the devil is in the detail

Attributes let you show specific features of your business: ‘outdoor seating’, ‘wheelchair accessible’, ‘women-owned’ and so on. The list of available attributes depends on your category and country. Filling them in is hard-nosed business: customers for whom these features are decisive will notice you faster.

Your business description (up to 750 characters, though only the beginning is visible without expanding it) is your chance to tell a story. It’s not about listing keywords separated by commas, but about specifics: what you offer, what sets you apart, what your business’s story is. Google’s guidelines don’t allow links, HTML code or content focused on promotions or prices in the description. Weave keywords in naturally so the text reads easily.

Opening hours and special hours

Enter the regular hours during which you serve customers. Before holidays and long weekends, set special hours – nothing puts people off like standing at a locked door of a place that Maps says should be open. The guidelines also allow for exceptions: some types of business (e.g. hotels) shouldn’t list hours, and businesses with several sets of hours (e.g. a restaurant with delivery) can add more hours for specific services.

Products and services

On your profile you can add a list of services (Google suggests some based on your category, and you can add the rest yourself) and products – with a description, a photo and optionally a price. It’s an easy way to boost relevance: if customers search for ‘tyre change prices’ and your profile has a ‘tyre change’ service with a description, it’s easier to match your profile to the query. List the services you actually provide, in your customers’ plain language.

New communication channels – WhatsApp and social media

Google’s built-in chat (Business Messages) was switched off in July 2024. In its place, Google lets you add a WhatsApp chat link or an SMS number to your profile (Edit profile → Contact → Chat). For many service businesses it’s a convenience: customers don’t have to call – one tap opens a conversation where they can ask about availability or prices. Google notes that the option is available in selected countries and regions, so check whether you can see it in your dashboard. It’s also worth adding links to your social profiles (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok) so customers can easily see whether the business is active.

Service area and address – avoid the traps

For service businesses (plumbers, electricians) that travel to their customers, correctly defining the service area (Service Area Business – SAB) is key. A common mistake is showing a home address as the business’s premises even though no customers are received there. According to the guidelines, such a business should hide its address and define an area (towns, postcodes) that shouldn’t extend beyond about 2 hours’ drive from its base. A virtual office (a rented mailing address) doesn’t qualify for a Business Profile, and a coworking office qualifies only if it has signage, on-site staff and receives customers during business hours. If you do have an office, make sure it’s properly signposted in the real world – that will come in handy for video verification, too.

NAP consistency across the web

NAP (Name, Address, Phone) is your business’s name, address and phone number. They should be identical on your profile, on your website (ideally in the footer and on the contact page), on social media, in industry directories and in official business registers (in Poland that’s CEIDG/KRS; in the UK, Companies House). Google doesn’t publish a ‘weight’ for NAP consistency, but discrepancies make it harder for Google and for customers to tell which details are current, and mentions of your business on the web affect prominence. A word of caution about call tracking numbers: the guidelines require a number under the business’s direct control and prohibit numbers that redirect to anyone other than the business itself.

Optimisation isn’t a one-off job but a gardener’s ongoing work: removing outdated information, adding new content, earning mentions of your business. If you’d like me to do it for you, or to check what’s holding back your visibility on Maps, get in touch.

The power of reviews and how to respond to them (even the negative ones)

Reviews play a double role. First, Google explicitly lists the number of reviews and ratings as part of prominence – a ranking factor. Second, they’re a key factor in the customer’s decision – they affect whether someone clicks on your profile at all.

The psychology of stars

Understanding why people write reviews is the key to managing them. The motivations are usually a wish to help others, a need to be heard and – with negative reviews – a wish to vent frustration. Happy customers often take good service for granted and stay quiet, while unhappy ones ‘shout’ the loudest. That’s why it pays to actively ask for reviews. A text or email with a review link (you can generate the link and a QR code in your profile dashboard), a QR code at the counter or simply a friendly request as the customer leaves – these are effective and allowed methods. What matters is asking all your customers, not just the ones you know are happy.

