The short answer: most Google Business Profiles are half-finished, and Google itself states that complete, accurate profiles are more likely to be shown for relevant searches. This is the working checklist we use in audits — run it on your own profile in half an hour. (Prefer it as a saveable resource? The expanded version is a free download.)
Access and ownership
Confirm who actually owns the profile — not rarely a departed employee or former agency. Ownership should sit with an account your business controls, with individuals added as managers. If an outsider owns it, start Google’s recovery process today; everything else waits on this.
Identity fields
Name: your real-world name exactly — added keywords (“Smith Dental — Implants Leeds”) violate policy and are a leading suspension trigger. Address/service area: shown only if customers visit; service areas honest and specific. Phone: answered, local where possible, identical to your website. Hours: current, with holiday hours set ahead — wrong hours are among the most common causes of one-star reviews.
Categories
The primary category is one of the strongest levers on the profile: it should be the precise service that makes you money, checked against what the businesses actually winning your target searches use. Secondary categories cover real offerings only — padding dilutes relevance rather than adding it.
Services, products and attributes
List every genuine service under the right category, with descriptions where they help a buyer choose. Use products/showcase for signature offerings. Complete the attributes — accessibility, parking, payments, amenities — because they answer real filter searches and AI assistant questions.
Description and media
The description should open with what you do and where, written for a customer skimming on a phone. Photos: at least ten real, recent images — exterior (findability), interior (comfort), team (trust), work (proof) — refreshed monthly. Profiles with stock-only or stale imagery convert measurably worse.
Reviews and Q&A
Check three things: velocity (steady, recent reviews rather than one old burst), responses (everything within a week, professionally), and compliance (no incentivised bursts, no gating; regulated businesses never confirming patient/client status in replies). Then Q&A: answer your own common questions before a stranger answers them wrongly.
Links and measurement
The website link should point at your most relevant page — and carry UTM tags so profile traffic is identifiable in analytics; booking and appointment links likewise. Then use the profile’s performance data monthly: which searches surfaced you, and what people did next (calls, directions, clicks). Those actions, not views, are the numbers that matter.
The maintenance reality
A profile is not a set-and-forget asset. Twenty minutes monthly — reviews answered, photos added, details verified, performance skimmed, plus a quarterly category review — keeps it compounding. If this audit surfaced deeper issues (duplicates, suspensions, geographic blind spots you cannot see from your own postcode), those are exactly what a professional audit with geo-grid measurement exists to resolve.
Next step: if this raised questions about your own visibility, there are three honest ways to answer them. The free snapshot gives you three verified findings from your own site. The Website Revenue Audit (£295) gives you the full evidenced picture. And if you would rather not do the fixing yourself, the Repair Sprint (£795) implements the fixes for you. Or simply ask us directly.