Visibility
Your Google profile comes before your site.
On Google, your Business Profile shows your name, hours, photos and reviews, sometimes even before your site. Five points to check tonight, on your phone.
Your Google Business Profile is your business’s identity card on Google Maps and in local search results. It is free, and you can keep it up to date yourself, from your phone.
What Google itself says
In its help pages, Google explains that local results rest mainly on three things: relevance (does your profile match what the person is looking for?), distance, and how well known the business is.
It adds that businesses with complete and accurate information are more likely to show up in local search, and that more reviews and positive ratings can help. Google publishes no exact weights, so nobody can promise you a position.
The five points to check
- The real name of the business, the one on your sign, with nothing added.
- Correct opening hours, bank holidays included.
- Photos of your real work or your shop, not stock images.
- The same phone number on the profile, on the site and everywhere else.
- A reply to every review, even a short one.
The name, with nothing added
Google’s rules for profiles ask for a name that reflects the business’s real world name, as used on its storefront. A tagline or unnecessary information added to the name is not permitted.
The same number everywhere
Your customers read your site, your profile, directories and your social accounts. When the name, address and phone are the same everywhere, nobody has to guess which one is right. It is not a secret recipe, just care.
Reviews: steadily, never all at once
Ask every satisfied customer for a review once the job is done. Never buy reviews and never ask for them all on the same day: according to Search Engine Roundtable, Google warns owners when it detects a spike of suspicious reviews, removes them and may pause new reviews for a few days.
Your profile makes people want to call. Your site confirms they were right.