What Google’s review policies prohibit

The Maps user-generated content policy (fake engagement, conflict of interest) prohibits, among other things:

• offering incentives – money, discounts, freebies – in exchange for a review, or for changing or removing a negative one,
• selectively soliciting reviews only from happy customers and discouraging negative ones (review gating),
• forcing or pressuring customers to leave a review on the spot, and suggesting what they should write,
• reviews posted by employees (current and former), the owner, family members or partner businesses – that’s a conflict of interest,
• content that doesn’t come from a genuine experience, including bought reviews.

The consequences don’t end with the review being removed. Google can place restrictions on your profile: temporarily block new reviews, hide existing ones or show customers a warning that suspected fake reviews have been removed. Then there’s the law: in Poland, where I work, since 2023 – after the Omnibus Directive was implemented – publishing fake reviews or commissioning others to do so has been a prohibited market practice, and UOKiK (the Polish competition and consumer protection authority) fines businesses that trade in reviews.

The art of responding – the LATTE method and the sandwich

The real test for a business owner comes when a negative rating appears on the profile. First reaction? Anger, the urge to defend yourself, sometimes denial. That’s natural, but in business emotions are a poor adviser. Your reply to a negative review isn’t aimed only at its author (who is often already ‘lost’ to you), but at everyone else who will read the exchange. It’s a stage on which you play the role of the professional.

The LATTE method, known from customer service and attributed to Starbucks, works well here:

1. L (Listen) – Listen (read carefully). Understand the problem; don’t assume bad faith.
2. A (Acknowledge) – Confirm and acknowledge the problem. ‘I can see the waiting time was too long for you.’
3. T (Thank) – Thank them. Yes, thank them for the criticism, because it’s a free audit of your service.
4. T (Take Action) – Take action. Offer a solution, ideally by moving the conversation to a private channel (phone, email).
5. E (Explain/Encourage) – Explain (without making excuses like ‘an employee was off sick’) and encourage them to come back so you can show you’ve improved.

Another effective technique is the sandwich method. It means wrapping the negative message (the solution to the problem) in two positive layers (thanks, empathy, an invitation).

Example:

‘Anna, thank you for your visit and your honest review (positive). We’re really sorry your pizza arrived cold – that’s not our standard, and we’ll look into what went wrong with the delivery (middle – the problem). Please drop us an email; we’d like to make it up to you on your next order. We hope you’ll give us a second chance! (positive/solution)’

Note: compensating for a real problem is customer service, but offering a benefit in exchange for removing or changing a review breaks Google’s policies.

Keywords in replies – the SEO secret?

You often hear that keywords in review replies improve your profile’s ranking. Google doesn’t confirm this – officially it only says that replies show customers you’re responsive. So treat it as a hypothesis, not a guaranteed ‘hack’. If a customer praises your ‘delicious coffee’, you can naturally write: ‘We’re glad you enjoyed our espresso from a local roastery’ – but the reply has to sound like one human talking to another. Pasting the same phrases into every reply looks artificial and may be treated as manipulation.

New forms of interaction

Every review with text deserves a written reply, and the sooner you reply, the better for your relationship with the customer. Replies are public and labelled as a response from the owner. If a review breaks the policies (e.g. spam, offensive content, a competitor’s conflict of interest), you can report it directly from your profile dashboard – Google will assess the report against its policies, not on whether the review is bad for you. Treat the review section as a public forum where you build (or destroy) your brand every day.

Posts and photos – how to keep your profile fresh

If you treat your Google Business Profile like a static phone book entry, you’re wasting its potential. Current photos, posts and replies to reviews show customers that the business is running and engaged. Google doesn’t list ‘freshness’ as a separate local ranking factor, but an active profile converts better and gives Google more information to use when matching it to queries.

Photos in the age of visual search and Google Lens

We live in a visual culture. Customers ‘eat with their eyes’ before they step into a restaurant, judge a garage’s professionalism by how tidy it looks in photos, and a hair salon’s vibe by its interior. Then there’s visual search: someone points their camera (Google Lens) at your sign and wants to see your reviews and opening hours straight away.

That’s why your photos need to be:

• High quality: Blurry, dark snaps are anti-advertising. Invest in a photo shoot or learn to take good smartphone photos in natural light.
• Varied: Show the premises from outside (so it’s easy to find), the interior, the team, the products. Show the barista’s smiling face, show the process of fixing a car. People want to know who will be serving them.
• Real: What matters is what you can see in the photo – your place, your products, not stock images. The popular theory about ‘geotagging’ photos (adding GPS coordinates to the EXIF data) has no support in Google’s documentation; I wouldn’t spend time on it.
• Regular: Adding photos every so often is better than uploading 100 photos once a year – that way your profile shows what the business looks like now.

Google Posts – your micro-blog in the search results

Business Profile posts let you publish updates, offers and events directly on your profile. Customers see them in Search and Maps, for example in the updates tab or in the ‘From the owner’ section.

Google offers three types of posts:

1. Updates: ‘Our new autumn menu is here!’, ‘Our team has just completed training in new cutting techniques’. A photo or video, a description and a call-to-action button.
2. Offers: ‘20% off with the code SPRING – this week only’. They require a title and start and end dates; you can add a discount code, a link and terms and conditions.
3. Events: ‘Wine tasting on Friday at 7 pm’. A title, dates and an optional description – ideal for restaurants and cultural venues.

There’s no official ‘norm’ for how often to post – publish when you have something worthwhile to say, but regularly enough that the profile doesn’t look abandoned. A post is no place for spam: specific information, your own photo (not a stock one!) and a clear call to action.

Video – the new king of content

Let’s not forget video. Short clips showing ‘life at the business’ – a walk around the premises, a close-up of a dish being prepared, a quick ‘how to find us’ guide – hold attention for longer. You can add video both in the photos section and in posts. A steady flow of photos, videos and posts is an investment that pays off above all in greater customer trust – people can see there are real, engaged humans on the other side.

Questions and answers (Q&A) – what has changed

For years, the profile included a ‘Questions and answers’ section where customers asked public questions and the owner (or other users) answered them. This feature is being phased out: Google switched off the Q&A API on 3 November 2025, and in December 2025 it announced on the Business Profile help forum that classic Q&A in Maps is being replaced by an ‘Ask’ button, with answers generated by AI based on the profile data and reviews.

The practical takeaway: since AI answers customers’ questions based on your profile, a complete description, services, attributes, hours and replies to reviews matter even more. It’s also worth covering customers’ most common questions in an FAQ on your website.

Profile performance: how to check whether customers call you from Maps

There’s an old rule in marketing: ‘if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it’. Google gives business owners a Performance report, formerly called Insights. It’s your local business’s dashboard – it shows the results of your optimisation work. Interpreting the data does take some know-how, though, because Google changes its definitions and measurement methods from time to time.

The new definition of ‘views’

If you compare your data with very old reports, views may seem lower. That’s often the result of a change in methodology rather than a drop in popularity. According to Google’s help pages, profile views count unique people: the same person is counted once a day, even if they visit the profile several times (although across different devices and platforms they may be counted more than once). So if you see fewer views but the number of calls or direction requests stays stable – your conversion rate has effectively gone up.

Key action metrics

What should really interest you isn’t just the ‘eyes’ on your profile, but the ‘hands’ taking action. In the report you’ll find the three most important interactions:

1. Calls: The number of taps on the ‘Call’ button. A strong signal that the customer wants to use your service. Remember the 2024 change: on 31 July 2024 Google switched off call history in Business Profile (along with chat). You’ll no longer see a list of numbers or call durations – just the total number of clicks. If you need more detailed data, consider an external call tracking system, but implement it carefully: the number must be under your control, and the business’s main number should stay consistent across the web.
2. Directions requests: This metric shows how many people asked for directions to your business. It’s a very high-intent signal – someone checking the route is usually on their way to you.
3. Website clicks: Visits to your website. A little trick worth using here is UTM tagging. By adding parameters to the link on your profile (e.g. ?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=gbp), you can separate profile traffic from ‘regular’ organic traffic in Google Analytics 4. You’ll then see whether people coming from the map behave differently from those coming from the text results.

Search terms – reading your customers’ minds

The section showing which searches led customers to your profile is a goldmine. The data is updated at the start of each month (with a delay of a few days). Analysing these queries helps you understand intent. If you see that lots of people find you via ‘tyre change prices’ and you don’t have that service on your profile – add it under Services or Products and mention it in a post. If they find you via queries you don’t cater for, that’s a sign you need to refine your categories, description or services so you don’t waste time on irrelevant calls.

Troubleshooting

Your performance data is also an early warning system.

• Lots of views, few clicks? Your profile is showing up, but it isn’t convincing anyone. Maybe your main photo is unattractive? Maybe your average rating is low? Or maybe the competitor next door simply has a better offer visible at first glance?
• Lots of directions requests, few visits? Maybe your pin is in the wrong place and navigation sends people down a dead end? Or your opening hours are wrong and people find the door locked?
• A sudden drop in everything? Check whether your profile has been suspended or restricted, whether reviews have disappeared (Google’s spam filter can be overzealous), whether someone has suggested a change to your category or details, or whether competitors have strengthened their profiles.

Analysing your performance data isn’t just looking back – it’s a signpost telling you where to put your foot down and where to ease off.

Spam on Google Maps and how to report it

A competitor called ‘Cheap 24h Plumber Leeds’, a business at a virtual office address, several profiles for the same business in different neighbourhoods – spam on Maps still happens, and it genuinely takes traffic away from honest businesses. You have two main options:

• Suggest an edit – on Google Maps, click the listing and choose the option to suggest an edit (e.g. the correct name, that the business has closed, that the place doesn’t exist). This is the quickest way to deal with individual errors.
• Business Redressal Complaint Form – for fraud and manipulation of the name, phone number or URL. You can attach a list of multiple profiles and screenshots. Google warns that it doesn’t guarantee action and doesn’t report back on the status of your complaint.

Report factually, with evidence (a photo of the sign, data from official business registers, screenshots), and only genuine guideline violations. Fake reviews on your own profile are reported separately, from the reviews section of your dashboard.

The future is now: AI Overviews and visual search

Finally, let’s look at two trends that are already changing local search: artificial intelligence and visual search.

AI Overviews and AI answers in Maps increasingly appear before the traditional list of results. When a user asks, ‘Which Italian restaurant in the city centre is good for a romantic dinner?’, AI puts together an answer from various sources – including Business Profile data, reviews and website content. We don’t know exactly how it chooses businesses, but the logic is simple: the more complete and consistent your data, the easier it is to use. If your information is incomplete or contradictory, it’s easy to leave you out.

Visual search, in turn, powered by Google Lens, turns the camera into the new keyboard. A clear logo and sign, a readable menu in the window and – in the digital world – good, real photos are now part of visibility, not just aesthetics.

Winning local search is a marathon, not a sprint. It takes consistency, commitment and sticking to the guidelines. But the reward – loyal customers and steady growth – is worth the effort. Your Google Business Profile is one of a local business’s most important online assets. Look after it, and it will look after your business.

FAQ – common questions about Google Business Profile

Can you pay for a higher position on Google Maps?

Not in the free results. Google states plainly that you can’t request or pay for a better local ranking. Only ads are paid, and they’re labelled ‘Sponsored’.

How can you influence Google’s local results?

Through two of the three factors Google lists: relevance (a complete profile, the right category, services, description) and prominence (genuine reviews, mentions of and links to your business, a good website). You have no influence over the searcher’s distance from you.

Can I give a customer a discount for leaving a review?

No. Google’s policies prohibit offering money, discounts or freebies in exchange for a review. It risks having reviews removed and your profile restricted – and in Poland fake reviews also break consumer law. What you can do is ask all your customers for a review, with no reward.

Does Google Business Profile still have questions and answers?

The classic Q&A section has been phased out since late 2025. Google is replacing it with a feature where AI answers customers’ questions based on the profile data and reviews – which is why a complete profile matters more today than ever.

Can a business without premises have a Google Business Profile?

Yes, as a service-area business (e.g. a plumber who travels to customers). The address should then be hidden and the service area set realistically. A virtual office doesn’t qualify for a profile.